Скачать или смотреть Top 10 Hardest Languages To Learn For English Speakers

10. Tagalog

Our first on the list for most difficult languages to learn brings us to Asia, and specifically, the Philippines. The national language is Filipino, which is a standard register of Tagalog.
Tagalog has a distinct type of writing system, the Baybayin alphabet, where every consonant contains the vowel /a/. To differentiate into another vowel, separate vowels or dots are needed. The transition into the Baybayin alphabet will likely be a challenge for most, but those looking for either a challenge or those looking to move to the Philippines will find learning this language very fulfilling.

9. Greek

If you’re a fan of tzatziki sauce or Mamma Mia!, then Greek might be the language for you. Be warned, though, as this is still a very challenging language.
The Greek alphabet was developed from the Phoenician alphabet with the Greek alphabet using Phoenician consonants to represent vowel sounds. This alphabet is what makes Greek such a challenging language to learn for English speakers.
Though one of the most difficult languages to learn, it isn’t impossible. So, head over to your nearby Greek restaurant and see if you can find a native speaker to practice with.

8. Korean

With the rise of K-pop and Korean dramas, Korean has been on the rise as one of the most popular languages to learn. If we ignore the more traditional Chinese influenced alphabet, the modern alphabet, hangeul, is fairly easy to pick up.
The tricky part is learning how to combine letters into syllable blocks, which are used to form words. The palatalization is also very different from English, with some consonants being nonexistent or combined to form one consonant. The grammar is also extremely difficult to get used to as it follows the verb-final word order. If you need help learning this language, though, there are a million and one resources including mainstream K-dramas and K-pop songs.



7. Thai

Getting back into Asian languages, next up on our list is Thai. This is a language that pulls from several other languages including Lao, Sanskrit, and Old Khmer. While multiple letters can represent the same consonant, what makes Thai so difficult to learn is that it is a tonal language with 5 tones.
The structure is also very different from English as spaces represent the end of clauses and sentences instead of words. Fortunately, Thailand hosts some of the most tourist-friendly cities. So as long as you can get the important phrases down, you should be good to go.

6. Russian

The Russian alphabet originates from the Cyrillic alphabet. Boasting a whopping 260 million speakers, Russian is one of the more well-known languages on our list.
With that said, don’t underestimate the difficulty of this Eastern Slavic language. What makes Russian so difficult to learn is the pronunciation. Good thing that there are tons of media that has brought Russian to the mainstream public.

5. Finnish

Moving away from Asian languages for now, let’s take a look at the next language on our list. Finnish is under the Uralic language family and is the official language in Finland. With under 6 million speakers across the world, it’s one of the more difficult languages to get access to.
The main factor of difficulty that learners must overcome, however, is its vowel harmony system. Once you get past this, the rest should be very doable.

4. Mongolian

Mongolian is a lesser known language with only about 5 million speakers across 4 countries. The nation language of Mongolia is actually Khalkha (Halha), which is just one of several varieties of Mongolian.
Traditional Mongolian script is written left to right in vertical columns from top to bottom while the more modern Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet is written in the familiar left to right direction.
The lower rate of speakers makes this language difficult to access as well as the learning hurdles of a new alphabet and intonation system.

3. Japanese

Spoken by over 128 million individuals across the world, Japanese is not a language for the faint of heart. While this language has a great amount of Chinese ‘loan’ words, Japanese shares no relation to Chinese, making it difficult for even Chinese speakers to learn. There’s also the distinction between female and male intonations when speaking Japanese that learners need to account for.
What’s more, Japanese can be separated into three main written types: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Luckily for learners, the popularity of Japanese anime has made it easier to pick up the pronunciation of this complicated language.