Question of the Day - Tuesday, December 3

[cassiopea]

Hello Everyone! Happy first Tuesday of Deeeceeeemmmbeeerrr!

What do you think is the hardest language to learn?








I already speak French and Finnish and some Swedish. I also took Russian courses when I was in Uni for a couple of years, but I haven't practiced in awhile so very rusty. Anyhoo, back in 2017 I had a trip to the Czech Republic and decided to learn a bit of Czech for a couple of months prior (Not to be fluent or anything, just some of the usual basic stuff. Got some books, watched vids, spent time on language apps like Duolingo etc) I found it SO DARN HARD I even kept butchering the word Děkuji which is "Thank you" in Czech. Took me a week to even say it correctly when I was in Prague. Thus I ended up hardly attempting to speak the language during my time there overall, I didn't want to torment the poor local people and be an annoying dopey tourist....and not that I was able to remember much anyway!

Just everything about it, even pronouncing it, just couldn't stick it into my head. While Russian wasn't a walk in the park, I still found it way easier than Czech.


Now I never tried learning it, but Mandarin Chinese looks very daunting to me. I was told it was much easier to speak it compared to the writing, which I can see. But altogether, Chinese is another mention on my list! Finnish is known to be very difficult to many people (It is, I won't lie although there are some pros to it that don't make it so horrifying as it seems)




How about you guys?

 

[Kat0121]

Klingon

 

[Lari]

I feel like I've heard Hungarian is hard.

 

[Jem]

I have heard that Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Arabic are the hardest languages to learn, but that applies to English speakers. I guess it all depends on what your native language is.
I speak both English and French. I was raised bilingual from the get go.
Fun fact:
French can be a very difficult language to learn how to speak later in life because of the phonetics. Speaking French uses more facial muscles and has more tongue positions to form certain sounds. So if you have never learned to use those muscles in that way, it's basically a new work out, training new muscle movements. That is also why many people who know French but don't physically speak it much can "lose their French". They can still understand it in conversations, but can't speak it well, because they are losing the muscle function for the proper phonetics.

 

[Willowy]

English is the hardest! All those ridiculous variations and exceptions, nothing is consistent at all. But at least I learned that naturally. I've never tried very hard to learn another language, although I understand a fair amount of Spanish and I would get by as a tourist in Japan.

I think I'd find a tonal language to be the hardest to learn. I'm not good at hearing the difference. Chinese is a prime example but there are others too. But some people may find tonal languages easier. All depends on how your brain works.

And I'm fairly certain I would never be able to learn Welsh!

 

[MoonstoneWolf]

Klingon

I feel like such a P'tach when trying to learn Klingon lol

 

[Winchester]

Klingon

I have a Klingon dictionary; it doesn't help.

A friend took a class in Japanese. It was really difficult and I couldn't swing it.

 

[aliceneko]

I've tried to learn Korean/Hangul several times but I've never gotten very far. I'd love to have a proper crack at it since I've always wanted to be able to write in a language that uses characters (I did learn Mandarin for about a year when I was at primary school) and being interested in Korean pop culture, it would be great to actually understand the songs!

 

[Elphaba09]

Khoisan languages, such as Gciriku, Yei, Xhosa, and, especially Taa (ǃXóõ), would be particularly difficult. Sylbo, the whistling language, would be exceptionally difficult since I cannot whistle!

 

[denice]

I tried to learn French and Spanish in a classroom, I lived in Germany for five years and for me they are all difficult. I have heard that Polish is very difficult for English speakers to learn.

 

[Boris Diamond]

I was around many Chinese people and tried to learn Mandarin. Yikes! Much harder than the other languages I tried. Inflection can change the entire meaning of the word!

 

[MonaLyssa33]

It really depends on your native language. For me as an English speaker, languages that use completely different characters like Chinese would be very hard for me.

My brother in law is Vietnamese and even though I know how to pronounce his last name, I will never be able to pronounce it correctly. There are so many subtle things that I wouldn't be able to make my mouth do to be fluent in Vietnamese. It's one of the reasons I don't correct people who mispronounce my first name when they aren't native English speakers. I'll still respond to whatever they say.

 

[jcat]

Hungarian! i've only managed to learn enough to buy food, find the right rest room, and get gas.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

All. I took 4 years of Latin and did fine; but we didn't have to speak it in class. Learning via memorization has never been a strength for me. Maybe if I tried some different methods but in high school; that was what we did. I have a stepbrother who picks up languages like it's nothing. I don't know how many he speaks now. I WISH it came that easy to me.

My brother in law is Vietnamese and even though I know how to pronounce his last name, I will never be able to pronounce it correctly. There are so many subtle things that I wouldn't be able to make my mouth do to be fluent in Vietnamese. It's one of the reasons I don't correct people who mispronounce my first name when they aren't native English speakers. I'll still respond to whatever they say.

Your right that does make a difference. My stepfather is from Puerto Rico and his mother never said my name right. Or my mothers. His father does better; but he was exposed to more English speaking people because of his jobs.

On the flip side; my friends quickly learned not to test their new Spanish speaking abilities on my stepdad. I don't think any of them ever got the pronunciation to his standards. And I purposely did not choose to take Spanish in school. I knew he would have been a bear!

I used to feel bad because I struggled to understand our IT guy at one job. His office was 4 hours from ours; so he couldn't just come whenever. It wasn't just me though. So we'd just have our other non-native English speaking co-worker work with him over the phone. They were from different countries but they understood each other just fine. I actually got his name quickly though. It helps to see them in writing sometimes. Sometimes not.

 

[Maria Bayote]

I have been here in Doha for 13 years but have not learnt their language. So one of the hardest to learn is probably arabic.

 

[JamesCalifornia]

Now I never tried learning it, but Mandarin Chinese looks very daunting to me.

~ Yes that is interesting to me as well. However I shall keep working on my English

( I think that we all have learned to talk with cats ` )

 

[Mia6]

Welsh, Arabic, Mandarin

 

[cassiopea]

It really depends on your native language. For me as an English speaker, languages that use completely different characters like Chinese would be very hard for me.

Oh for sure, definitely aware that it depends on the native speaker (Thus the general Q that targeted personal views and experiences, not just regarding English speakers) my father is Finnish and finds French extremely difficult, despite himself knowing German, Swedish and Russian fluently. Pretty common with other Finns too, it is just so different! My Finnish cousin who lived in Italy for a number of years managed to pick up the Italian language more comfortably compared to French. My mom and I both speak French, and living in Canada it was relatively simple, and it goes without saying we can pick up a little bit of the other Latin languages reasonably. But indeed, my father has tried and tried and lived in Montreal for a number of years and still is unable to say anything in French he gave up long time ago.

And same goes with the other spectrum of many of my Native French-Speaking family members, who also speak Spanish very well - but find other types of languages very difficult to learn, even at its most basic.

 

[amysuen]

Anything but English, LOL! I'm good at many things, but not with languages!

 

[Tobermory]

I took 4 years of Latin and did fine; but we didn't have to speak it in class.

The good news about Latin, according to The Spouse, is that nobody knows how to pronounce it correctly because it’s an ancient language that no one has ever heard spoken as it was originally. Same with ancient Greek. So you’re safe! (He has a Ph.D. in classical philology, the study of ancient languages and literature.)