Top 10 Hardest Languages to Learn

I'm fully Arabic, and I have no family that doesn't speak Arabic. I really find it difficult. I'm labeled as an English first-language student, and everyone (my family) expects me to be the greatest in Arabic.

In fact, I can speak in my accent (informal Arabic), but I will never be able to speak formal Arabic with anyone in any situation. I strongly agree with your opinion about the letters and their pronunciation. As someone who was taught Arabic and is surrounded by people who speak Arabic since I was a young child, I still don't know how to pronounce some of them.

I've spent countless years and thousands of hours completely dedicated to learning Mandarin Chinese. The people who don't think it's very hard are English speakers who have never attempted to learn a new language.

With all my countless hours of practice, I literally can't even understand natives. If you think Chinese can't be that bad, take ten entire years out of your life to learn it, and you'll see it's much harder than you think. Although the tones and grammar are logical and easy, the writing system is so tedious to learn (even with simplified characters) that it takes years to learn even a basic sentence, let alone write one.

It takes forever to write a single character, and many characters have different things in common but can have completely different pronunciations. Plus, the speaking can be very difficult because sometimes the meaning of the sentence depends on tones, and there aren't many sounds that can be made in Chinese. So many words sound nearly identical, which makes not only learning the writing system extremely challenging but also the speaking system.

Learning one is hard enough, but learning both at the same time will take years out of your life. If you want to learn Chinese, go ahead. But be warned, unless you are immersed in the language, it will take you years to master.

Currently learning Japanese. Pronouncing the words themselves isn't that hard, but the writing is a killer. Hiragana isn't too bad. There are 46 basic symbols, and depending on the words you're writing, you sometimes add little symbols at the top or write a normal symbol but smaller next to a bigger symbol to change the pronunciation slightly.

But once you try to learn Katakana, it gets so much harder. It's similar to Hiragana, except many Katakana symbols look exactly like Hiragana symbols but are pronounced completely differently. Plus, you don't even know when to use Hiragana and when to use Katakana. And don't even get me started on kanji...

There are too many characters in this language. It's really hard to memorize. There are a lot of tones. It really takes years to master it.

Hungarians are considered the worst in foreign languages within the EU. This is primarily due to the fact that learning foreign languages for Hungarians is as challenging as it is for foreigners to learn Hungarian.

Please note that while Hungarian is widely regarded as one of the most difficult official languages in Europe, it is not the most difficult when compared to numerous isolated languages.

As an English speaker, this language defies everything that makes sense to me. There are so many noun cases, and it's difficult to learn to pronounce. Sentence structures seem to have a mind of their own, at least as far as I can tell as a beginner.

I am Russian, and I go to Russian school because I live in Belgium. Well, what can I say? Russian has really many grammar rules. Also, like in English, it's red, but in Russian, it has specific colors, and those specific colors also have words. That means that Russian also has many words. Thanks if you read it all and understand me.

Russian, unlike the other languages ranked higher on this list, has complicated grammar. No other language above has inflection as numerous as Russian, with noun cases, verbs of motion, etc. Russian also has gender, which requires all other words in the sentence to change accordingly, unlike any other language above. Definitely underrated!

I really want to learn Finnish. My family tells me there is no use because almost no one speaks Finnish, and the ones that do speak English as well. Finnish is very hard, however. I can sing a couple of songs in Finnish, but only because I've listened to them so many times.

The songs are called Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan (Death Makes an Artist), Taikatalvi (Enchanted Winter), and Erämaan Viimeinen (The Last of the Wilds). All come from the Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish.

Finland is totally beautiful and has a much better climate than more southern regions. It is really cold but hot in the summer. I wish to move to Helsinki. Though the language, Finnish, that they speak there is incredibly hard and very advanced.

I am from Austria, but I can speak Polish because my parents are from Poland. When I compare Polish and German, I have to say that Polish is really more difficult. However, I love the moment when my friends try to read a Polish sentence. It sounds so funny.

Also, it sounds so beautiful when you know how to pronounce everything. And when you can speak Polish, you understand more languages than when you speak German. In the end, I can just say that German is easy and cool, Polish is a little bit difficult but beautiful and very useful!

Even though English is my native language, I'm looking at it from more of an objective standpoint, considering its general complexity. The thing about English is that it's one of the simplest to get into and understand the basics, but the more you learn, the harder it gets.

With most languages, once you get the ball rolling and understand the concepts, they get easier. With English, it's the opposite. The more you learn, the more you realize how many exceptions there are to literally everything and how complex the language can really get.

I'm learning German right now. It may not be as hard as other languages because it's very straightforward, but it can be difficult. It's probably harder for me than for other people because I know a lot of Spanish, and Spanish is really simple compared to German.

I agree! I am from Germany, and even many people whose native language is German have problems with it.

Masculine, feminine, and neutral switching all over again, and huge words impossible to pronounce.

I find Icelandic a very interesting language, as it rejects loanwords from other languages. People who speak it can understand Old Norse and Old Icelandic.

That being said, the archaic grammar makes this 50 times more difficult.

The script is super hard. There are so many consonant and vowel repeats, and you have to remember how to use each. The pronunciation of the tones and the vowel length is just very hard as it requires a unique pitch.

The grammar may be simple, but it is extremely irregular. The sentence structure changes a lot in each topic. I'm Thai, and I think this is a very hard language. It is near impossible to master unless Thai is your first language.

I have really experienced the Thai language. It has a hard script and romanization.

How are French and German harder than Korean? I tried learning it once, and the pronunciations and letters are too difficult.

I'm trying to learn Korean, but the person saying it on Google speaks the words too fast, so I can't really learn it. There are a lot of words that become confusing for me.

I'm half Korean. I think Korean grammar is too complex and it has too many irregular forms.

It is very difficult, and people who think they can speak it just think so...

Who learns this language? People just study the mythology. I only know how to say, I love you.

The tones are what's hard because, unlike Chinese, where they have tone character symbols alone and a total of five tone characters, Vietnamese has six. What is even weirder is that it has a tone mark on top of another accent, which is very confusing and difficult to pronounce with that letter.

Vietnamese is hard. This should be number 2 because there are a lot of accents. They even have two different accents on one letter, and it is very tricky to pronounce it. Even spelling it in the Vietnamese language is hard. Too hard.

As a native speaker, Latvian is one of the most ridiculous languages ever with its massive list of grammar rules and sometimes just nonsensical reasoning behind why things are like this or that. Oh, and don't forget the few words that have drastically different meanings, or some kid is gonna make fun of you across the street. But otherwise, it's quite a pretty language.

There is literally no way it can be down at 54 at the time of writing. This language is kind of like Chinese except they added an additional 5 tones, more characters, and what's written doesn't even match what's said sometimes.

Cantonese is even more difficult than Mandarin Chinese since it has 9 tones instead of 4. In Cantonese, the written word may not match what is said.

I'm Chinese, and I don't know how to read and write it in traditional yet! I'm never gonna learn it.

I haven't tried to learn Hindi, but it seems pretty hard.

Basque is the only European language not related to another language. It's hard.

I am Canadian with Japanese origins. I really enjoyed learning French. Yes, it's a difficult language to start learning, but once you speak a bit, you always progress. I don't really know if I have any accent, but when I've been in Paris, everyone was kind to me. French people adore when you speak their language, and they do love accents. Now in Montreal, I fell in love with such a pretty and charming French girl.

I know French is definitely not the hardest, but its spelling and pronunciation are very demanding. I just want to say that it is the hardest Romance language. The majority of the words you say have loads of silent letters and such. However, French doesn't compare to Arabic!

Never heard of it before. Usually, mainly unknown languages are harder, and according to the first page, it is easier than English.

Albanian is way harder than most of these languages, probably top 15.

I'm also a native speaker who lives in Turkey. However, sometimes my mind can be confused because of the Turkish words! I've learned how to speak English one year ago, and it was really easier.

Why do they bother with the Latin alphabet? It would have been better if it switched to Arabic script instead.

Amharic is kind of similar to Arabic, but it's still baffling to learn.