10 Countries with Hardest Language to Learn, China's Mandarin Tops the List

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Each country has its own language with different scripts and dialects. Some countries, like Indonesia, have various languages spoken by their people. However, some countries in the world are said to have the hardest languages for foreign speakers to learn, both in terms of pronunciation and writing.

Citing leapscholar.com, 10 countries have the most difficult language in the world, including the following: 

1. China

Mandarin Chinese stands as the most spoken language globally by native speakers. One of the distinctive characteristics of Mandarin is its tonal nature. Foreign speakers who want to learn Mandarin must be really proficient in understanding the dialect because meanings change depending on the tone used. There are four tones in Mandarin, namely flat, rising, falling-rising, and falling.

2. Saudi Arabia

Arabic is spoken in many countries in the Middle East and North Africa, including Saudi Arabia. This language is tricky to learn because of 3 things. First, Arabic has many different ways of forming words. Second, Arabic uses a unique type of writing called the Arabic script arranged from right to left. Third, Arabic has an abundance of dialects, even some places in Saudi Arabia use Arabic with differing dialects.

3. Japan

Another East Asian country on the list is Japan with its language, Japanese. Japanese is hard to learn because it uses three types of writing; hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Additionally, the Japanese have a special way of showing respect called the honorific system. Speakers use different words and phrases to show respect depending on who they are speaking to and the situation.

4. Korea

Korean is a difficult language to learn. Koreans have their own special way of writing, called Hangul.  Just like in Japan, there is a level of politeness and honor in the Korean language. The use of words must be adapted to the speaker's interlocutor. Because of these differences, Korean is quite difficult for foreign speakers to learn.

5. Russia

Russian is used in Russia and several neighboring countries like Ukraine. Russian has a different alphabet called the Cyrillic script. The first step to learning Russian is to get to know the script first because Russians do not use Latin letters. Russian pronunciation is also quite difficult for foreign speakers because some words are hard to pronounce.

6. Finland

Finnish is quite different from English, for example how Finnish words change to show their role in a sentence and have different endings to show different meanings. Finnish grammar also has quite a lot of rules. So it isn’t surprising that this language has been named one of the most difficult languages in the world.

7. Hungary

The country with the next most difficult language is Hungary with Hungarian. Several neighboring countries of Hungary also speak the language. Hungarian has many rules about words that can change depending on their job in a sentence. Hungarian also has different word endings depending on who is performing the action or when it happens.

8. Iceland

Iceland is a country in the North Atlantic, and Icelandic is the language spoken by its citizens. Icelandic has a complex grammatical system. Nouns in Icelandic can change their form depending on whether it’s the subject or object. Some old-fashioned Icelandic words and pronunciations are also quite difficult to learn for non-native speakers.

9. Georgia

The people of this Eastern Europe country speak Georgian. Georgian is difficult since it uses its own special writing system called the Georgian script. The construction of Georgian words is also quite complex because verbs can change depending on who is doing the action, when it happens, or other details.

10. United State’s Navajo

Navajo is a language spoken by the Navajo people, Native Americans living mainly in the southwestern United States. This language has a special way of organizing words called the verb system. This means that verbs will change depending on who is doing the action and when it occurs. In addition, the Navajo language has intricate grammar rules, making it quite difficult for non-native speakers to learn.

AULIA ULVA

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