The most noticeable source of this difficulty is its writing system, hnz, which uses logograms instead of letters. For my freshman year in highschool, I took Japanese 1 instead of continuing Spanish, which I have been learning for 3 years in middle school. 3 Reasons Why Spanish Is Not Hard to Learn You already know many words thanks to cognates The sentence structure is similar to English Spanish has many rules and patterns to follow 3 Reasons Why Spanish Is Hard to Learn Spanish has many irregular verbs It is a gendered language The pronunciation can be difficult to master It has Dutch at its core but it is also intertwined with other dialects and indigenous languages from Africa. Of these, Spanish and Italian are the easiest for native English speakers to learn, followed by Portuguese and finally French. The rules are relatively consistent. It's not hard at all if you practice regularly. Romanian is the most distant language from Spanish in the Romance branch of languages. Japanese is listed as one of the hardest languages to learn, especially for Spanish speakers. Writing system. Languages included in the institute's easiest category are Danish, French, Italian, Spanish and Swedish. But don't worry. For pronunciation Japanese may be a little easier because the pronunciation of the romaji is very similar to spanish ( with the exception of the R, because Japanese Speakers cannot prounounce R and L like Spanish speakers can) Thanks, Spanish. You should persevere and learn to understand, speak, read and write Japanese as far as possible, because otherwise it's a massive waste of a good opportunity, and of your time here; and because otherwise you'll become a tiresome cliche of that foreigner. Russian. Indeed, for a variety of reasons, Japanese is challenging for English speakers. I speak both English and Mandarin and can understand a tiny bit of Hokkien, but I still find it hard to learn Spanish, Japanese and Korean. Service Institute categorizes Japanese as among the most difficult languages for English speakers to . Rekisterityminen ja tarjoaminen on ilmaista. 4. In addition, due to the shared vocabulary, there . It's a sound that native speakers have been perfecting all their . (I mean compared to English -- Esperanto is 100% phonetic, Spanish only 98-99%.) Here's what our learners found hardest about Japanese: Japanese Writing System Verdict: true assumption but not as scary as it seems. You have to learn huge connotations. Some base characters, like root words, appear in other symbols, like the character for "woman" forming part of "sister.". One of the hurdles in learning other languages is accepting it "as is." There are some shared cognates such as ' ja ' which means ' yes ' and ' veld ' which means ' field '. It has Dutch at its core but it is also intertwined with other dialects and indigenous languages from Africa. The only thing difficult about them is that the vocabulary is completely foreign. The categories start from category I, which includes easy languages like French and Spanish, and go to category IV, which . FSI literature . In fact, judged by number of native speakers, Spanish is the second most-spoken language in the world. Even the most fluent Korean speaking foreigners are instantly distinguishable form natives. The only thing difficult about them is that the vocabulary is completely foreign. - Qwertie, MAY 26, 2012. Start learning Japanese today with these tips. Oh, yes, that Asian writing system is the most challenging part for the Spanish people. Hiragana and Katakana are VERY easy. Moreover, even though a basic amount of Spanish fluency allows the English to learn Japanese, that level can also be attained through acquisition of other languages. Speaking Japanese is hard enough, but writing is even trickier. The inconsistencies of how English is pronounced can really trip up Spanish speakers learning English. That's how easy it is to learn Chinese. For this reason, it's not hard to find that Spanish has cognates with your native language and that undoubtedly makes Spanish easier to learn than other languages (just watch out for false cognates!) Script: Arabic Japanese has consistent pronunciation and grammar rules, and the most common sounds in the language should come easy to English speakers. Yes. Speak Spanish, Japanese, French, English & more. Because in Latin, the verb plays several roles in a sentence. In Spanish, a always sounds more or less like a (even with an accent mark), which we as learners really appreciate. AN IMPORTANT REMINDER: Before I go into more detail regarding the most difficult languages, what makes . According to The Defense Language Institute's (where CIA spies go to learn languages!) Getting Started as an Absolute Japanese Beginner. Also, Japanese pronunciation . Like Japanese, Spanish is also a phonetic language. As someone who's learning Japanese, Kanji is useful since there are no spaces in Japanese. Category V: 88 weeks (2200 hours) Languages which are exceptionally difficult for native English speakers. Don'ts in Learning Japanese as a Beginner. For speaking & Listening, asian languages (chinese/japanese/korean) are quite intuitive for hindi speaker compare to european languages like french/german. It has a few new letters to learn, but they're simple (just like Italian). This means regular use of thousands of characters. Japanese is ranked by the U.S. Foreign Services Institute as the most difficult language for native English speakers to learn. 5. The Very First Step: Hiragana and Katakana. Today, there are about 3 million native speakers. However, Japanese speakers do use Chinese characters, but they also have two syllabic scripts: katakana and hiragana. The most difficult thing to grasp is the Japanese alphabet, which consists of over 85,000 different characters! If you just want to learn to speak Japanese, though, it's not terribly hard. A French, Portuguese, Italian, or Portuguese phrase. Being able to speak different languages is a coveted skill. For this reason, it's not hard to find that Spanish has cognates with your native language and that undoubtedly makes Spanish easier to learn than other languages (just watch out for false cognates!) What makes is hard is distinguishing b/t sounds and applying it yourself in conversation. Hardest language to learn #4: Mandarin. Hiragana and Katakana are VERY easy. as Spanish. Much like with Japanese, it will be doubly taxing to learn Hungarian in isolation as the cultural overtones are vital to figuring out what native speakers mean. They share many words with English, but it's that common vocabulary . I've observed friends and family members learning Italian, Japanese, Spanish, German, Greek . Spanish has been influenced by Arabic, French, Portuguese, Italian, among others. However, as you've seen in this article, even the "hardest" aspects of Japanese are much simpler than they might initially seem. Japanese has historically gotten bad PR among language learners, but its pronunciation is actually remarkably simple. Learning a new language is always a challenge. Learn the most common Japanese phrases. With three separate writing systems, an opposite sentence structure to English, and a complicated hierarchy of politeness, it's decidedly complex. Japanese developed free from those influences, which can be difficult to grasp if you aren't familiar with the Japonic system. 1. So, to write and read in Japanese, you need to learn thousands of characters as well as two separate alphabets! Spanish is spoken by over 570 million people across the world. It takes more effort to learn it and maintain what you learned then most other languages. Learning a new language as an adult is big undertaking - so if you want the best value for . Yes, I have noticed several similarities between Spanish and Russian, though very subtle. 4. Complex writing system. The high amount of vowels and their deep-in-the throat sound makes it very hard to speak as well. Many language learning companies cut corners teaching Japanese. Many things make learning Japanese such a hard nut to crack, writing the language on top of everything else. Therefore, you can't learn to speak the . Over 480 million of these are native Spanish speakers and Spanish is the official language or official co-language of over 20 countries, including Argentina, El Salvador, Venezuela and, of course: Spain. Spanish has been influenced by Arabic, French, Portuguese, Italian, among others. Afrikaans is a beautiful language that is surprisingly easy to learn for native English speakers. Afrikaans is a beautiful language that is surprisingly easy to learn for native English speakers. What is Kanji and How to Learn It. . So many people think Japanese is incredibly hard, but the honest truth is, you already know some Japanese. Things that are easy in Korean grammar: Again, the more you practice, the better it gets. Apparently Spanish vowel pronunciation is quite similar to Japanese, but Japanese vowel pronunciation is not exactly the most difficult thing to learn anyway. Spanish is one of the most common second languages for English speakers to learn. You'll also have to learn the three writing systems - kanji, katakana, and hiragana. . First, Japanese has pitch accents. All The Tenses Chinese is just hard for everybody! If we ignore vocabulary, Arabic (27) is one point easier than German (28); Chinese (14) is one point easier than Spanish (15), Japanese and Spanish are the same (15), and Korean (30 . Lastly, Spanish is widely spoken: Japanese is a tough language for English speakers to learn because it's lack of cognates, totally different grammar and the fact that it has not one, not two, but three different writing systems learners need to understand in order to read and write in the language . It's a famously difficult language for English speakers to learn, with complex grammar and pronunciation. The majority of native English speakers may find Spanish the easiest language to learn and quite understandably. Turkish. Logograms are characters that can represent entire words, and you'll need to memorize about 200 characters in order to read in common situations like navigating a public space or ordering at a restaurant. It goes without saying that the more time you spend practicing something, the better you will become at it. 1. Minimum length of training for proficiency = 88 Weeks (2,200 Hours) Click here for the full list. It uses . If we ignore vocabulary, Arabic (27) is one point easier than German (28); Chinese (14) is one point easier than Spanish (15), Japanese and Spanish are the same (15), and Korean (30 . You probably already know Japanese greetings like konnichiwa and sayonara. These are clearly easy languages in terms of grammar and in terms of phonology. Spanish irregular verbs are like revenge for English's impossible spellings. For English speakers, the Spanish ere and erre are hard to pronounce. In a nutshell. 1. At first, you will find listening and speaking difficult, because Mandarin is a tonal language. As someone who's learning Japanese, Kanji is useful since there are no spaces in Japanese. Most experts believe that to become truly fluent in Russian that is thinking and speaking in Russian requires 7-10 years of study. The Spanish verb system alone is perhaps more difficult to learn than the entire Esperanto language. Hungarian. I also agree Mandarin is a hard language even though it is my mother tongue. The only difficult part of Japanese is actually the Kanji. The number of distinct sounds in Japanese is . Learners of Japanese are often put off by its writing system, which uses three scripts: hiragana, katakanaand kanji. From its confusing writing system to the sheer speed at which it's spoken, here are some of the most difficult aspects of learning Japanese. An English speaker learning French or Spanish will constantly be reminded of other words he knows: fiesta or fte = feast, libro or livre . It doesn't come easy to everyone, however. Words are written as they sound and Spanish follows its own rules with fewer irregularities than other romance languages. Even if you are from a language different from Japanese, you can still learn it. And I haven't found (yet) where a letter of the alphabet is silent like it is in English ("gh" in though or thought). The institute uses the time it takes to learn a language to determine . Japanese isn't that difficult to pick up, although of course it is difficult to get good - very good - fluent at (just like any language). It comes as no surprise to find Russian on our list of hardest languages to learn for English speakers. Yes. Arabic. The only difficult part of Japanese is actually the Kanji. The hardest language for an English speaker, in my opinion, is Arabic. When I was teaching a beginner English class in Mexico, one of my students pronounced the English word "nose" as "no say." Is Bulgarian Hard To Learn? Spanish is the hardest language to learn. Is It Hard For Spanish Speakers To Learn Japanese? As a matter of fact, this language is the easiest one for native Spanish to learn. I seems to have a memory block with new languages. Arabic . The darkest countries on the map represent Category 4 languages, those that take the longest for Americans to learn: Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. * Languages preceded by asterisks are usually more difficult for native English speakers to learn than other languages in the same category. One of the best things about East Asian language :) 5. Romanian. Due to the ease of language acquisition for Spanish speakers there are many other Romance languages available. And languages in the hardest category are Arabic, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean and Mandarin Chinese.Native Japanese speakers, on the other hand, have considerable difficulty learning the English language. It's a lot, and it's one of the hardest things to get used to. Mandarin is considered a "super-hard" language by the US Foreign Service Institute. 1. The R and J and G Sounds. As an FSI category-I language, it features the same alphabet as English, with just the sole addition of . . With over 130 million native speakers, Japanese is one of the most commonly spoken languages globally. Any language is going to take time and effort to learn, and Japanese in particular presents more challenges to a native English speaker than many other languages. Tagalog is a tough language for English speakers to learn--especially compared to language "relatives" like Spanish, French, and German . You also probably already know tsunami, karaoke, sake, samurai, and more. There are so many to remember it can be quite overwhelming. Bulgarian isn't impossible to learn but it is harder to learn than some other languages for English speakers. In this blog post we've put together our own "Top 5" of the languages which are often claimed to be the most difficult to learn for foreigners. However, learning some languages can be a more demanding and time-consuming task than others. This is mostly because of major grammatical differences (especially verb-pronoun relationships) and the origins of its vocabulary. But the phonetic spelling of Spanish is a huge advantage. The Foreign Service Institute has spent decades teaching foreign languages and over the years has ranked them in terms of difficulty.. Cantonese (Chinese) Mandarin (Chinese) * Japanese. It is spoken as a native language by 13 million people, most of whom live in Hungary. 4. Learning a new language as an adult is big undertaking - so if you want the best value for . Lastly, Spanish is widely spoken: Zulu. It's true that German grammar is a bit more complex, but German is a very logical language. Unlike most European languages, which belong to the Indo-European language family, Hungarian is a Uralic language. How hard Korean grammar is: 3/5, "Moderate", but do lots of drills. 8 reasons why the Spanish Language can be a pain in the a$$. Japanese. True this is useful. Mandarin is the most widely spoken Chinese language with more than 1 billion native speakers. You'll also have to learn the three writing systems - kanji, katakana, and hiragana. Indeed, for a variety of reasons, Japanese is challenging for English speakers. Words, phrases, grammar & more. Challenging Multiple Meaning. That said, there are still some tricky elements that take practice to wrap your head around. Spanish is definitely a much more useful language to learn, as it is spoken in many countries including Spain and even the United States compared to Japanese which is spoken majority in Japan itself. How to learn reading/writing: An app is a good start for Hangul, like Memrise or Duolingo. What Are The Most Difficult English Sounds For Spanish Speakers? catalogues, while it takes an English learner on average about 26 weeks to gain proficiency in Spanish or French, it takes about 65 weeks to develop a working proficiency of Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Arabic. French, Spanish, and Italian are relatively easy, while Arabic and Japanese are much more difficult. . Step 6: Focus on the Easy Parts of Japanese First. People advise me to learn Spanish because it has a better scope, but other than Despasito, I have never heard . While I have seen much more Japanese speaking foreigners that could fool me for a while. According to a survey that happened in the first half of 2021, there are around 270 million Arabic speakers worldwide. Galician is spoken in Galicia, an autonomous part of northwestern Spanish. Mandarin Chinese. 7. The most difficult thing to grasp is the Japanese alphabet, which consists of over 85,000 different characters! How Hard Is It to Learn Japanese? Written Mandarin is pictoral and contains over 20,000 characters. For a Spanish speaker to be able to converse effectively with Japanese, the ability to speak it is similar to being able to speak English. Japanese speakers around the world: 125 million native speakers Writing system: Kanji and Kana Why is Japanese hard to learn? 9. The major difficulty in learning this language is that Japanese has nothing in common with European or Slavic languages. With its Cyrillic alphabet, we might be able to read Russian slightly easier than other difficult languages like Mandarin and Japanese, but there are other things that make this language difficult. (Learning to read is the only thing I like apps for.) Etsi tit, jotka liittyvt hakusanaan Is japanese hard to learn for english speakers tai palkkaa maailman suurimmalta makkinapaikalta, jossa on yli 21 miljoonaa tyt. Japanese uses particles (wa, ga, o, ni) which are markers for parts of speech. In fact Japanese is often cited as one of the most difficult languages to learn for native English speakers. Is English Hard For Spanish Speakers To Learn? 5. 4. Speaking and understanding Mandarin is hard at first. The short answer is, of course, that Spanish is definitely the easiest language for an English speaker. 5) Japanese: One main reason why Japanese is so hard is that the written code is different from the spoken code. Language Group V (Exceptionally difficult languages for native English speakers) Arabic, Cantonese Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean. These don't correspond to any English words. A basic level of fluency can be accomplished within 3-6 months. Even though korean has a whole new writing system, the system was made so that it would be easy to learn (and it is). From its confusing writing system to the sheer speed at which it's spoken, here are some of the most difficult aspects of learning Japanese. Basic Japanese Grammar and Sentence Structure. Here, you can explore the seven most difficult languages to learn. Of its 19 consonants, only a couple are rare among world languages, and its five . However, if they implemented spaces (as an example) and didn't use Kanji, Japanese would be by far one of the easiest languages to learn. Can English be pairedel for Spanish speakers? If you include the number of people who've learned Spanish as a second (or third) language, there are over 500 million hispanohablantes (Spanish speakers . Thus, yes, it is possible! German grammar is too hard to learn. - Explained in SpanishAfter Joss made a video about struggles with the German language many of y. Both don't need pronouns to express like English does. The differences between particles are subtle and highly contextual. Popular, but hard to learn, Turkish is not only used by native Turks but also has its place in countries like Cyprus, Bulgaria, and Greece. If you want to sound fluent and more like a native, the use of different tenses is something you have to learn. Unlike learners of Mandarin, Japanese learners do have to think about grammar. Challenging Multiple Meaning: One of the hardest parts of Latin grammar is the multiple meanings of a word. . 8. Committing to memorizing some of the more common ones - especially in the pretrito indefinido - will help a lot. Now, let's take a look at what makes the Spanish spend so much time learning it but getting little results. However, if they implemented spaces (as an example) and didn't use Kanji, Japanese would be by far one of the easiest languages to learn. Tagalog is relatively difficult for English speakers to learn. So in theory, it would take the most effort for a native Spanish speaker to learn Romanian among . Learning any language is difficult, but a lot of people view Japanese to be particularly hard. - Qwertie, MAY 26, 2012. Korean. These are clearly easy languages in terms of grammar and in terms of phonology. Beware of these Challenges in Learning Japanese. Complex writing system. We are talking about Galician. As with learning Russian, becoming fluent will depend highly on the learner. Whatever the reason you have for learning Spanish, it's a wonderful language to learn. Korean grammar is not bad, but there are a few things that make it not terribly easy. But digging a little deeper, Japanese grammar is quite difficult for English speakers. 1. What Makes English Hard For Spanish Speakers? It is simply a fact that learning a new language can be difficult! 4. This may be because it comes from its own root, or because of its difficult writing system. Speaking Japanese is hard enough, but writing is even trickier. If you want to learn Chinese, be ready to sacrifice to spend upward of 2,000 hours from whatever time you might have. Once you will understand the basics, you'll have no problem going forward with the rest of the curriculum. Generally, Japanese is seen as a relatively straightforward language to learn in terms of pronunciation. Arabic is the Semitic language of the Arabs; Semitic languages mean that this language is a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. French, Spanish, and Italian are relatively easy, while Arabic and Japanese are much more difficult. Many brands have slapped some Japanese words and phrases onto what used to be a Spanish course and called it "The best way to learn Japanese now!", just to sell a few extra .