What Is the Most Difficult Foreign Language to Learn?
Learning a new language is an exciting challenge, but some languages make that challenge way harder than others. Whether it’s a complex writing system, tricky pronunciation, or a grammar that seems to follow no logic, some languages take much more time and effort to master. But which one is the most difficult? Let’s explore!
What Makes a Language Difficult?
Before we dive into the toughest languages, let’s break down what makes a language hard to learn:
🗣️ Pronunciation – Are there tricky sounds, tones, or mouth movements?
📚 Grammar – Does the language have complicated verb conjugations, cases, or word orders?
✍️ Writing System – Is the alphabet unfamiliar, or does it have thousands of characters?
🔠 Vocabulary – Are the words completely different from your native language?
❗️ Exceptions & Rules – Does the language have lots of irregularities that make it unpredictable?
Now, let’s look at the 6 hardest languages to learn!
🇨🇳 Mandarin Chinese
Why is it difficult?
🔹 Tones – Mandarin has four tones, meaning the same word can have different meanings depending on how you say it.
🔹 Characters – Instead of an alphabet, Chinese has thousands of characters to memorize.
🔹 No cognates – If you speak English or another European language, there’s little vocabulary overlap.
🇸🇦 Arabic
Why is it difficult?
🔹 Alphabet – The Arabic script is written right to left and has different forms depending on the letter’s position in the word.
🔹 Pronunciation – Arabic has sounds that don’t exist in most European languages.
🔹 Grammar – Dual forms, complex verb conjugations, and unfamiliar sentence structures make it tricky.
🇯🇵 Japanese
Why is it difficult?
🔹 Three writing systems – Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. That’s right, three different scripts to learn!
🔹 Kanji characters – Thousands of symbols with different readings depending on context.
🔹 Grammar – Sentence structure is very different from English, and verbs change depending on politeness levels.
🇰🇷 Korean
Why is it difficult?
🔹 Honorifics & politeness levels – The way you speak changes depending on who you’re talking to.
🔹 Sentence structure – Unlike English, Korean follows a Subject-Object-Verb order.
🔹 Particles – Korean uses grammatical markers that don’t exist in many other languages.
🇭🇺 Hungarian
Why is it difficult?
🔹 Grammar – It has 14 to 18 grammatical cases (depending on how you count them!).
🔹 Word order – It changes based on emphasis rather than fixed rules.
🔹 Unfamiliar vocabulary – Hungarian isn’t related to most European languages, so no easy cognates!
🇫🇮 Finnish
Why is it difficult?
🔹 Cases – Like Hungarian, Finnish uses a complex case system.
🔹 Long words – Words can be incredibly long due to extensive use of suffixes.
🔹 Unique vocabulary – Finnish isn’t closely related to other major languages, making it harder to pick up.
So, What’s the Hardest Language to Learn?
It’s tough to pick just one! Each language has its own unique challenges, and what’s difficult depends on your native language. However, from my point of view, the hardest foreign language to learn is your first foreign language! 😅 Why? Because you're not just learning a language—you’re learning how to learn a language. Once you’ve mastered one, the next will be easier!
If you’re just starting, I highly recommend learning with a passionate expert tutor who will encourage you and help you through the toughest parts of any language. 🎉
Check out our amazing tutors to find the best fit for you:
Enjoy your language journey with Speekl!