It helps to have a rough understanding of relative language difficulty before beginning your target language training. The following list compiles the hardest languages to learn regardless of which native language family you were raised in.
1. Cantonese (Chinese)
Like many languages in the Sino-Tibetan language family, the Chinese writing system is based on characters without strict rules on pronunciation. To add to the challenge, Cantonese is a tonal language with nine word-modifying tones, which can be unfamiliar sounds for many language learners.
2. Mandarin (Chinese)
Learning Mandarin by memorizing Chinese characters will only get you so far. Like many spoken languages on this list, Mandarin is a tonal language that relies on unique sounds and inflections to modify words.
Over 1 billion people speak Mandarin in the world, so the challenge is well worth it if your goal is to find a second language with abundant applications.
3. Arabic
Arabic is a Semitic language that has dominated the Middle East for millennia. It uses a right-to-left writing system of graceful, flowing characters and diverse combinations of gendered words that change with singular and plural forms.
4. Korean
Korean grammar and its character-based Hanul script writing system puts extensive weight on honorific status. So, even though it has a largely phonetic alphabet, the mixture of these unique regional aspects makes Korean one of the toughest languages to learn for English speakers and other language families.
5. Japanese
To learn Japanese, you must memorize an extensive vocabulary from each of the language's three writing systems: kanji, hiragana and katakana. One writing system will be written vertically (top to bottom), while a different writing system may be written right to left.
To add to the already monumental challenge, Japanese grammar is steeped in cultural context and extreme politeness. If you're already familiar with a Chinese dialect, you may be able to recognize some Japanese kanji more easily (though the pronunciation will be entirely different).
6. Hungarian
A Uralic language like Hungarian will differ from members of the Indo-European language family in several ways, including agglutination, multiple cases and free word order.
7. Finnish
Finnish may be easier to learn for people from certain linguistic backgrounds because many use agglutinative language principles that string together morphemes or root sounds.
The concept of vowel harmony and vowel sounds like "y" and "รถ" will be especially challenging for native English speakers to master.
8. Basque
Basque is an incredibly difficult language to learn because an essential component of learning languages is finding diverse resources.
Basque is a complex language on its own, but the scarcity of immersion opportunities outside this secluded Spanish region makes learning the difficult language even more intimidating.
9. Navajo
Among Native American languages, Navajo is the most widely spoken. That being said, it is also one of the most difficult languages for students from any other native language background to learn.
Complex grammar rules and unique word structure made it an invaluable tool for the Allied Forces, who used Navajo "Windtalkers" to relay secret information during World War II.
10. Icelandic
Icelandic has multiple noun cases and verb conjugations, forming a unique syntax that can boggle the minds of people who have grown up speaking other languages. Native English speakers will also struggle with pronunciation since "j" makes a "yuh" sound, as in fjord (pronounced fee-yord).
