Global Statistics@Globalstats11
Top 10 Hardest vs Easiest Languages to Learn
Hardest Languages to Learn
1) 🇨🇳 Mandarin Chinese
2) 🇸🇦 Arabic
3) 🇯🇵 Japanese
4) 🇰🇷 Korean
5) 🇭🇺 Hungarian
6) 🇫🇮 Finnish
7) 🇵🇱 Polish
8) 🇷🇺 Russian
9 🇹🇷 Turkish
10) 🇮🇸 Icelandic
Easiest Languages to Learn
1) 🇿🇦 Afrikaans
2) 🇳🇱 Dutch
3) 🇳🇴 Norwegian
4) 🇸🇪 Swedish
5) 🇪🇸 Spanish
6) 🇮🇹 Italian
7) 🇵🇹 Portuguese
8) 🇫🇷 French
9* 🇩🇰 Danish
10) 🇷🇴 Romanian
Note: This list is based on language difficulty rankings by the U.S. Foreign Service Institute (FSI).
FSI ranks languages according to the average time (weeks & study hours) required for a native English speaker to achieve professional fluency.
Key factors used:
1) Grammar complexity
2) Writing system & script
3) Pronunciation & tones
4) Vocabulary similarity with English
Languages like Mandarin, Arabic, Japanese & Korean take ~2,200+ hours (hardest),
while Spanish, French, Italian etc. take ~600–750 hours (easiest).
Source: U.S. Foreign Service Institute (FSI)
