Map Reveals How Long It Takes To Learn Different Languages
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Interested in learning a foreign language, but need one that’s easy and time-efficient to pick up? The Foreign Service Institute has done the handy task of sorting major languages around the world into 5 categories of difficulty according to their differences from English, and Reddit user Fummy has translated that data into a color-coded map to make it all simpler.
The Romance languages, based mainly on Latin, are among the most approachable, and include French, Spanish, and Italian. Tongues like Dutch, Danish, and Swedish share common roots with English, meaning half your work is done already if you choose to learn them. You’re looking at about 6 months of study to achieve proficiency in any of these ‘Category I’ languages.
Are you leaning further towards Japanese, Korean, or Arabic? Get ready for a mammoth 2 years of practice, one of which should be in-country. These are 3 of the languages that make up the fearsome ‘Category V,’ as they’re about as different from English as black is from white.
Scroll down to see all of the statistics for yourself, and if you’re ready to embark on a linguistic journey, you can find free online courses straight from the FSI, the Defense Language Institute, and the Peace-Corps here.
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"life is too short to learn german"
monia monica, only very small parts of belgium or luxembourg speak german (which are very small countries already), and in switzerland they it's swiss- german, which is close to german- but still not german. (Like italian and spanish are close- but still not the same). So no, i would also say that it is not worth the trouble;) i love my language, but wouldn't recommend to study it as much as for example french..
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I so agree, stick to English and you'll be fine !!!
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lol, for this reason I have chosen Spanish as second language. And German is only spoken in Germany so it is less useful than English, Spanish, French, Mandarin, Russian or Arabic
German is (as an official language) spoken in Germany, Lichtenstein, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium and Austria
German is not as hard as it's hyped to be, though. It's very similar to English, which is also a Germanic language. I used to study it in high school, picked up very quickly, but then I graduated, didn't work in tourism, moved to Korea, and my German is gone for not using it, though I think if I'd start actively learning it, I'm confident I'd pick it up fast again, but this is because I already have a past knowledge. And btw, German is also spoken in Austria, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, and maybe some other countries too.
yeah - your argument is kinda bullshit. If you say German is only spoken in Germany (which is plan wrong as already stated) - you have to take the same measure for the other languagues to..). I guess in terms of territorial areas covered first choice if of course english - then followed by those who had a lot of colonies - talking colonization time and beyond. So nothing bets spanish and french in that terms (number of secondary speakers included) - this is quite useful for that (scroll for the pictures): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_language
They are tough for being so far removed from English, but there is logic in Japanese and Vietnamese that I wish would carry over. For example in Vietnamese, everything is separated with a space between each syllable, and every letter can only be pronounced one way as it's written, so you can see a word for the first time and immediately know how to say it. In Japanese, they are very economical in their words, in that they don't use unnecessary grammatical filler, and they don't invent unnecessary synonyms. For example, English "I am scared," becomes "scared" in Japanese; you can assume who the subject is in context. But in English one wouldn't say "I am scared," because we are taught that it is too simple, so we have to say "I'm terrified/frightened/in fear/shaking in my boots," to add flair to what is still a simple expression. Japanese also takes to only one pronunciation for each letter. A E I O U is "ah" "eh" "ee" "oh" "oo" with the only exceptions being consistent.
Tha Japanese grammar is very structured and relatevely easy to understand, but you forgot about kanji - hell of a work to remember how to read even if you know the meaning. All kanji have at least 2 readings and can be used at the same time - my favourite example is Sunday - in kanji 日曜日 - and pronounsation is - Nichiyōbi. The same kanji 日 have different readings within ONE word.
Yes, I was just pointing out some really very beneficial parts of the language, but Kanji and its varied pronunciations is the biggest hurdle for sure - this alone is what puts it into the top difficulty category. They inherited the Chinese language and then made it more logical. Too bad it wasn't English that they would inherit and improve upon, or we might all have flying cars by now!
@Mikleo I find it harder to read text in pure hiragana as compared to kanji mixed with hiragana. Because unlike English, there are no spaces in between words. Reading in full hirangana is like readingthiswholetextlikethat.
I studied both Chinese and Japanese, and was so excited because Chinese characters only have one pronunciation. At least, I was excited until I found out I was wrong. XD But it's still not as bad as kanji.
There is not even a real reason for them to use kanji. Every single word could be written in hiragana (one of their 2 alphabets) instead. They often even write in hiragana above the kanji to show people how to read it.
I may be mistaken but I think English is the only language where you may be proficient and still not know how to pronounce a new world. Any other language I have any knowledge about has a universal set of rules that applies to all words.
When you see someone say that Polish is sooo difficult, you can be 99% sure this person is Polish.
Yes. Polish is difficult. And I'm Polish.
@Charlotte Nordset As a rule of thumb, people in Eastern Europe tend to learn russian in school. Young people of course learn English. Older people in certain regions of Poland are more likley to speak German or a Polish dialect that leans on German (Pomerania or Silesia f.e.).
I saw your comment about how German is not only spoken in Germany, was about to correct that dude myself so thanks! I'm norwegian myself and chose to learn german, partly because so many people speak it. I was told it can also be useful in other european-eastern european countries, like maybe Poland, baltic states, maybe russia? Is it true that people there may learn some german too?
Yeah, so am I. Sorry you have diffuculties with your mother tongue.
Its depends what is your native language. Im Bulgarian, and i can understand about 35% or more from Polish when someone talks.
Yes, When we are in the same language group it easier to understand each other. For example - I'm Polish. I've learned also Czech and Slovak and a little basic Russian. I can easily understand everyone who's speaking in Slovian languages (Bulgarian, Croatian etc). This languages are similar and have the same basics (and origins). I That's why You, as Bulgarian native, can understand Polish people.
"life is too short to learn german"
monia monica, only very small parts of belgium or luxembourg speak german (which are very small countries already), and in switzerland they it's swiss- german, which is close to german- but still not german. (Like italian and spanish are close- but still not the same). So no, i would also say that it is not worth the trouble;) i love my language, but wouldn't recommend to study it as much as for example french..
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
I so agree, stick to English and you'll be fine !!!
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
lol, for this reason I have chosen Spanish as second language. And German is only spoken in Germany so it is less useful than English, Spanish, French, Mandarin, Russian or Arabic
German is (as an official language) spoken in Germany, Lichtenstein, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium and Austria
German is not as hard as it's hyped to be, though. It's very similar to English, which is also a Germanic language. I used to study it in high school, picked up very quickly, but then I graduated, didn't work in tourism, moved to Korea, and my German is gone for not using it, though I think if I'd start actively learning it, I'm confident I'd pick it up fast again, but this is because I already have a past knowledge. And btw, German is also spoken in Austria, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, and maybe some other countries too.
yeah - your argument is kinda bullshit. If you say German is only spoken in Germany (which is plan wrong as already stated) - you have to take the same measure for the other languagues to..). I guess in terms of territorial areas covered first choice if of course english - then followed by those who had a lot of colonies - talking colonization time and beyond. So nothing bets spanish and french in that terms (number of secondary speakers included) - this is quite useful for that (scroll for the pictures): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_language
They are tough for being so far removed from English, but there is logic in Japanese and Vietnamese that I wish would carry over. For example in Vietnamese, everything is separated with a space between each syllable, and every letter can only be pronounced one way as it's written, so you can see a word for the first time and immediately know how to say it. In Japanese, they are very economical in their words, in that they don't use unnecessary grammatical filler, and they don't invent unnecessary synonyms. For example, English "I am scared," becomes "scared" in Japanese; you can assume who the subject is in context. But in English one wouldn't say "I am scared," because we are taught that it is too simple, so we have to say "I'm terrified/frightened/in fear/shaking in my boots," to add flair to what is still a simple expression. Japanese also takes to only one pronunciation for each letter. A E I O U is "ah" "eh" "ee" "oh" "oo" with the only exceptions being consistent.
Tha Japanese grammar is very structured and relatevely easy to understand, but you forgot about kanji - hell of a work to remember how to read even if you know the meaning. All kanji have at least 2 readings and can be used at the same time - my favourite example is Sunday - in kanji 日曜日 - and pronounsation is - Nichiyōbi. The same kanji 日 have different readings within ONE word.
Yes, I was just pointing out some really very beneficial parts of the language, but Kanji and its varied pronunciations is the biggest hurdle for sure - this alone is what puts it into the top difficulty category. They inherited the Chinese language and then made it more logical. Too bad it wasn't English that they would inherit and improve upon, or we might all have flying cars by now!
@Mikleo I find it harder to read text in pure hiragana as compared to kanji mixed with hiragana. Because unlike English, there are no spaces in between words. Reading in full hirangana is like readingthiswholetextlikethat.
I studied both Chinese and Japanese, and was so excited because Chinese characters only have one pronunciation. At least, I was excited until I found out I was wrong. XD But it's still not as bad as kanji.
There is not even a real reason for them to use kanji. Every single word could be written in hiragana (one of their 2 alphabets) instead. They often even write in hiragana above the kanji to show people how to read it.
I may be mistaken but I think English is the only language where you may be proficient and still not know how to pronounce a new world. Any other language I have any knowledge about has a universal set of rules that applies to all words.
When you see someone say that Polish is sooo difficult, you can be 99% sure this person is Polish.
Yes. Polish is difficult. And I'm Polish.
@Charlotte Nordset As a rule of thumb, people in Eastern Europe tend to learn russian in school. Young people of course learn English. Older people in certain regions of Poland are more likley to speak German or a Polish dialect that leans on German (Pomerania or Silesia f.e.).
I saw your comment about how German is not only spoken in Germany, was about to correct that dude myself so thanks! I'm norwegian myself and chose to learn german, partly because so many people speak it. I was told it can also be useful in other european-eastern european countries, like maybe Poland, baltic states, maybe russia? Is it true that people there may learn some german too?
Yeah, so am I. Sorry you have diffuculties with your mother tongue.
Its depends what is your native language. Im Bulgarian, and i can understand about 35% or more from Polish when someone talks.
Yes, When we are in the same language group it easier to understand each other. For example - I'm Polish. I've learned also Czech and Slovak and a little basic Russian. I can easily understand everyone who's speaking in Slovian languages (Bulgarian, Croatian etc). This languages are similar and have the same basics (and origins). I That's why You, as Bulgarian native, can understand Polish people.