People say these 20 foreign languages are the most difficult to learn

There’s a reason the phrase “It’s all Greek to me” exists. Greek is tough to learn! It has a completely different alphabet than English, many different words, and tough grammatical rules. 

Russian is a Slavic language, and the Slavic languages are not similar to the Germanic languages, the latter of which English is part. Russian letters tend to confuse many English speakers, as do other parts of the language. 

Thai is a tonal language. It’s very, very different from English, as some of its sounds do not exist in English. Its writing system is totally different from English, too. There are some similar words, but other than that, it’s not easy for English speakers to learn. 

Hindi is difficult for English speakers to learn because it uses the Devanagari script and has many different pronunciations. But it’s a vast language, making its mastery very valuable. 

Vietnamese is an Austroasiatic language most commonly spoken in Vietnam. However, many people worldwide speak it, so it is useful to learn. However, many English speakers find it difficult because of the different pronunciations. 

Hungarian and English differ because the former is an agglutinative language while the latter is an inflected language. In that way, Hungarian is more similar to Turkish and Korean. 

Pronunciation in Turkish isn’t too difficult for English speakers, but what gets them is its grammatical rules, as they’re far different from English. Many people across the world speak Turkish, so it’s worth the effort to learn if you travel abroad often. 

Farsi is an Indo-European language that’s very valuable to learn if you often travel in the Middle East. Though quite a few words overlap between English and Farsi, English speakers still often struggle with the writing system as Farsi is an Arabic script that’s read from right to left.  

Of all the languages spoken across Asia, Korea might be one of the easiest for English speakers to learn because it has an easy-to-understand writing system. However, it’s still difficult to learn because of syntax differences and letter sounds. 

Japanese is a fantastic language to learn if you travel abroad often, particularly across Asia, but it’s a beast to master if you’re a native English speaker. Japanese has a difficult writing system for English speakers to learn, and it can be very tough to master when to use certain words, as vocabulary varies depending on the formality of a setting. 

Mandarin is just behind English in terms of top languages spoken across the world, so if there’s another language to learn, Mandarin is the one. However, Mandarin, a tonal language, is very different from English, so many non-native speakers struggle, especially with the system of writing. 

Arabic, a Semitic language, is another great language to learn if you often travel throughout the Middle East. It’s difficult for English speakers because it’s read from right to left, has different grammatical rules, and contains sounds that don’t exist in English. 

Icelandic shares an alphabet with English, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to learn. Plenty of people still have difficulty mastering this language. 

Bulgarian is another Slavic language; as noted, Slavic languages differ greatly from Germanic ones. Certain letter sounds, vocabulary, and grammatical rules are difficult for English speakers to learn. 

Basque is a language isolate, meaning it does not belong to a family of languages such as Germanic or Slavic. Because of this, it’s difficult for many people to learn Basque, not just English speakers. 

The Finnish alphabet is similar to the English alphabet, but that’s about where the similarities end. Finnish has complicated grammatical rules, making it very tough for English speakers to master.  

Gaelic is in the European language family, while English is Germanic, making the two languages of different descents difficult to transition to. Certain words in English, such as “yes” and “no,” don't exist in Gaelic, making the language particularly difficult to learn. 

Cantonese is another tonal language that proves difficult for English speakers to learn. What makes it more difficult than other tonal languages is that experts debate just how many tones there are in Cantonese. 

Czech is one of the most difficult languages for English speakers to learn, clocking in at two and a half to three years of studying to learn (unless you study full-time). Those who speak it well will tell you it has very difficult grammatical rules.

As difficult as Czech is to learn, Polish might be even tougher. According to those who can speak it, the grammatical rules are even more complicated.