What is the hardest language to learn

The biblical story of the Tower of Babel has exposed a reality for as long as humanity can remember: there are multiple different languages ​​and dialects in the world. But… What is the most difficult language to learn ever?

The answer requires that it be clarified that this in any case has a load of subjectivity, and that it will be necessary to clarify that these lines respond to the vision Western over Eastern.

According to the linguistic portal Linguaserve, the answer depends on several factors.

Among these stand out “the grammatical structure, pronunciation, type of writing and the availability of resources for their learning.

What is the most difficult language to learn in the world?

In this sense, in this part of the world there is a certain consensus that it is the most difficult language to learn Mandarin Chinese. Two others who are named are Arabic (spoken in several countries) and the Japanese (Japan).

Mandarin Chinese is very complicated because of its writing characters and because it is a tonal language. “It is made up of five tones including neutral, as well as mentioning regional dialects and their accents,” the site indicates.

Another complication is that in China Mandarin has a simplified “version”, the result of a process of character simplification ordered by the Chinese government in the 20th century.

Meanwhile a Hong Kong or inside Taiwan traditional writing is used. The difference between the two is that in the simplified version the same character can represent multiple words.

However, those who dare to take this step need not fear. As you progress in learning Mandarin, you discover some elements that are easier in that language than others.

“For example, the the verbs are not conjugated and there are no gender complications for nouns and adjectives,” indicates EF de México, another portal specializing in languages.

Mandarin Chinese is also the language most spoken in the world. More than 1 billion speakers make it one of the ten most spoken languages ​​in the world. The family of Chinese languages It has seven groups; Among these, Chinese, one of the northern dialects, is the official language throughout the country.

At the same time, China is a huge market for businesses. Learning Chinese would be a great opportunity work progress. Therefore, despite the difficulty it implies, this language continues to be an intellectual stimulus for those who are trying to learn it.

A world full of languages

According to the World Atlas of Languages UNESCO “There are 8,324 languages, spoken or signed, documented by governments, public institutions and academic communities.”

Of these, more than 7,000 are still in use today.

These indicate that the language with “official language” status in most countries is English (59), followed by French (29), Arabic (27), Spanish (20) and Portuguese (10).

A report from the Europa Press agency quoting the magazine ‘Ethnologue’ indicates that ilanguages ​​with multiple natives speakers are Mandarin Chinese (918 million speakers), Spanish (480 million) and English (379 million).