Well... I'm a native romanian speaker but I traveled a lot, I had to speak other languages...Now I speak romanian, french, english and dutch... I also want to learn swedish, korean (I already know to write and read korean) & japanese. I find korean really easy, I never studied it at school, I studied it at home by watching korean dramas and movies.
Cual es el idioma mas descriptivo(por ejemplo en un libro, poder facilmente imaginar una escena tiempos si es mujer o hombre cuantos son etc)? y el mas contextual(un idioma el cual dependa de la situacion en la cual se habla "And then along comes Mary, and does she want to give me kicks, and be my steady chick" ves cuando esta escrito no se sabe que sentido tiene pero si este idioma se habla se puede deducir lo que quiere decir)?
I'm learning both Korean and Spanish. For some reason I've learned more Korean in less than a year outside of school than I have after taking 2 years of Spanish in school. I find that b/c Korean grammar and their writing system is so much more logical than English or Spanish that it just makes more sense to me. While when I sit in Spanish class learning all these conjugations based on the subject and stuff I'm always questioning why they make it so complicated. Then I start questioning English!
@misdreavus2vulpix Me too, In 12 years of studying English, I haven't learned that much English in school than from TV and movies, being a native Romanian. Now even Italian which I am trying to learn is more difficult than English:))
And have you noticed that many a sentence in Mandarin follows the word order pattern of English so that one does not have to be the proverbial rocket scientist to dope out the meaning of a sentence? I also have observed that languages like Latin and Ancient Greek are extremely difficult because inflection trumps word order such that one feels at sea trying to figure out what ending means what in a given word! Yet the radical system used to look up words in Chinese is also hideously difficult.
I'm dyslexic and have studied many languages and for some reason I find Mandarin to be the easiest of them all. Although the grammar was very simple and straight forward, I found the writing to be the easiest part about learning Mandarin. In a European language I read very slowly, I can't remember what I've just read when i get to the end of a page, yet with Mandarin there's no problem, I read at a fast speed and can remember everything I've read. Is this the same for other dyslexics too? :S
@yasashii89 I agree, Mandarin Chinese pinyin has a very straight-forward system in grammar. Some people find the tones to be very hard though, but I have never had that problem.
Class 1 languages would be:1.Lao language,2.Khmer language,3.Vietnamese language,4.Thai language.Cantonese,Mandarin,Japanese and Korean do belong to this group too.The hardest five would be:1.Vietnamese,2.Korean,3.Lao,4.Cantonese and 5.Mongolian.The sixth one would be Khmer.Thats the true standing of these languages.
@Torbyrne Okay! I'm just wondering, as for a swede or a norweigan. We can have a full conversation with each other in our own language and fully understand what the other person is saying. But how was it for you as a person from England? Did you see the similarities in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish? :)
@Sthlmsodra87 The similarities between Swedish, Danish and Norwegian are quite striking to an English native when studying any one of the three. The written forms are more similar than the spoken language. Danish and New Norwegian sound less familiar from learning Swedish. If you have access to a native from Skane though (which I did), then Danish doesn't sound so strange. Bokmal for me is too similar to Swedish to speak both well and when I was in Oslo I just used Swedish. :)
Hi. I was wondering where Hungarian would fall in these categories for a native English speaker? I am trying to learn Hungarian and it seems very very difficult and different and I've heard that it is somewhat related to Finnish and Estonian? Would this mean it is about a class 3 or 4? Thanks.
You listed Greek as being not so far away from English, you listed it as being easier than the slavic languages. I have always been lead to believe that Greek is an incredibly difficult language to learn but Russian is not that difficult to get ones head around.
@mty1 Much vocabulary in English has come from Greek (especially medical terminology), which helps. Also Greek cases are nowhere near as complicated as they are in the Slavic tongues. :)
I hear that English is extremely hard for foreigners to learn because English has WAY more words than most languages and also because of learning when to use the words like "the", "it", "a", "an" or something along those lines. I believe that since English is "difficult" to foreigners, native English speakers should be great at learning other languages. I still struggle with my English grammar today, and I'm a native.
@AlimeProductions I think how hard English is to learn depends on who is learning it. English is easy to speak at a basic level for sure because you learn a word and it hardly changes for you to use it in any way you like. The difficulty comes with spelling in English, than and getting the verb tenses right in my experience with non-native speakers. If you're a Slavic language speaker, you could find the definite article a problem too, I suppose... :)
@Torbyrne I agree. Spanish speakers or German speakers may find it easier than Russian speakers. Basic English sentences are probably very easy. But once you start getting into like high school, college or business levels of English that's probably when it gets difficult. From a native English speaker's point of view I think Japanese and Russian are very hard. Japanese has long words and difficult grammar in it and Russian has some very long words and difficult pronunciation.
@interlingua2 Yes, I agree. Mandarin Chinese is easy to me, I think what makes it difficult for most people is that it's a tonal language and it's got a very different writing system than English. I have never had a problem with tones though, just remembering some of the characters. What makes Chinese easy is that grammar is very simple and it's a monosyllablic language.
@interlingua2 Chinese is way harder writing-wise than Japanese. Pinyin is not built into sentences like japanese uses in its writing system. So a person could make an educated guess as to the meaning of a Japanese sentence without knowing any characters, whereas one must memorize each and every character.
I believe that different categories of a certain language are harder than other. Reading and writing, grammar, proficiency and pronunciation. I find Mandarin Chinese to be very easy in grammar and pronunciation, but remembering and writing some of the characters is very hard.
@ilovenick1234567890 My guess is that Maltese would fit into the same group as it's other Semitic relatives (Class 2), though I imagine it would be easier with the HUGE range of words from Italian, French and English, which litter the language, so it could be Class 3 perhaps. Also using the Latin script is a big advantage to an English-speaker. :)
Try to speak Slovene!If you are not from Slovenia you'll NEVER speak right!Example i'm studying Russian and i have a Russian teacher that lives in Slovenia for about 14y. and she still can't speak fluent Slovene(and both languages are Slavic).We have 100% saved dual, many word bendings, 3 genders(maybe all Slavic languages have that), A LOT of verbs,word extensions, and we say(not write) these letters: ó,ô,á,â,ă,î,í,.... and u have to KNOW them to say them right:gori,gôrí,goŕí,...
@Zanislav100 I have yet to meet a person who could fool me into being a native English speaker either for a full conversation and English is the most widely studied language on the planet. I can well believe you have not met a foreign able to convince you that he/she is a native Slovene speaker. :)
@sweenkingandwow2 The first Slavic language does seem to take longer to get to grips with. I had a similar feeling with Czech (my first of the group), but it is a case of plugging away at it and you start turning corners in the language, seeing patterns, repeating them and it eventually comes. Good luck with it! :)
Interesting. I learnt French and German in high school but I found French a lot harder to learn. I am learning Korean now and it seems second nature to me.
@samgower I have heard a lot from people that they find it easier to learn Asian languages over European ones. It is interesting to see this and I can see many reasons for it. First of all it depends on what draws you to a language or culture and also how the language suits your style of thinking too. Sometimes a class 1 language just might may more sense to you as a native English speaker. Good on you for taking on Korean! Good luck with your studies! :)
Hvala lepo!Hvala Bogu sto ima ljudi kao ti !Toliko jezika govoris "svaka ti cast"! Ti mi dajes snagu da ucim jezike! Puno srece tebi i tvojoj familiji! POozdrav iz Nemacke !Uostalom ja sam madarica nadam se da ces jednog dana nauciti i Madarski bila bi ponosna na tebe!Prelepo pricas Nemacki!M
catalan is a spanish dialect just like galician,the spanish we speak today in latin america as an official language and in spain itself is called castillian,many of the words that we use come from arabic due to our islamic heritage for example,almohada(pillow) alambre,albanil, ojala which its original form in arabic would be incha alla which means if god wants,though of course it has a great deal of influence from latin explaining why some words in english resemble words in spanish,great video
@leomend92 How could a dialect be the official language of an european country? In any case Catalan will be a dialect of latin.... I suppose Portuguese is a spanish dialect as well, right?
@sweetdurian29 ok lets put it like this,spain and portugal were once the same nation,there was no differenciation until they splitapart from spain,spain is a country madeup ofdifferent kingdoms just like portugal for example,each kingdom speaks theirown variation or dialect,what people today call spanish,is castellian,which is the language ofthe kingdom that took over the rest and established that dialect as the official language of the country,spain haslatin andarabic roots,including catalonia
@leomend92 you still haven't responded my question... (how could a dialect be the oficial language of a country?) :/ also, according to you, basque is a "spanish" dialect... please tell me the dialectal differences between Basque and Spanish?
@sweetdurian29 yes i did answer your question,if i speak basque to someone who speaks castillian(what everyone calls spanish) the person who im speaking towould probably understand 50 % of what im saying depending on how similar his dialect is to mine,let me giveyou an example,inthe US manylanguages are spoken,but english is the official language,now you get it?the samehappens in spain,many languages or dialects,however you want to call it,but one is the official,which everyone knows how tospeak
@leomend92 oh I see, so in Europe, we have english, which is the official language of europe (isnt it?) and then we have the european dialects? Spanish, french, lithuanian, czech, hungarian, etc..etc.. now I get it. Sorry Im so behind :/
@sweetdurian29 a dialect is a provincial, rural, or socially distinct variety of a language that differs from the standard language,the standard language of spain is castillian because is the one spoken by everybody,but for example catala is not spoken by everyone,just by a certain group that lives in a certain region,the same with galego which is spoken by another group of people who live in the same country but a different area,any better? :)
@leomend92 but catalan is not provincial, is the unique official language of a country (Andorra). I don't know about Galician (to me it sounds like plain spanish). Basque is a unique language of what is now a mere colonised region within the spanish kingdom (same as Catalonia) and has absolutely NOTHING to do with any other language in the world WHATSOEVER. In any case, use the term "regional language". If you say "dialect", the dialect should be fully understood by the coloniser.
@sweetdurian29 no,catalan is the language of catalonia,but they also speak castillian,many of my old relatives come from there,also from canary islands and from galicia,even my last name (menduina ) is the name of a town there,oh and im cuban but my family is from spain :),how about you,where are you from?
@sweetdurian29 no,i dont think that english is the official language of europe,neither the rest of the other languages are dialects because for that to happen europe would have to be a single country and have english as the official language,though english is in fact the most spoken language in the world,not only because there were many english colonies,also because its very easy to learn compared to most languages,i know its complicated lol
Respond to this video... still dont get it? you got to read some of spain's history relating that topic so you can understand better,thats my suggestion
@sweetdurian29 oh and all the iberic peninsula (spain and portugal)has a great deal of latin influence,catala,galego,aragones,basco,those are some of the dialects that are still spoken in spain
This helped me categorize the different types of languages really well, thanks Richard. I'm learning Swedish at the moment and even though Swedish wasn't categorized with the other languages, you mentioned that the english language is a germanic language, and shares a lot of words with the dutch and swedish languages. So I'm guessing (correct me if I'm wrong) it would be categorized with the class 5 languages.
@elcodigo92 Thanks for your kind words. I like to cut to the chase. No need to make this video 10 minutes long. I was experimenting with video styles and this is how it turned out. No more to it than that really. :)
@ChatrboxCB I am not sure on the classifications for all languages, but from memory, I believe it was a class 3 language because it is Indo-European with some tough bits in it for native English-speakers. :)
@plaid4u no 1 told me anything, I jus know it cuz i live in Filey!! we jus pronounce "ng" like a special and long n, i've never heard a hard g as in this vid!!
Maybe where you're from, but as standard English (which is very rare these days) that is how you pronounce them. Richard obviously has a very linguistical mind so his spoken English is more pure. If you talked to the royal family, this is how they'd pronounce the words. Standard English. Maybe you should write better to understand the English words more and it's pronounciation, it'd be a start.
@DrMurphy65 you're wrong, i wirte like that because i use youtube mobile, so writing well is very hard for me. however...yes, what you said may be true
I'm a native US English speaker and I'm learning what you consider one of the hardest languages for a native English speaker in Class 1: Korean (Hangeul).
oddly enough, i'm a native english speaker and i happen to have all but operational fluency in Korean, Cantonese, and Japanese, and i don't speak french or italian etc...
@gorba4ov Мерси. Не зная много добре, ама Лука (poliglotta80) се уча сега тази език. Си мисля, че он има подобра идея од мене за японският. Всичко найхубаво! :)
What about African or Polynesian families? You gave almost a romance/Germanic vs. Sanskrit/Asiatic discussion. In terms of difficulty, you left out a large chunk of the smaller languages. It is somewhat sad because these same languages are the ones most likely to die very soon in the future.
@R1ckr011 I agree, it is sad when any language is on the decline. From what I remember, they are not all in the same classes, but you have to consider that in the Foreign Office people tend to learn the more widely spoken languages as they prepare for overseas missions. I remember that Bislama for example was in class 5, but the lists here are definitely not exhaustive.
Hi I was wondering where Turkish would fall in these categories for a native English speaker? I am trying to learn Turkish and it seems very very different and I have heard that it is closely related to finnish? Would this mean it is about a class 2? Thanks
@AlysDaisy I believe Turkish was a class 3 language. The vocabulary and grammar is alien to a native English speaker, but it is a fairly regular language, i.e. there are not many exceptions compared to other languages.
Gotta make one really important point. There are FIVE areas of language skill, the ones you give PLUS hearing, that is to say, understanding a conversation between speakers of a language not designed for your benefit, but theirs. If a French person is taliking to you, allowing for your foreigness he's very easy to understand, when he turns to a frenchman he'll almost switch to a new language. Mastering this, hearing, is the last, and hardest skill
@dimgwalltameiben i've always found that the most difficult thing. i can speak dutch and german at pretty good levels but sometimes when i hear how they speak with one another i think wtf! is there anyway of improving this for me?
few languages have been structurally reduced to the same extent as english (for example it's the only indo-european language of europe without gender) so i would say the grammatical complexity is the primary determining factor rather than an arbitrary distinction of 'skills' such as reading or writing.
Hi, it always amazes me hearing from people like you, thanks to give us hope in ourselves:)And a question: how can you classify the hungarian language which is pretty difficult and unique?Have you tried to study it?Thanks in advance!Viki
Thanks for the video mate ;-) I did however learnt a few things from watching your video. I was surprised however, that you included Finnish language. Because I did hear that the Finnish language is very difficult, and a language that isn't not commonly known worldwide (from my experience). And Finnish is a language that I've always wanted learn bu non-existent from where I live.
I find it still baffling and had no idea that Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic were under Germanic.
Thanks for your comment. I have done some research and I have understood that there are some words that are strikingly similar to English. What I do find difficult however, are the pronunciations of the languages. Although there would be people say it's not difficult to pronounce, but I do find difficult.
Dear Richard, your Knowledge is amazing and your Kindness too (you really gave us/me very useful and important Informations abour Languages' Learning). Please, may I ask you: which Language(s) could/should I concentrate on? Which will be a definitively important Language to speak (for the present Time and) for the Future? Thank you for reading, and thank you for an Answer. Kindest Regards and all the best to you.
I'm going to put the list of languages that you know, and could you tell me to which levels have you reached in each language? 1. French 2. Portuguese 3. Spanish 4. Catalan 5. Welsh 6. Italian 7. German 8. Dutch 9. Swedish 10. Serbian/Bosnian/Croatian 11. Macedonian 12. Russian 13. Czech 14. Romainian 15. Albanian 16. Any other?
If I know how to speak two latin languages fluently, could it be easier for me to learn another? For example: if I know spanish and English would it be easier to learn french?
hola, richard, tengo una pregunta. ¿Si yo se hablar ingles y español como lenguas maternas, me podria facilitar el aprendizaje de otros idiomas latinos. por ejemplo, frances o catalan?
@chibidaniel13 Creo que es mucho mas facil aprender otros idiomas del mismo grupo. Pero hay que tener cuidado porque se mezclan facilmente tambien! ;)
Hi Richard, you seem to be a good person and I was amazed when I saw you speaking 16 languages, I heared Czech which is very very similar to my native language - Slovak...I am studying mandarin now and I would say that it is not so horrible to remember the characters than I expected..also tones are not a big problem if you listen a lot of mp3 s which is my style of studying. I also study Italian, and because I already speak spanish (I was there for 6 months) it is not so difficult.
@temperanceluv81 DUTCH IS BASED OFF ENGLISH AND GERMAN COMBINED. LETS SAY THAT GERMANS COPIED ENGLISH WRONG, BUT THEY GOT GERMAN IN THEIR MINDS, MAKING IT DUTCH. ITS VERY EASY
Cxi-tiu video estas ege informativa. La divido en kategorioj - kompreneble - cxiam rilatas al la nativa lingvo de la lernanto. Tielmanere gxis estas valida por homoj, kiuj havas la anglan kiel gepratra lingvo. Ne cxiuj de miaj lingvoj estas tie klasifikitaj, mankas ekzemple la turka kaj la dana lingvoj. Eble por anglaparolantoj la dana, sveda kaj norvega lingvoj estas same facile lernarblj kiel la franca, itala, hispana kaj portugalaj lingvoj. Fasulye
I have often seen people talk about language training at FSI and DLI, but never before about training in the UK government. So, this was both fresh and informative. Thanks Richard.
If people stopped comparing foreign languages with their own, they'd have a much easier time learning. The idea is to clear the mind and start over. Forget what you knew before. And if you keep thinking, "Oh, this language has a hard script," or "the grammar is strange", you're probably going to hurt your own progress since that's placing a mental block. Every language is unique and has its own rhythm. Get "inside" the language and progress will come naturally.
I would have to disagree with the five levels for English speakers. Personally, I think it varies from person to person. And I've known people who have had an easier time learning Cantonese than French... every language has its own challenges. Instead of 'difficult' and 'easy', I would label them by similarities with English, because that's really what we're looking at. Interest, motivation, experience, environment, and learning styles also play huge parts. It's not black and white.
@77AdHominem Motivation is a HUGE element in language learning. The idea for this video was to set out what things people typically find challenging when learning a language and why. The FCO uses this to indicate how many hours of training are required to attain a certain level in a language. To be able to function in French for an English speaker requires much less training than for that person to function in Mandarin and the main reason is to do with our shared vocabulary.
Cool video! It's interesting to see how the levels differ slightly compared to the Foreign Service Institute's language rankings. Supposedly Korean was a notch above Arabic, Chinese and Japanese, which were classified as the highest difficulty languages.
@AvanRJ Glad you liked it. I am not sure if the information is published anywhere. The generic list I have seen is not exhaustive though. I could add some more languages to the list, but I am unsure on where all languages fit in the classes. Even within the classes there are some languages that English speakers will find easier to learn than others of course. As pointed out by 77AdHominem, motivation is the biggest help to learn any language! :)
@LearningFrenchNow Thanks for the nice comment. Glad you liked the video Now I have been revisiting some Mandarin and Japanese recently and I have just spent a couple of months in Prague, speaking Czech. I am also getting ready to speak Albanian again and improve my Turkish and Greek. :)
the hardest language I learnt so far was japanese because of the script and the order of the words is completely alien ! So different from chinese or french...
One of the most difficult to pronunce would be cantonese and polish xD
In my experience as a language learner, the hardest language has been Finnish. This is obviously on account of the compexity of the grammar. On the other hand, I do not find Mandarin all that difficult. As far as the characters are concerned, it simply takes time to learn them, but once mastered, a reader such as myself can recognize them within a flash. Cantanese impresses me as a far more difficult language than Mandarin.
I think the biggest hurdle for most people is pronunciation. I've managed to wrap my head around some really complex grammatical structures; you mentioned Finnish, which I've done a fair amount of study with. I can do grammar, but I have a very hard time with, for example, tones.
On a side note, I find Japanese to be rather easy, myself, so there's a bit of a personal, what comes natural to you type of thing there.
Well... I'm a native romanian speaker but I traveled a lot, I had to speak other languages...Now I speak romanian, french, english and dutch... I also want to learn swedish, korean (I already know to write and read korean) & japanese. I find korean really easy, I never studied it at school, I studied it at home by watching korean dramas and movies.
RuxandraLee 1 day ago
Cual es el idioma mas descriptivo(por ejemplo en un libro, poder facilmente imaginar una escena tiempos si es mujer o hombre cuantos son etc)? y el mas contextual(un idioma el cual dependa de la situacion en la cual se habla "And then along comes Mary, and does she want to give me kicks, and be my steady chick" ves cuando esta escrito no se sabe que sentido tiene pero si este idioma se habla se puede deducir lo que quiere decir)?
zungaloca 2 weeks ago
I speak English,French and Creole currently learning korean...any advice?
TheFamous35 3 weeks ago
@TheFamous35 Get a Korean girlfriend. The are smoking hot.
gasto5 11 hours ago
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@TheFamous35 Get a Korean girlfriend. The are hot.
gasto5 11 hours ago
Albanian is the most beautiful language ever! Serbian is the worst.
appleism100 3 weeks ago
¿Cuál es el idioma mas fácil de aprender siendo español?
Which is the easiest language to learn as a native Spanish speaker? :)
I find French, German and Català the easiest ones. I also love Portuguese and Italian but I find them more difficult lol
Alejandro3245 1 month ago
I'm learning both Korean and Spanish. For some reason I've learned more Korean in less than a year outside of school than I have after taking 2 years of Spanish in school. I find that b/c Korean grammar and their writing system is so much more logical than English or Spanish that it just makes more sense to me. While when I sit in Spanish class learning all these conjugations based on the subject and stuff I'm always questioning why they make it so complicated. Then I start questioning English!
misdreavus2vulpix 1 month ago
@misdreavus2vulpix Me too, In 12 years of studying English, I haven't learned that much English in school than from TV and movies, being a native Romanian. Now even Italian which I am trying to learn is more difficult than English:))
razvanalex07 3 weeks ago
And have you noticed that many a sentence in Mandarin follows the word order pattern of English so that one does not have to be the proverbial rocket scientist to dope out the meaning of a sentence? I also have observed that languages like Latin and Ancient Greek are extremely difficult because inflection trumps word order such that one feels at sea trying to figure out what ending means what in a given word! Yet the radical system used to look up words in Chinese is also hideously difficult.
spikeitfool1 1 month ago
I'm dyslexic and have studied many languages and for some reason I find Mandarin to be the easiest of them all. Although the grammar was very simple and straight forward, I found the writing to be the easiest part about learning Mandarin. In a European language I read very slowly, I can't remember what I've just read when i get to the end of a page, yet with Mandarin there's no problem, I read at a fast speed and can remember everything I've read. Is this the same for other dyslexics too? :S
yasashii89 1 month ago
@yasashii89 I agree, Mandarin Chinese pinyin has a very straight-forward system in grammar. Some people find the tones to be very hard though, but I have never had that problem.
AlimeProductions 1 month ago
in what class does Persian/Farsi fall in?
soccerruben1 2 months ago in playlist More videos from Torbyrne
@soccerruben1 I believe Persian was in class 3 as it is Indo-European. :)
Torbyrne 2 months ago
@Torbyrne oh okay,thanks
soccerruben1 2 months ago
IM NATIVE ENGLISH SPEEKER BUT IM SERBIAN
toughserb145 2 months ago
CLASS 1: CHINEESE, JAPENESE, KOREAN, MONGOLIAN.
CLASS 2: ARABIC, PERSIAN, GREEK, AZERBAIJANI
CLASS 3: SPANISH, PORTUGESE, FINNISH, GERMAN
CLASS 4: FRENCH, DUTCH, NORWEIGN, DANISH
CLASS 5: SERBIAN, POLISH
toughserb145 2 months ago
Class 1 languages would be:1.Lao language,2.Khmer language,3.Vietnamese language,4.Thai language.Cantonese,Mandarin,Japanese and Korean do belong to this group too.The hardest five would be:1.Vietnamese,2.Korean,3.Lao,4.Cantonese and 5.Mongolian.The sixth one would be Khmer.Thats the true standing of these languages.
Loveasitoncewas 2 months ago
How about Swedish?
Sthlmsodra87 2 months ago
@Sthlmsodra87 Swedish was a class 5 language together with Danish and Norwegian. :)
Torbyrne 2 months ago
@Torbyrne Okay! I'm just wondering, as for a swede or a norweigan. We can have a full conversation with each other in our own language and fully understand what the other person is saying. But how was it for you as a person from England? Did you see the similarities in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish? :)
Sthlmsodra87 2 months ago
@Sthlmsodra87 The similarities between Swedish, Danish and Norwegian are quite striking to an English native when studying any one of the three. The written forms are more similar than the spoken language. Danish and New Norwegian sound less familiar from learning Swedish. If you have access to a native from Skane though (which I did), then Danish doesn't sound so strange. Bokmal for me is too similar to Swedish to speak both well and when I was in Oslo I just used Swedish. :)
Torbyrne 2 months ago
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Hi. I was wondering where Hungarian would fall in these categories for a native English speaker? I am trying to learn Hungarian and it seems very very difficult and different and I've heard that it is somewhat related to Finnish and Estonian? Would this mean it is about a class 3 or 4? Thanks.
banditogirl197 2 months ago
You listed Greek as being not so far away from English, you listed it as being easier than the slavic languages. I have always been lead to believe that Greek is an incredibly difficult language to learn but Russian is not that difficult to get ones head around.
mty1 2 months ago
@mty1 Much vocabulary in English has come from Greek (especially medical terminology), which helps. Also Greek cases are nowhere near as complicated as they are in the Slavic tongues. :)
Torbyrne 2 months ago
I hear that English is extremely hard for foreigners to learn because English has WAY more words than most languages and also because of learning when to use the words like "the", "it", "a", "an" or something along those lines. I believe that since English is "difficult" to foreigners, native English speakers should be great at learning other languages. I still struggle with my English grammar today, and I'm a native.
AlimeProductions 2 months ago
@AlimeProductions I think how hard English is to learn depends on who is learning it. English is easy to speak at a basic level for sure because you learn a word and it hardly changes for you to use it in any way you like. The difficulty comes with spelling in English, than and getting the verb tenses right in my experience with non-native speakers. If you're a Slavic language speaker, you could find the definite article a problem too, I suppose... :)
Torbyrne 2 months ago
@Torbyrne I agree. Spanish speakers or German speakers may find it easier than Russian speakers. Basic English sentences are probably very easy. But once you start getting into like high school, college or business levels of English that's probably when it gets difficult. From a native English speaker's point of view I think Japanese and Russian are very hard. Japanese has long words and difficult grammar in it and Russian has some very long words and difficult pronunciation.
AlimeProductions 2 months ago
@AlimeProductions
Japanese has a very complicated system of writing. More complicated than in chinese.
Grammar can be very hard if you want to talk fluently.
So, it is the hardest language of all.
interlingua2 1 month ago 2
@interlingua2 Yes, I agree. Mandarin Chinese is easy to me, I think what makes it difficult for most people is that it's a tonal language and it's got a very different writing system than English. I have never had a problem with tones though, just remembering some of the characters. What makes Chinese easy is that grammar is very simple and it's a monosyllablic language.
AlimeProductions 1 month ago
@interlingua2 Chinese is way harder writing-wise than Japanese. Pinyin is not built into sentences like japanese uses in its writing system. So a person could make an educated guess as to the meaning of a Japanese sentence without knowing any characters, whereas one must memorize each and every character.
spikeitfool1 1 month ago
I believe that different categories of a certain language are harder than other. Reading and writing, grammar, proficiency and pronunciation. I find Mandarin Chinese to be very easy in grammar and pronunciation, but remembering and writing some of the characters is very hard.
AlimeProductions 2 months ago
what class would maltese be?
ilovenick1234567890 3 months ago
@ilovenick1234567890 My guess is that Maltese would fit into the same group as it's other Semitic relatives (Class 2), though I imagine it would be easier with the HUGE range of words from Italian, French and English, which litter the language, so it could be Class 3 perhaps. Also using the Latin script is a big advantage to an English-speaker. :)
Torbyrne 2 months ago
More videos please!
FaPnyc 3 months ago
Try to speak Slovene!If you are not from Slovenia you'll NEVER speak right!Example i'm studying Russian and i have a Russian teacher that lives in Slovenia for about 14y. and she still can't speak fluent Slovene(and both languages are Slavic).We have 100% saved dual, many word bendings, 3 genders(maybe all Slavic languages have that), A LOT of verbs,word extensions, and we say(not write) these letters: ó,ô,á,â,ă,î,í,.... and u have to KNOW them to say them right:gori,gôrí,goŕí,...
Zanislav100 3 months ago
@Zanislav100 I have yet to meet a person who could fool me into being a native English speaker either for a full conversation and English is the most widely studied language on the planet. I can well believe you have not met a foreign able to convince you that he/she is a native Slovene speaker. :)
Torbyrne 2 months ago
is serbian hard because i've been studying serbian for 2 years now and its not exactly easy :/
sweenkingandwow2 4 months ago
@sweenkingandwow2 EASY
toughserb145 2 months ago
@sweenkingandwow2 The first Slavic language does seem to take longer to get to grips with. I had a similar feeling with Czech (my first of the group), but it is a case of plugging away at it and you start turning corners in the language, seeing patterns, repeating them and it eventually comes. Good luck with it! :)
Torbyrne 2 months ago
@Torbyrne thanks :D
sweenkingandwow2 2 months ago
Again youre extremely clear in explaining and extremely schematic. I like ur style`!
MegaLanguagelover 4 months ago
Interesting. I learnt French and German in high school but I found French a lot harder to learn. I am learning Korean now and it seems second nature to me.
samgower 5 months ago
@samgower I have heard a lot from people that they find it easier to learn Asian languages over European ones. It is interesting to see this and I can see many reasons for it. First of all it depends on what draws you to a language or culture and also how the language suits your style of thinking too. Sometimes a class 1 language just might may more sense to you as a native English speaker. Good on you for taking on Korean! Good luck with your studies! :)
Torbyrne 2 months ago 2
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TheMartikaa 5 months ago
catalan is a spanish dialect just like galician,the spanish we speak today in latin america as an official language and in spain itself is called castillian,many of the words that we use come from arabic due to our islamic heritage for example,almohada(pillow) alambre,albanil, ojala which its original form in arabic would be incha alla which means if god wants,though of course it has a great deal of influence from latin explaining why some words in english resemble words in spanish,great video
leomend92 5 months ago
@leomend92 How could a dialect be the official language of an european country? In any case Catalan will be a dialect of latin.... I suppose Portuguese is a spanish dialect as well, right?
sweetdurian29 4 months ago
@sweetdurian29 ok lets put it like this,spain and portugal were once the same nation,there was no differenciation until they splitapart from spain,spain is a country madeup ofdifferent kingdoms just like portugal for example,each kingdom speaks theirown variation or dialect,what people today call spanish,is castellian,which is the language ofthe kingdom that took over the rest and established that dialect as the official language of the country,spain haslatin andarabic roots,including catalonia
leomend92 4 months ago
@leomend92 you still haven't responded my question... (how could a dialect be the oficial language of a country?) :/ also, according to you, basque is a "spanish" dialect... please tell me the dialectal differences between Basque and Spanish?
sweetdurian29 4 months ago
@sweetdurian29 yes i did answer your question,if i speak basque to someone who speaks castillian(what everyone calls spanish) the person who im speaking towould probably understand 50 % of what im saying depending on how similar his dialect is to mine,let me giveyou an example,inthe US manylanguages are spoken,but english is the official language,now you get it?the samehappens in spain,many languages or dialects,however you want to call it,but one is the official,which everyone knows how tospeak
leomend92 4 months ago
@leomend92 oh I see, so in Europe, we have english, which is the official language of europe (isnt it?) and then we have the european dialects? Spanish, french, lithuanian, czech, hungarian, etc..etc.. now I get it. Sorry Im so behind :/
sweetdurian29 4 months ago
@sweetdurian29 a dialect is a provincial, rural, or socially distinct variety of a language that differs from the standard language,the standard language of spain is castillian because is the one spoken by everybody,but for example catala is not spoken by everyone,just by a certain group that lives in a certain region,the same with galego which is spoken by another group of people who live in the same country but a different area,any better? :)
leomend92 4 months ago
@leomend92 but catalan is not provincial, is the unique official language of a country (Andorra). I don't know about Galician (to me it sounds like plain spanish). Basque is a unique language of what is now a mere colonised region within the spanish kingdom (same as Catalonia) and has absolutely NOTHING to do with any other language in the world WHATSOEVER. In any case, use the term "regional language". If you say "dialect", the dialect should be fully understood by the coloniser.
sweetdurian29 4 months ago
@sweetdurian29 no,catalan is the language of catalonia,but they also speak castillian,many of my old relatives come from there,also from canary islands and from galicia,even my last name (menduina ) is the name of a town there,oh and im cuban but my family is from spain :),how about you,where are you from?
leomend92 4 months ago
by the way, whereabout in China are you from? :)
sweetdurian29 4 months ago
@sweetdurian29 no,i dont think that english is the official language of europe,neither the rest of the other languages are dialects because for that to happen europe would have to be a single country and have english as the official language,though english is in fact the most spoken language in the world,not only because there were many english colonies,also because its very easy to learn compared to most languages,i know its complicated lol
leomend92 4 months ago
Respond to this video... still dont get it? you got to read some of spain's history relating that topic so you can understand better,thats my suggestion
leomend92 4 months ago
@sweetdurian29 oh and all the iberic peninsula (spain and portugal)has a great deal of latin influence,catala,galego,aragones,basco,those are some of the dialects that are still spoken in spain
leomend92 4 months ago
This helped me categorize the different types of languages really well, thanks Richard. I'm learning Swedish at the moment and even though Swedish wasn't categorized with the other languages, you mentioned that the english language is a germanic language, and shares a lot of words with the dutch and swedish languages. So I'm guessing (correct me if I'm wrong) it would be categorized with the class 5 languages.
TheKnowingLinguist 6 months ago
@TheKnowingLinguist Glad you found it of use. You are right, Swedish would be in class 5. :)
Torbyrne 6 months ago
Ok dude, I admire you, I study languages hard, your advices are cool, but, why is this video so cut?
elcodigo92 6 months ago
@elcodigo92 Thanks for your kind words. I like to cut to the chase. No need to make this video 10 minutes long. I was experimenting with video styles and this is how it turned out. No more to it than that really. :)
Torbyrne 6 months ago
Но русский - не совсем просто
MoscowMaestro 6 months ago
A magyar nyelv melyikbe tartozna?
1dafman1 7 months ago
@1dafman1 Hungarian would be a class 2 language with the others of its kind, Finnish and Estonian. :)
Torbyrne 6 months ago
which class would persian be ranked?
ChatrboxCB 7 months ago
@ChatrboxCB Class 4
ConlangFan 6 months ago
@ChatrboxCB Like Arabic, what he meant was "arabic languages"
elcodigo92 6 months ago
@ChatrboxCB I am not sure on the classifications for all languages, but from memory, I believe it was a class 3 language because it is Indo-European with some tough bits in it for native English-speakers. :)
Torbyrne 6 months ago
Wie lange brauchtest du eine Sprache zu erlernen??1 2 oder3 Jahre??Danke
TheMartikaa 7 months ago
Muy bueno tu vídeo y las clasificaciones son perfectas, saludos.
xxxxDazaxxxx 8 months ago
Right about Japanese... sheesh it's a toughie for a native Brit... But then again I was also cr$p at French at school...
nanarockband 8 months ago
@plaid4u no 1 told me anything, I jus know it cuz i live in Filey!! we jus pronounce "ng" like a special and long n, i've never heard a hard g as in this vid!!
giulicoldplay 8 months ago
@giulicoldplay
he is not wrong. you can say it either way.
iTresJolie 6 months ago
In what class would you set Swedish at?
ojjenajt 8 months ago 2
@ojjenajt Swedish is class 5 in this system :)
Torbyrne 6 months ago
Euskaraz badakizu? :D
VisualDrone12 8 months ago
Why do you pronunce the g in verbs like "writing", "reading" os "speaking"??
giulicoldplay 9 months ago
@giulicoldplay Because that's how you pronounce them?
DrMurphy65 8 months ago
@DrMurphy65 no, it isn't!! u pronounce them with a special and long "n" sound at the end of the word, but there's no fuckin "g" sound!!
giulicoldplay 8 months ago
@giulicoldplay
Maybe where you're from, but as standard English (which is very rare these days) that is how you pronounce them. Richard obviously has a very linguistical mind so his spoken English is more pure. If you talked to the royal family, this is how they'd pronounce the words. Standard English. Maybe you should write better to understand the English words more and it's pronounciation, it'd be a start.
DrMurphy65 8 months ago
@DrMurphy65 you're wrong, i wirte like that because i use youtube mobile, so writing well is very hard for me. however...yes, what you said may be true
giulicoldplay 8 months ago
class 0... navajo and other native american languages. grammar makes no sense at all!
leshark 9 months ago
I'm a native US English speaker and I'm learning what you consider one of the hardest languages for a native English speaker in Class 1: Korean (Hangeul).
nxr064 9 months ago
I find this quite amusing actually cx
oddly enough, i'm a native english speaker and i happen to have all but operational fluency in Korean, Cantonese, and Japanese, and i don't speak french or italian etc...
xiibu 10 months ago
Hey, can you help me to learn japanese? Do you have any tips for that particular language, any resources you know? Blagodaria! Ia iz Bugarsko
gorba4ov 10 months ago
@gorba4ov Мерси. Не зная много добре, ама Лука (poliglotta80) се уча сега тази език. Си мисля, че он има подобра идея од мене за японският. Всичко найхубаво! :)
Torbyrne 6 months ago
What about African or Polynesian families? You gave almost a romance/Germanic vs. Sanskrit/Asiatic discussion. In terms of difficulty, you left out a large chunk of the smaller languages. It is somewhat sad because these same languages are the ones most likely to die very soon in the future.
R1ckr011 11 months ago
@R1ckr011 I agree, it is sad when any language is on the decline. From what I remember, they are not all in the same classes, but you have to consider that in the Foreign Office people tend to learn the more widely spoken languages as they prepare for overseas missions. I remember that Bislama for example was in class 5, but the lists here are definitely not exhaustive.
Torbyrne 6 months ago
Absolutely brilliant! Thank you very much for this. I think I'm going to get started learning Dutch soon!
TheUkrainianDubya 11 months ago
interesting, but the editing in this video is really distracting!
Soymilllk 11 months ago
Hi I was wondering where Turkish would fall in these categories for a native English speaker? I am trying to learn Turkish and it seems very very different and I have heard that it is closely related to finnish? Would this mean it is about a class 2? Thanks
AlysDaisy 11 months ago
@AlysDaisy I believe Turkish was a class 3 language. The vocabulary and grammar is alien to a native English speaker, but it is a fairly regular language, i.e. there are not many exceptions compared to other languages.
Torbyrne 6 months ago
Richard you're amazing....!
Your tips are really useful....!
Greetings ^^
TheSchleierhaft 11 months ago
you have a dead pixel in your camera- it can also be seen in other videos of yours.
kittykatro 1 year ago
It was very interesting. Thank you for this Video!
a3519 1 year ago
I'm trying to learn Arabic and Korean, this video makes me sad.
granolabranborg 1 year ago
@granolabranborg Currently trying to learn Japanese and Mandarin. I feel your pain. That said it`s fun so who cares.
DracoTheBlack 1 year ago
Before watching this I classed the difficulty of learning foreign languages based on hearsay... but that was very educational
BaddestJournalism 1 year ago
Gotta make one really important point. There are FIVE areas of language skill, the ones you give PLUS hearing, that is to say, understanding a conversation between speakers of a language not designed for your benefit, but theirs. If a French person is taliking to you, allowing for your foreigness he's very easy to understand, when he turns to a frenchman he'll almost switch to a new language. Mastering this, hearing, is the last, and hardest skill
dimgwalltameiben 1 year ago
@dimgwalltameiben i've always found that the most difficult thing. i can speak dutch and german at pretty good levels but sometimes when i hear how they speak with one another i think wtf! is there anyway of improving this for me?
dellboid 10 months ago
@dimgwalltameiben I think that falls under listening, just a much higher proficiency in it.
therealonethistime 8 months ago
few languages have been structurally reduced to the same extent as english (for example it's the only indo-european language of europe without gender) so i would say the grammatical complexity is the primary determining factor rather than an arbitrary distinction of 'skills' such as reading or writing.
brandoscostumes 1 year ago
i thaught dutch was very hard to learn for english native people
Gargopallet16 1 year ago
Hi, it always amazes me hearing from people like you, thanks to give us hope in ourselves:)And a question: how can you classify the hungarian language which is pretty difficult and unique?Have you tried to study it?Thanks in advance!Viki
vikike0213 1 year ago
Great video Richard!
Chezrocksall 1 year ago
what about icelandic??
28ZappY 1 year ago
Comment removed
thundernuts0 1 year ago
@28ZappY Icelandic is in class 3 I believe because it is the most complicated of all the Germanic tongues spoken in the world today. :)
Torbyrne 6 months ago
I hate chinese characters. They make it so ahrd to learn korean/chinese/japanese... Well unless you ignore the writting system.
raydredX 1 year ago
Thanks for the upload Richard
It was very informative and helpful =)
GamerFreak186 1 year ago
Thanks for the video mate ;-) I did however learnt a few things from watching your video. I was surprised however, that you included Finnish language. Because I did hear that the Finnish language is very difficult, and a language that isn't not commonly known worldwide (from my experience). And Finnish is a language that I've always wanted learn bu non-existent from where I live.
I find it still baffling and had no idea that Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic were under Germanic.
Higginsonje 1 year ago
@Higginsonje Really? Swedish and Norwegian are surprisingly similar to English.
hazzystan 1 year ago
Thanks for your comment. I have done some research and I have understood that there are some words that are strikingly similar to English. What I do find difficult however, are the pronunciations of the languages. Although there would be people say it's not difficult to pronounce, but I do find difficult.
Higginsonje 1 year ago
Dear Richard, your Knowledge is amazing and your Kindness too (you really gave us/me very useful and important Informations abour Languages' Learning). Please, may I ask you: which Language(s) could/should I concentrate on? Which will be a definitively important Language to speak (for the present Time and) for the Future? Thank you for reading, and thank you for an Answer. Kindest Regards and all the best to you.
Swisrya 1 year ago
In which class is LATIN included?
TheBallCommunity 1 year ago
@TheBallCommunity Indo-european
wowwowwiwow 1 year ago
@TheBallCommunity I am not 100% on Latin's classification, but if I had to guess I would say class 3. :)
Torbyrne 6 months ago
jlspma 1 year ago
If I know how to speak two latin languages fluently, could it be easier for me to learn another? For example: if I know spanish and English would it be easier to learn french?
Thanks a lot
chibidaniel13 1 year ago
hola, richard, tengo una pregunta. ¿Si yo se hablar ingles y español como lenguas maternas, me podria facilitar el aprendizaje de otros idiomas latinos. por ejemplo, frances o catalan?
Thank you so much
chibidaniel13 1 year ago
@chibidaniel13 Creo que es mucho mas facil aprender otros idiomas del mismo grupo. Pero hay que tener cuidado porque se mezclan facilmente tambien! ;)
Torbyrne 6 months ago
zmrzlinář is even more difficult, and try to say: strč prst skrz krk ( poke finger through the neck), nice video
MegaMagorian 1 year ago
Excuse me but could I ask you where you would place Welsh on that list?
plaidzinc 1 year ago
one thing Richard armenian is also hard to learn cuz their wriiting systems and speaking
soccerruben1 1 year ago
I have a video on YouTube where I am speaking 38 languages that I am fluent in. Please check it out and post a comment or two. Thanks.
Chezrocksall 1 year ago
where would you insert portuguese?
owela 1 year ago
@owela That would be with French, Italian and Spanish. Those are all Romance (Latin based) languages, as he mentions.
yurismir1 1 year ago
Hi Richard, you seem to be a good person and I was amazed when I saw you speaking 16 languages, I heared Czech which is very very similar to my native language - Slovak...I am studying mandarin now and I would say that it is not so horrible to remember the characters than I expected..also tones are not a big problem if you listen a lot of mp3 s which is my style of studying. I also study Italian, and because I already speak spanish (I was there for 6 months) it is not so difficult.
OZwizard64 1 year ago
why is dutch easier to learn than german if english is a germanic language.
Is it because of Der Die and Das as definite articles?
temperanceluv81 1 year ago
@temperanceluv81 Dutch is also Germanic.
FramesPerMinute 1 year ago
@temperanceluv81 You are exactly right, German is considered harder than Dutch for English speakers to learn because of the cases. :)
Torbyrne 6 months ago
@temperanceluv81 DUTCH IS BASED OFF ENGLISH AND GERMAN COMBINED. LETS SAY THAT GERMANS COPIED ENGLISH WRONG, BUT THEY GOT GERMAN IN THEIR MINDS, MAKING IT DUTCH. ITS VERY EASY
toughserb145 2 months ago
Hey Richard please check out my profile and post comments. I speak 38 languages fluently.
Chezrocksall 1 year ago
Needless to say, it is difficult for us Japanese to master only one western language because it is alien to us.
But we have the most difficult language as our native tongue at the same time.
I wonder if it is lucky or unlucky.
Anyway, your video is very helpful.
Thank you.
mydearcassandra 1 year ago
Muchas gracias Richard, por compartir esta valiosa informacion,
saludos desde Chile.
student01online 1 year ago
Cxi-tiu video estas ege informativa. La divido en kategorioj - kompreneble - cxiam rilatas al la nativa lingvo de la lernanto. Tielmanere gxis estas valida por homoj, kiuj havas la anglan kiel gepratra lingvo. Ne cxiuj de miaj lingvoj estas tie klasifikitaj, mankas ekzemple la turka kaj la dana lingvoj. Eble por anglaparolantoj la dana, sveda kaj norvega lingvoj estas same facile lernarblj kiel la franca, itala, hispana kaj portugalaj lingvoj. Fasulye
Fasulye2009 1 year ago
I really liked the video!! thanks! Do you know where I could find a more complete list of the languages already classified in these five groups?
rickjuniorable 1 year ago
I have often seen people talk about language training at FSI and DLI, but never before about training in the UK government. So, this was both fresh and informative. Thanks Richard.
FluentCzech 1 year ago
@FluentCzech Thanks Anthony. Glad you liked it. :)
Torbyrne 1 year ago
If people stopped comparing foreign languages with their own, they'd have a much easier time learning. The idea is to clear the mind and start over. Forget what you knew before. And if you keep thinking, "Oh, this language has a hard script," or "the grammar is strange", you're probably going to hurt your own progress since that's placing a mental block. Every language is unique and has its own rhythm. Get "inside" the language and progress will come naturally.
77AdHominem 1 year ago
I would have to disagree with the five levels for English speakers. Personally, I think it varies from person to person. And I've known people who have had an easier time learning Cantonese than French... every language has its own challenges. Instead of 'difficult' and 'easy', I would label them by similarities with English, because that's really what we're looking at. Interest, motivation, experience, environment, and learning styles also play huge parts. It's not black and white.
77AdHominem 1 year ago
@77AdHominem Motivation is a HUGE element in language learning. The idea for this video was to set out what things people typically find challenging when learning a language and why. The FCO uses this to indicate how many hours of training are required to attain a certain level in a language. To be able to function in French for an English speaker requires much less training than for that person to function in Mandarin and the main reason is to do with our shared vocabulary.
Torbyrne 1 year ago
Thanks for this enlightment, good luck!
heroedelahistoria 1 year ago
Cool video! It's interesting to see how the levels differ slightly compared to the Foreign Service Institute's language rankings. Supposedly Korean was a notch above Arabic, Chinese and Japanese, which were classified as the highest difficulty languages.
qzchris 1 year ago
You always shine when it comes to foreign languages Richard. Luca
poliglotta80 1 year ago 10
@poliglotta80 Grazie Luca. Sei mitico! :)
Torbyrne 1 year ago 2
Comment removed
MRfliptrick 1 year ago
cool video!
TheChaxiu 1 year ago
Very kool video.
zocurtis 1 year ago
Quite interesting video! Thank you.
AndreR241 1 year ago
thanks for doing the video.interesting for sure.
meyiyiyi55 1 year ago
Thanks for such a neat video 8)
Mogan44 1 year ago
Amazing video, Richard, thanks a lot for uploading it.
Is there a way we can have access to this information from the British Foreign Office, like a website or a book, for example?
AvanRJ 1 year ago
@AvanRJ Glad you liked it. I am not sure if the information is published anywhere. The generic list I have seen is not exhaustive though. I could add some more languages to the list, but I am unsure on where all languages fit in the classes. Even within the classes there are some languages that English speakers will find easier to learn than others of course. As pointed out by 77AdHominem, motivation is the biggest help to learn any language! :)
Torbyrne 1 year ago
Richard, great video. What language(s) are you currently studying?
LearningFrenchNow 1 year ago
@LearningFrenchNow Thanks for the nice comment. Glad you liked the video Now I have been revisiting some Mandarin and Japanese recently and I have just spent a couple of months in Prague, speaking Czech. I am also getting ready to speak Albanian again and improve my Turkish and Greek. :)
Torbyrne 1 year ago
very interesting video
PhinnyCobbler 1 year ago
Nice video !!!
the hardest language I learnt so far was japanese because of the script and the order of the words is completely alien ! So different from chinese or french...
One of the most difficult to pronunce would be cantonese and polish xD
loki2504 1 year ago
Great video, like always!
In my experience as a language learner, the hardest language has been Finnish. This is obviously on account of the compexity of the grammar. On the other hand, I do not find Mandarin all that difficult. As far as the characters are concerned, it simply takes time to learn them, but once mastered, a reader such as myself can recognize them within a flash. Cantanese impresses me as a far more difficult language than Mandarin.
alkantre 1 year ago
Would Xhosa be considered a class one or two I wonder?
socalguy2186 1 year ago
Thank you for this video it really clears things up!
MrFremdsprache 1 year ago
That's a great break down Richard!
thelinguistblogger 1 year ago
I think the biggest hurdle for most people is pronunciation. I've managed to wrap my head around some really complex grammatical structures; you mentioned Finnish, which I've done a fair amount of study with. I can do grammar, but I have a very hard time with, for example, tones.
On a side note, I find Japanese to be rather easy, myself, so there's a bit of a personal, what comes natural to you type of thing there.
barkatthemoon6 1 year ago
Great video here Mr. Simcott. Thanks for posting it for us.
laoshu505000 1 year ago
@laoshu505000 Thanks Moses. It's nice to hear people find this video useful. :)
Torbyrne 1 year ago
I think over 50% of English words are derived from Latin and only 10% is left from its Germanic ancestor.
And what about African languages such as Swahili, Wolof, Zulu. What levels would those be in?
Codylangaugesblog 1 year ago
@Codylangaugesblog I'm sure your percentages are off by quite a lot.
Korpikotka 1 year ago
@Korpikotka they actually aren't.
Codylangaugesblog 1 year ago