10 Hardest Languages in the World to Learn (2025)

Language difficulty is highly subjective and depends on a learner’s native language, linguistic background, and prior exposure. What makes a language hard to learn depends on your linguistic background and the target language’s structure. For example, as an English speaker, it will take you considerably less time to learn French and Spanish (considering they also use the Latin script) compared to Korean or Arabic (which use a logographic system).

But here are some factors that might affect the difficulty of a language:

Phonology

Tonal languages like Mandarin demand distinguishing pitch variations that can change meaning, which is cognitively taxing for non-tonal language speakers.

Orthological Distance

Orthological distance refers to the difference between the language’s writing system and the learner’s native script. Languages like Mandarin, Chinese, and Arabic require you to master new alphabets, logograms, or abjads, which adds significant cognitive load. Additionally, decoding unfamiliar scripts slows down both reading and writing progress, making it further difficult. 

Morphology

Highly inflected languages such as Hungarian or Finnish have dozens of cases, requiring learners to internalize complex rules.

Syntax

Differences in word order (SVO vs. SOV) can feel alien, e.g., English vs. Japanese.

Writing Systems: Learners moving from alphabetic to logographic systems (like Chinese) face a steeper memory load.

Lexical Similarity 

Lexical similarity refers to the shared vocabulary between your native tongue and the target/desired language. For instance, languages like Korean and Hungarian have little overlapping vocabulary with English, which requires you to learn thousands of new words and their meanings, making the process difficult and time-consuming for you. 

Cultural and Sociolinguistic Context 

Understanding a language means that you’ll also have to master its cultural dimensions, such as idioms, humor, and other context-driven expressions. Languages like Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin have thousands of different meanings for a single word depending on the tone, context, and expression. To learn these nuances, you will also have to be aware of the different social conventions of their society, which may be difficult in the beginning. 

Each language presents unique challenges, such as unfamiliar alphabets, tonal pronunciation, grammatical cases, and writing systems. Languages like Mandarin, Japanese, and Arabic are considered to be among the most difficult languages by FSI. Want to know why? 

Here's a detailed list of the toughest languages in the world and the challenges they pose: 

According to the U.S Foreign Service Institute, Mandarin Chinese is statistically called the most difficult language for English speakers, and requires an average of 2,220 classroom hours for proficiency. Additionally, it has more than 50,000+ unique logograms compared to the 26 English letters.

Let’s discuss each of the difficult languages in detail:

Mandarin 

If you want to study in China, learning Mandarin is useful. Mandarin presents a unique mix of challenges for English speakers with its tonal, logographic, pronunciation, and dialectical difficulties.. This complexity comes from its multiple systems that differ sharply from English, with almost no cognitive similarities between the two languages. Let us explore some of the key challenges and key phases in Mandarin in detail. 

Key Challenges of Learning Mandarin. 

Here are some of the structural and grammatical quirks of Mandarin, which make it especially difficult for English speakers to learn:

• Tonal Language: Mandarin uses four distinct tones, which means the wrong pitch can potentially change the meaning of the word. Contrary to Mandarin, English is not a tonal language, making ear training and speech training important. 
• Complex Writing System: Mandarin relies on thousands of logographic characters, with each character carrying a different meaning and complex phonetic alphabetical structure. 
• Pronunciation Difficulties: Mandarin has sounds that do not exist in English, like zh, q, x, and c. As a beginner, it might be difficult for you to differentiate and pronounce correctly. 
• Grammar and Sentence Structure: Although Mandarin grammar can be straightforward, the word order and context-driven sentence construction differ greatly from English, making it difficult. 

Essential Phrases 

Here are some of the essential phrases in Mandarin Chinese that cover greeting, common questions, shopping, and directions: 

Arabic 

Arabic is uniquely complex for its different writing style, sound production, vocabulary distance, and dialect variation, with certain Arabic sounds not even existing in English. Moreover, the unfamiliar verb pattern and the noun-adjective rule make it difficult to master as a non-native speaker. Here are some of the difficulties and unique Arabic phrases for you to master. 

Key Challenges of Learning Arabic

Multiple features of Arabic, like its writing style, speaking, and listening requirements, make it a formidable language. Here are some of the major points of difficulty in learning Arabic: 

• Distinct Script: Arabic uses a script completely different from the Latin alphabet, written right to left. Each letter in the language changes shape depending on the position in a word. 
• Pronunciation: Arabic includes several sounds, which are entirely alien to English. For instance, the emphatic consonants used in Arabic are not found in English, demanding new mouth and throat movements. 
• Diglossia: The formal Arabic is majorly different from the Arabic spoken regionally and locally, which can make you confused as a new learner. Additionally, you might find yourself learning two sets of vocabulary and rules, making it overwhelming and confusing for you. 
• Zero Shared Vocabulary: Arabic and English have almost zero shared cognates, making the learning process slow and time-consuming. 

Essential Phrases

Here are some of the essential phrases in Arabic that cover common questions and greetings that come in handy to any beginner: 

Japanese

Japanese is a demanding language due to several factors, including its three sets of alphabets, tonal differences, and accent. Additionally, Japanese includes many levels of politeness and honorifics, which add layers of complexity to word choice and sentence construction. Let us understand a few more aspects of the language in detail. 

Key Challenges of Learning Japanese

Even motivated learners of Japanese are intimidated by the three writing systems, the unique grammar structure, and its levels of politeness. Here's a detailed understanding of some of these challenges: 

• Sentence Structure: Japanese sentence structure generally follows subject-object-verb order, unlike the subject-verb-object order followed in English. This makes the sentence structure difficult for you to grasp. 
• Pronunciation: Pronunciation can be a daunting aspect of the language as it includes a lot of homophones, and the wrong pitch can alter the entire meaning of the sentence. 
• Complex Writing System: Japanese uses three scripts– Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji, which also include the thousands of logographic characters adapted from Chinese. Moreover, each character in Kanji can have several meanings and readings. 
• Politeness Levels: Japanese includes many honorifics and politeness, which are essential to the understanding of the language. To master this aspect of the language, you must also be well acquainted with the social and cultural aspects of their society. 

Essential Phrases

Here are some of the essential phrases in Japanese that cover greetings and some common questions used in everyday life:

Suggested: Study in Japan

Korean 

Similar to Japanese, Korean is also a difficult language to master. The level of honorifics in the language changes the verb conjunctions and word choices, which would require a new learner to adjust the language based on the social context, which might be overwhelming. Let us discuss Korean in further detail. 

Key Challenges of Learning Korean

Korean comes across as difficult primarily due to its unique sentence structure, speech level variations, and pronunciation, which greatly differ from English. Here is a detailed analysis of the challenges that the Korean language might pose: 

• Variations and Flexibility: The Korean language exhibits many variations in expression, sentence endings, and levels of formality, which require complex levels of understanding. 
• Structure: The sentence structure followed by Korean is subject-object-verb, contrary to the subject-verb-object order, which can be difficult to get used to as an English speaker.
• Pronunciation Challenges: Korean includes sounds that are uncommon in English, with subtle differences between vowels and consonants, which require careful attention and immense practice to learn.
• Vocabulary Distance: There are very few cognates between English, Korean, requiring you to learn a large part of its vocabulary from scratch. 

Essential Phrases 

Here are some of the essential phrases in Korean that cover greetings and some common questions used in everyday life:

Telugu 

Although Telugu is not ranked by FSI, it is one of the hardest regional languages. Telugu is an expressive language, and is very rich culturally. Culture too is an important aspect of the language, which requires close attention of the readers seeking to master the language. Let us explore Telugu in detail. 

Key Challenges of Learning Telugu

The difficulty in learning Telugu lies in its unique script, complex grammar, and agglutinative word structure. Let us discuss some of these in detail:

• Distinct Script: Telugu has its own script with 16 vowels and 36 consonants, which might be difficult to learn for a beginner. However, learning the script is essential and a non-negotiable part of the language. 
• Pronunciation Challenges: Telugu includes specific sounds like retroflex and aspirated consonants, which do not exist in case of English. These can be very difficult to pronounce. 
• Complex Grammar: Telugu follows subject-object-verb order, unlike the subject-verb-object order. Moreover, it includes gender distinctions, various verb forms, and agglutinative morphology. 
• Vocabulary Differences: Telugu lacks direct English equivalents, requiring you to grasp cultural and contextual meanings beyond simple translation. 

Essential Phrases

Here are some of the essential phrases in Telugu that cover greetings and some common questions used in everyday life:

Cantonese

Cantonese’s difficulty lies in its tonal complexity, dual spoken and written form, and unique grammar. Moreover, the language also lacks genuine learning resources, which are widely available for languages like Japanese and Mandarin. To master this language, you will require listening practices and native materials to build fluency. Let us talk about Cantonese in detail. 

Key Challenges of Learning Cantonese

Cantonese is not only difficult due to its complex tonal characteristics and challenging phonetic structure, but also due to the lack of learning resources. Let us discuss some of the difficulties that you might face as a beginner in Cantonese: 

• Tones: Cantonese has 6 to 9 tones, compared to the 4 tones of Mandarin. Mastering these tones is an important aspect of the language, as this might potentially change the meaning of the sentence. 
• Lack of Standardised Romanisation: Unlike Mandarin, which uses Pinyin, Cantonese romanization systems like Yale or Jyutping lack standardization, making the pronunciation less straightforward. 
• Idiomatic Expressions: Cantonese uses many sentence-ending elements that add nuanced meaning and tone. However, this might be taxing for you as a new learner to process. 
• Fewer Learning Resources: Compared to languages like Japanese and Mandarin, which are popular and have easily available learning resources, very few apps teach Cantonese. This makes learning the language even more difficult. 

Essential Phrases

Here are some of the essential phrases in Cantonese that cover greetings and some common questions used in everyday life:

Polish 

Polish grammar involves seven cases, altering the rules considerably for each case, which increases the difficulty of the language. Moreover, the language is rich in consonant clusters, which make pronunciation tough. These factors, combined with the complex sentence structure, make the language difficult to learn for a new learner. Let us discuss Polish at length. 

Key Challenges of Learning Polish 

Although a European language, Polish differs substantially from English in its complex grammar structure and pronunciation. Let us discuss some of the difficulties faced in learning Polish: 

• Different Word Order: Polish sentence structures are often the reverse of the typical English phrasing. This includes placing phrases and clauses in unexpected order, challenging your English sentence construction habits. 
• Vocabulary Distance: While some European cognates exist between English and Polish, most Polish words remain unfamiliar to English speakers. This requires considerable practice and expertise over vocabulary
• Unique Sounds: Polish sounds like “szcz” and “trz” are unfamiliar to English learners. Moreover, differentiating between these sounds takes time and effort. 

Essential Phrases

Here are some of the essential phrases in Polish that cover greetings and some common questions used in everyday life:

Finnish 

Finnish has around 15 grammatical cases that alter the endings of nouns to express different grammatical orders, making the grammar of the language overly complex and confusing. Moreover, the language also involves alien phonological rules like vowel harmony and others, making it difficult for English speakers. Let us discuss this in detail. 

Key Challenges of Learning Finnish 

Finnish has 15 noun cases that change the word endings, potentially changing the meaning and intent of the sentence. This might be overwhelming for you to master as a new learner. Let us navigate some of these difficulties in the language in detail: 

• Extensive use of Grammatical Cases: The 15 grammatical cases, altering the noun ends, make it difficult for people to understand the language. These cases far exceed the limited cases found in English, making the difference difficult to register. 
• Agglutinative Language Structure: Finnish Words use suffixes rather than prepositions. This results in a single word conveying what an entire sentence would in English. 
• Vowel Harmony: In Finnish, vowels within a word harmonize to either front or back sounds, which is a rule completely alien to the language of English. 
• Lengthy and Compound Words: Finnish often combines multiple words or ideas into lengthy compound words, which might seem intimidating initially. 

Essential Phrases 

Here are some of the essential phrases in Finnish that cover greetings and some common questions used in everyday life:

Russian 

The Cyrillic alphabet, complex grammar and cases, and verb aspect make Russian an extremely challenging language to learn as a beginner. Moreover, it includes concepts that are completely alien to the English language, like the presence of perfective and imperfective verbs. Let us discuss Russian in detail: 

Key Challenges of Learning Russian.

Russian is considered difficult for its Cyrillic alphabet, complex grammar with 6 cases, and variable word stress. Let us discuss these in detail: 

• No Articles: Russian does not use articles like a or the, which makes the structure simpler. However, unlearning this habit of using articles might come across as challenging. 
• Flexible Word Order: Russian word order is flexible, which makes it confusing for new learners. In such tricky situations, you can rely on cases rather than the position of the sentence. 
• Unpredictable Word Stress: Word Stress in Russian is unpredictable with no fixed rules, which makes pronunciation very reliant on memorization. 

Essential Phrases

Here are some of the essential phrases in Russian that cover greetings and some common questions used in everyday life:

Icelandic

Most words in Icelandic are created from native roots, which makes it unique and difficult for new learners to grasp. There are four cases in Icelandic, three genders, and irregular declensions, which make it further difficult to learn the language. However, the language’s purity, often creating new words rather than adopting English or other foreign terms, makes this language interesting to the learners. Let us discuss Icelandic in further detail. 

Key Challenges of Learning Icelandic

The language’s unique vocabulary, complex grammar, and unfamiliar pronunciation are often considered to be a source of difficulty in learning the Language. Let us discuss some of the challenges in detail: 

• Unique Vocabulary: Icelandic has very few lone words, with most words generated from old Icelandic roots. Therefore, there are very few cognates on which new learners can rely.
• Complex Grammar: Icelandic grammar includes 4 cases, three genders, and irregular declensions, verb conjugations with multiple forms, and particle nuances, making it complex for new learners. 
• Unfamiliar Pronunciation: Icelandic has unique letters like thorn and eth that make the “th” sound. Additionally, it also has vowels such as æ and ö, which are unique to the language. 

Essential Phrases

Here are some of the essential Icelandic phrases that you must know as a beginner: 

According to FSI - the Foreign Service Institute, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, and Arabic are the hardest languages in the world. They have considered several linguistic factors and the hours taken by learners to formulate this list. 

Here are some of the most difficult languages in the world and the time taken to learn them:

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