In addition, many learners struggle with the pronunciation - the stress in words is . Prepare to speak confidently. "Super-hard" Category IV languages include Arabic, Cantonese, and Korean, which generally require 88 weeks of full-time study to learn. Category I languages such as Spanish and Portuguese are among the easiest ones to become proficient in. The Foreign Service Institute listed the nine languages that are more similar to English and therefore the easiest languages for English-speaking folks to acquire. Ready to learn "My chemistry class is hard." and 17 other words for School Subjects in European Portuguese? This means that Portuguese is much more musical. It has many different dialects with few learning resources--MSA (Modern Standard Arabic) tends to be the most commonly taught form of Arabic even if it's not the most spoken. Written Mandarin is pictoral and contains over 20,000 characters. And if that's not reason enough to learn Portuguese right now, the Foreign Service Institute of the US Government claims that a . Why does the Portuguese language sound as it does? Japanese is listed as one of the hardest languages to learn, especially for Spanish speakers. For example, Russian is in the category IV and Mandarin (Chinese) is the category V. Thus, if you are going to learn Portuguese, these news are great for you! Read more: 15 Best Languages to Learn in 2020 Is the Portuguese Language Hard to Learn? About a year for . You can do it though! But the writing's a killer. It's a process that can go smoother for some, and have more bumps for others. Put simply, it's hard because it challenges both your mind (your brain has to construct new cognitive frameworks) and time (it requires sustained, consistent practice). Alphabets, conjugations, vocabulary, and more all factor into making a language easy or hard to learn. Note that Brazilian Portuguese is harder to learn than the Portuguese in Portugal. Shutterstock/VPales. Ensino Portugus de Portugal. But let's get into some other parts of the language (and language learning!) 5 Latin. Category 4: the impress-your-friends zone. Portuguese has many more vowel sounds than Spanish, for example. Additional tip: If you want to learn European Portuguese, it can be tricky to find resources online, but this guide should give you everything you need to get started. Vocabulary - There are a significant number of loan words from English and French, but you are going to have to dedicate a lot of time to new vocabulary. Ol. Vietnamese. Romanian. While it may feel like English as a second language is fairly common in the world now, native English speakers have a surprisingly difficult time with these 9 countries . One of the reasons for this is the completely different writing systems. According to the Foreign Service Institute's School of Language Studies, learning Spanish or Portuguese takes roughly the same amount of time for native English speakers. Formal Portuguese has, even more, verb forms. Plus, knowing any of these similar romance languages Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese, will make it much easier to learn the others in the group. It is spoken as a native language by 13 million people, most of whom live in Hungary. The final form of the preposition is determined by the article of the noun that follows after it. As for the language, there comes a catch. . The answer is that it is one of the hardest European languages to learn. Therefore, the preposition will merge with the article of the noun and create a new word. Check out the FSI's full list of languages on the next page. Lots of people say that German has hard grammar. Put bluntly, learning French was hard. Your experience will vary, however, if you've studied or been exposed to another language. But if you're looking for a tougher linguistic challenge, try learning Hungarian. Spanish has more native speakers in the world than English, making it the best language to learn when travelling. In just five minutes a day, you will learn Portuguese through our beautifully illustrated, immersive and playful lessons. . So in theory, it would take the most effort for a native Spanish speaker to learn Romanian among . Language difficulty is a hard thing to calculate. The top 10 best languages you should learn. Language is the system of communication used by a particular community or a country. 0 COMMENTS There are no comments. Unlike most European languages, which belong to the Indo-European language family, Hungarian is a Uralic language. Many Portuguese words also have pronunciation, intonation, and nasal vowels that are similar to English. It will take you about 44 weeks (and around 1,100 hours) of instruction, as it's considered a language "with significant linguistic and/or cultural differences from English.". Although Spanish is a Romance language rather than a Germanic language, it's fairly easy for English speakers to learn because many English words stem from Latin. Arabic. The grammar rules in Russian are very complex and have numerous exceptions. The only difficult obstacle to overcome is the pronunciation, which is completely different. Their culture, heritage, and hard-working people are something everyone admires. Reason 5: Long words aren't tough if you see them as just compounded words and syllables. Here are my top recommendations: Duolingo - Duolingo is a language learning app that you can use on desktop or mobile. You might be trying to learn one of the 9 hardest languages for English speakers. You're doing your best, studying your chosen language daily, but still not feeling anything close to fluent. Next up we have French, the official language of France, and it is also spoken widely in a few other countries in the continent of . 4. So there are some differences in terms of how the 'r' is pronounced. 3. It has Dutch at its core but it is also intertwined with other dialects and indigenous languages from Africa. The Hardest Languages to Learn Chinese . You're doing your best, studying your chosen language daily, but still not feeling anything close to fluent. There are hundreds of examples like this. For example, the word for man in Romanian is "om." To . 6. There are 46 basic symbols, and depending on the words you're writing, you sometimes add little symbols at the top or write a normal symbol but smaller next to a bigger symbol to change the pronunciation slightly. The Portuguese language is the 7th most spoken language in the world today with roughly 223 million native speakers everywhere and the official language of 7 countries: Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and So Tom and Prncipe. This is mostly true, if you have no knowledge of other Slavic languages (e.g. Romanian is the most distant language from Spanish in the Romance branch of languages. An introduction to European Portuguese from Mia Esmeriz, a veteran Portuguese teacher from Porto with 10+ years' experience and a . Mandarin is considered a "super-hard" language by the US Foreign Service Institute. There are some shared cognates such as ' ja ' which means ' yes ' and ' veld ' which means ' field '. As it turns out, Portuguese is considered to be one of the most straightforward languages to learn for those who speak English as their native language. Originally Answered: Is it hard to learn Portuguese? level 1. Learn Brazilian Portuguese Online for Free. While it may feel like English as a second language is fairly common in the world now, native English speakers have a surprisingly difficult time with these 9 countries . This also occurs from time to time because of exceptions. Russian. (Online/Tempo Inteiro). How difficult is the pronunciation of Portuguese to learn? If you want to be widely understood and open up many new travel destinations . Note: The A2-level is the level needed for Portuguese citizenship and permanent residency, if you're required to show proof of language proficiency. It is spoken as a native language by 13 million people, most of whom live in Hungary. Portuguese. Arabic is a challenging language to learn for a variety of reasons. Use the illustrations and pronunciations below to get started. Creole (Haiti's "language") is easy because it is a patois or slang which by nature would mean it was a very basic form of communication.If you have the time to learn Creole do yourself a favor and learn French instead ,it will help you interact with a lot more people in the long run-unless the only people you will be dealing with are Haitians from the lower classes since Creole is all some of . Sou Portugus. They are both Ibero-Romance languages that stem from Vulgar Latin, as with many Romance languages like French and Catalan. 1. Learning a new language is not an easy task. French. Learning Spanish will enhance your travel experience and allow you to open up to locals, plus it isn't a hard second language to learn. 2. . If you already speak some other Romance language (such as Spanish, Italian or Portuguese), learning French is no big deal at all. Took me 4 years to learn Portuguese. Probably the pronunciation in Brazil is easier to understand because the Brazilians pronounce the vowels more clearly while the Portuguese sometimes chew certain vowels, or don't pronounce them clearly. Arabic. I've heard both words used for . It all depends on your personal motivation: If you want to learn, you will learn, and Portuguese Connection will help you! Portuguese is among the first language on the list compiled by the Foreign Service Institute's Category I language, which also includes Spanish, French, and Italian. I speak both, but Spanish is generally considered one of the easiest languages to learn for a native English speaker. * Languages preceded by asterisks are usually more difficult for native English speakers to learn than other languages in the same category. Cases involve the changing of a noun's form depending on the noun's relation to the verb. Unlike most European languages, which belong to the Indo-European language family, Hungarian is a Uralic language. Portuguese is quite musical. They share many words with English, but it's that common vocabulary . A Portuguese's pronunciation can also make it difficult to understand it. But there's more to it than that. Ready to learn "My chemistry class is hard." and 17 other words for School Subjects in European Portuguese? If a language has one, two, or all three of those hurdles, it can get frustrating and be considered hard to learn. Other Romance languages, like Spanish, French and Italian, have a lot in common with Portuguese. Russian is rated a two of three in difficulty by the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), which ranks languages based on how long it would take the average native English speaker to learn it, so it's not as difficult as some of the other languages on this list. Portuguese is a Romance language originating in the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Since Romanian is a Latin language, it shares many similarities with Spanish, Italian, and even English. When considering deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) population, research recognizes that fatigue due to communication challenges and multi-focal attention allocation is a significant concern . Courses for Beginners Portuguese Master Course (A1/A2) $118 + VAT (Use PORTUGALIST15 for a further 15% off). Finnish. Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the worldspoken in some form by 1.2 billion peopleso it only makes sense to include it on this list. Many verb tenses in the Portuguese language are hard to learn, therefore there is always plenty of conjugation for students to remember. A language spoken on every continent Portuguese is the 6th most spoken language in the world and the 5th most used language on the Internet. Bulgarian or Czech). Danish. 1. My methods have changed a lot since 7th grade, and not only did learning French become much . It really depends on a variety of factors, such as personal motivation and interest, desire or need, surrounding culture, and even psychological barriers. Use the illustrations and pronunciations below to get started. It's a famously difficult language for English speakers to learn, with complex grammar and pronunciation. . 4. #5 French Depending on your language skills and background, you might find it very easy or almost impossible to learn French. 6 Portuguese (despite knowing Latin French Italian and Spanish - vocabulary and grammar was easy but the pronunciation was the killer) HARD. It takes time and practice, but you'll find there are a lot of Portuguese words and phrases that are connected with expressions you already know. There are a number of free courses that you can use to learn Brazilian Portuguese. 1. Portuguese and Spanish have the same language roots. Otherwise you might struggle with its grammar and pronunciation. A portuguese speaker hearing 'En la Escuela', it's like hearing 'nascola' slowed down. English is one definitely one of the most important languages to learn in 2021 and beyond. Start learning. English, or Portuguese. Portuguese is a very 'learn-able' language. It's effective, fun and free. In reality, it just has different grammar. Hiragana isn't to bad. Pronouncing the words themselves isn't that hard. Korean. 11. Hardest Languages to Learn. Therefore, if you have studied another Romance language, you are likely to find learning Portuguese much easier than learning a . Arabic. Photo by Braden Collum on Unsplash. Portuguese has roots in Latin with some basic borrowings from languages like German, French, Italian, Spanish and Arabic. Widely spoken across Latin America, as well as in Spain, it's not usually a hard language for English speakers to learn, due to its relatively simple grammar and phonetic pronunciation. But there's more to it than that. Zulu. It is also common in other languages. Portuguese is a Latin-based language similar to French and Spanish and one of the richest languages in terms of vocabulary. 1. Danish isn't hard to learn, but as with most Scandinavian languages, the biggest hurdle with studying Danish is in being able to practice. It has its own particularities, but nothing Portuguese babies couldn't overcome. Generally, if you're an English speaker with no exposure to other languages, here are some of the most challenging and difficult languages to learn: Mandarin Chinese. The word order is arbitrary, each of the verbs has several cases and all the nouns have gender. This language is spoken in Europe of course, but also in Brazil and in Africa (Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde). First, there are two different ways to use this preposition - in and a. Grammatically speaking, Portuguese is demonstrably similar to Spanish, Italian and French, though there are some Brazilian colloquial tendencies that in my opinion make proficiency more attainable in Portuguese (see bullets below). 1 Esperanto (by a country mile) 2 Italian (but only after knowing Latin and French) 3 Spanish (but only after knowing Latin French and Italian) 4 French. In this article we'll explore three major factors that make language learning difficult - and give you six tips to make it that much . 3. Though Chinese consists of various dialects, they use the same writing system, so learning one will still help you communicate with speakers of other dialects via the written word. It's a famously difficult language for English speakers to learn, with complex grammar and pronunciation. Russian, like German, has some really long words (including compounds) that look impossible to pronounce at first glance. Since these languages have similar origins, you will notice some overlap in vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. According to this list of the most widely spoken languages, the top six languages to consider learning are Mandarin, Spanish, English, Hindu, Arabic, and Portuguese. However, when Portuguese settlers began arriving in South America in the 16th century, what we now know as Brazilian Portuguese began to be influenced by other languages. . Some base characters, like root words, appear in other symbols, like the character for "woman" forming part of "sister.". Abstract. These five languages are known to be exceptionally hard for English speakers to learn: Arabic (all varieties), Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin. Hungarian. For English speakers, some languages may appear harder than others to speak and comprehend. Portuguese has many more vowel sounds than Spanish, for example. Portuguese is quite musical. Once you have a good grip on Spanish, Portuguese is fairly easy. You'll discover, in fact, that the 'r' is sometimes a rolled . My Aorian family calls them 'bolachas' and 'biscoito' is a specific kind of hard ring-shaped cookies. in + l' = nell'. Learning Portuguese vocabulary isn't as hard As you might think. Of these, Spanish and Italian are the easiest for native English speakers to learn, followed by Portuguese and finally French. Put simply, it's hard because it challenges both your mind (your brain has to construct new cognitive frameworks) and time (it requires sustained, consistent practice). If you're learning Brazilian Portuguese, here are some apps you may find useful. Spanish vs Portuguese: The Languages You Already Speak. Grammatically speaking, Portuguese is not complex, apart from the verb conjugation system, which indeed may be somewhat excruciating to master. Spanish. Hungarian. It's pretty good for learning vocabulary and learning pronunciation on the go. For a native speaker of a Romance/Germanic language, Portuguese would arguably be easier to learn than Indonesian because the . It wasn't fun, and I soon lost the motivation. 7 Easiest Languages to Learn for Spanish Speakers. Table of contents You focus on the part of Portuguese that matters most words. Drops is the most popular and the best way to learn Portuguese on the go. It is also the official language of two Asian countries: Macao and East Timor. Generally, if you're an English speaker with no exposure to other languages, here are some of the most challenging and difficult languages to learn: Mandarin Chinese. Of course, I am limited to talking about the languages I speak, but I'd argue that Portuguese is the most musical Romance language. I've never tried to learn one of the so-called "hard languages" such as Chinese, Arabic, Korean and so on. For starters, Indonesian spoken natively by nearly 23 million people is one of the few Asian languages that uses the Latin alphabet. Yes, Portuguese language is in the category I, along with Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, French, Italian, Norwegian, Romanian, Spanish and Swedish. Finnish. By doing so, you won't let the already learned material slip away from you. Keep in mind that 30 minutes of Portuguese lessons every day is much better than 1-2 hour study sessions once a week. In fact, learning German (or any other language) is neither easy nor hard. It is the sole official language of Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, So Tom and Prncipe, and Brazil, [6] while having co-official language status in East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, and Macau. . Portuguese sounds amazing. European Portuguese made easy. It's writing system is also notoriously complex. 7. A bitch for Spanish speakers to understand. Naturally, if you're familiar with other Romance languages, particularly Spanish, Catalan or Italian, Portuguese won't seem that hard. Indonesian. German. English. There are fewer prepositions in Portuguese than in English . Vietnamese. Spanish. Russian is widely believed to be one of the most difficult languages to learn. So is Portuguese hard to learn if you already speak English? Afrikaans is a beautiful language that is surprisingly easy to learn for native English speakers. Of course, I am limited to talking about the languages I speak, but I'd argue that Portuguese is the most musical Romance language. In this blog, we'll learn if Portuguese is difficult to learn: 1. 3 Japanese. The factors that determine how difficult learning German will be for you include your reasons for learning, your motivation, your time commitment, your learning style and preferences, and of . Currently learning Japanese. Hardest Languages to Learn. A few examples: in + il = nel. As far as words and their structure to, it shouldn't be too bad. Portuguese sounds amazing. Cantonese (Chinese) Mandarin (Chinese) * Japanese. Latin Grammar Is Incredibly Hard. The sixth top spoken language in the world, over 215 million people speak Portuguese natively or as a second language. The learning of Portuguese has a high complexity of grammar but having. This selection may also come as a surprise, but Indonesian has several qualities that make it a logical choice for English speakers. In my experience, Romanian is not a hard language to learn. Category V: 88 weeks (2200 hours) Languages which are exceptionally difficult for native English speakers. This goes with my other pronunciation point. Not to mention, it is the official . In fact, Spanish and Portuguese have 89% lexical similarities, which means that many of the vocabulary words and phrases are the same across the board. Here's a list of the 10 easiest to hardest languages to learn! To conclude, Portuguese is not considered a difficult language to learn. I study both Spanish and Portuguese in college. I gave up on learning French after one semester and didn't give it another try until 13 years later when I discovered there's a better way to learn languages. As a Romance language, Portuguese is similar to Spanish and has Latin roots. 6. The 10 Portuguese-speaking countries are: Angola Brazil Cape Verde East Timor Guinea Bissau Macau Mozambique Portugal So Tom and Prncipe Portuguese-speaking countries of the world So, depending on your future aspirations, Portuguese can definitely be a useful language to learn there's certainly no shortage of people who speak it! The higher the category, the "harder" the language is to learn for a native English speaker. 3. However, I do want to study Japanese one day and I'm aware of the difficulties I will encounter. Chinese is a group of languages spoken by the people of China. Japanese. If a language has one, two, or all three of those hurdles, it can get frustrating and be considered hard to learn. Spanish also uses the same alphabet as English, and many of the words are pronounced just as they are spelled. The learning of Portuguese has a high complexity of grammar but having said that, I think it is not a very difficult language to learn. Hardest language to learn #4: Mandarin. Use direct message if it's not for a question related to learn Portuguese. The House of the Rising Sun has always been attracting people from all over the world. If there's one thing that everyone who's studied Latin could agree on, it's that the grammar rules are incredibly hard. This means that Portuguese is much more musical. So, stay focused on the language and don't forget to repeat what you already know. The word "declension" is enough to send shivers down one's spine. Some advices Why is Portuguese easy to learn? In this article we'll explore three major factors that make language learning difficult - and give you six tips to make it that much . You might be trying to learn one of the 9 hardest languages for English speakers. There are 3 genders for nouns and 4 cases, this means that you are going to spend a lot of time memorising word . A large number of learners of Portuguese have a hard time pronouncing words containing nasal vowels (and there are many of them) with as much accuracy as native speakers of Portuguese.