7 of the most difficult languages to learn in the world

Learning a different language can be fun but not all the time. Some languages are easier to learn than others. While a lot of it depends on your native language and many other factors, we’ve compiled a list of some of the most challenging languages for many learners.

Here are seven of the most difficult languages to learn in the world.

1. Tagalog

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An Austronesian language, Tagalog is the language spoken by a quarter of the total population of the Philippines. Its grammar and uncommon sentence structure make it pretty difficult to master.

2. Navajo

Navajo is one of the Southern Athabaskan languages that are spoken in the southwestern part of the United States. It has about 120,000 to 170,000 speakers. There aren’t many similarities to Germanic or Latin languages, which makes it difficult for many learners to have any reference or connecting points. Most of the written versions of this language use a Latin-based alphabet; the attempts at a written version of this language didn’t happen until the 1930’s.

3. Persian

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The Persian language is mainly spoken in Afghanistan and Iran, as well as Tajikistan and other countries with Persian influence. It belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European languages. This language is known to be a continuation of the literary language of Sassanid Persia called Middle Persian language. Around 110 million people speak the language worldwide.

4. Afrikaans

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A West Germanic language, Afrikaans is spoken by the natives of Namibia and South Africa, as well as Zimbabwe and Botswana. It is considered an offshoot of different Dutch dialects, which makes it a daughter language of Dutch.

5. Urdu

More commonly known as the Modern Standard Urdu, this language is normally associated with Muslims in Hindustan. Urdu is also the official national language and lingua franca in the country of Pakistan.

One of the 22 scheduled languages in the Constitution of India, it is mutually intelligible with Standard Hindi. It is also identical to Hindi in terms of grammar and basic structure.

6. Hebrew

Hebrew is a West Semitic language that belongs to the Afroasiatic language family. It was first used by ancient Hebrews and Israelites during the 10th century BCE. Despite being such an ancient language, it’s still spoken and written today. It’s the principal language of the State of Israel.

7. Korean

Korean is the official language of North and South Korea. It is spoken by over 80 million people around the world. The grammar and sentence structure of Korean may seem difficult to decipher for many speakers of other languages. However, Japanese speakers don’t typically have many issues with this.