Diego Simão  +  355507 Wed, 25 Apr 07 03:32 PM I think it is russian. My father has a friend who learns russian. He's perspective is: russian is the most difficult language for him to learn. And he has learnt german and espanhol. Diego Simão Joined on Fri, Dec 22 2006 New Member 51 Sois tout que tu veux devenir!

	Kooyeen  +  355544 Wed, 25 Apr 07 04:12 PM It is difficult to say, I'd say impossible. I think it depends on your first language. I mean, it is probably diffucult for an American to learn Spanish, but I think it's would be very easy for an Italian. So it'a all relative, in the end. But if you want to consider all major languages from a global point of view, English is definitely the easiest to learn, and Chinese and Japanese are definitely among the hardest ones (so I was told). It also depends on the level you want to reach. It is definitely very easy to start to learn English and reach an pre-intermediate level, but reaching a very advanced level (high scores on TOEFL, for example) is another matter. So I don't know how complicated the other languages are, we should ask someone who knows most major languages very well. Italian is an example of a strange language. It is as difficult as the other romance languages, I guess, but I think it's more flexible, you can say the same thing in a lot of different ways. The problem is that are all the regional dialects affect Italian in some way, so I don't even know what correct Italian is, actually. In some areas, places or situations, regional dialects are the common languages, not Italian. Even if you know perfect Italian, you won't ever understand much when me and my friends are talking, for example... Kooyeen Joined on Thu, Dec 22 2005 Italy Senior Member 4,985 Parental Advisory / Explicit Posts Dialects, Learn English, Learn Spanish, TOEFL

	Cool Breeze  +  355984 Thu, 26 Apr 07 10:31 AM  Kooyeen wrote: So I don't know how complicated the other languages are, we should ask someone who knows most major languages very well. Hi Kooyeen Knowing the major languages isn't enough. What makes you think only a major language can be difficult? Estimates regarding the number of languages in the world vary between 2,800 and 6,000. No one can know them all. I don't think there is a right answer to this question. Cheers CB Cool Breeze Joined on Fri, Apr 7 2006 Senior Member 3,979 "I hope you'll all live to be 150 years old - and the last voice you hear is mine!" Frank Sinatra on stage in Oslo, Norway, 28 September 1991

	Kooyeen  +  356221 Thu, 26 Apr 07 08:18 PM  Cool Breeze wrote: Knowing the major languages isn't enough. What makes you think only a major language can be difficult? Hi CB, well, yeah, if you really want to take account of every language, then how are we supposed to find an answer? In that case it would be a silly question to ask here. But since I don't think Diego wanted to ask a silly question, I interpreted his question as: Which major language is most difficult to learn? Also because we usually learn major languages, not strange languages spoken by very few people in a very small area. So I would consider Spanish, Russian, Chinese, etc., but probably not Cherokee (total speakers: 15,000 to 22,000). So I think it might be Chinese or Japanese (for Europeans, Americans, and all those who are not familiar with Asian languages). Kooyeen

	CalifJim  +  356810 Fri, 27 Apr 07 10:15 PM I read somewhere that Mario Pei, the linguist, tried to learn a different language every year.  He supposedly claimed that Vietnamese was the most difficult. CJ CalifJim Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004 California Veteran Member 22,465 "There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

	Pucca  +  356849 Sat, 28 Apr 07 01:32 AM Hello CalifJim, What languages did he try to learn? One language each year..that's amazing! Pucca Joined on Sun, Aug 27 2006 Spain Senior Member 2,972

	Cool Breeze  +  357016 Sat, 28 Apr 07 12:48 PM Hi all There's a joke about a Finnish professor who spoke nine languages. He took a holiday in Czechoslovakia and when he returned he said: "The Czech language sure is hard! I spent two weeks in Prague and didn't learn it." I think this proves the language is at least somewhat difficult. Cheers CB Cool Breeze Jokes

	Cool Breeze  +  357021 Sat, 28 Apr 07 01:08 PM  Kooyeen wrote: It also depends on the level you want to reach. It is definitely very easy to start to learn English and reach an pre-intermediate level, but reaching a very advanced level (high scores on TOEFL, for example) is another matter. Hi Kooyeen I agree with you there. The countless exceptions make English quite difficult for the perfectionist. Another thing that makes it difficult for any speaker of English to please everybody is the fact that there are so many varieties of English and so little agreement on correct usage. A while ago a member of this forum said that for him 'spring does not arrive'. Arrive is either unnatural or incorrect for him in that context. Yet a search for 'spring has arrived' gives about 200,000 hits, which means that there are tens of millions of natives who see nothing exceptional in the verb in that context. See what I mean? CB Cool Breeze Verbs, Learn English, TOEFL

	Mythical Lady  +  357658 Sun, 29 Apr 07 09:47 PM Hi all, I find English  an easy language to learn and speak, but an advanced level requires  hard work. I think there's no better way than to study a language in its native country. Japanese (I read) is so difficult, any native Japanese couldn't memorize all the alphabets of his/her language!! (5000 letters as I recalled) unbelievable it's also said that the letters acquire different shapes according to the words!!! Any how an opinion of a Japanese (or a speaker of this lauguage) is highly appreciated. As for Arabic, my mother tongue) I think it's not an easy language to master. Though it's fixed, classical and words are written the way they are pronounced (not like English!), it has so many grammatical rules that not any Arabic speaker could adhere to. Another thing is that it has a unique letter that's hard to be pronounced correctly that's /D/ (according to IPA) it's even called the language of /D/. Regards, Mythical Lady Joined on Wed, May 3 2006 Full Member 232 What lies behind us and what lies before us are TINY matters compared to what lies WITHIN us Regards