Howdy,
Not sure how to start off a blog so I’m just going to jump into a light discussion of something on my mind. I should also disclose that I am running on about 2 hours of sleep right now, so this is not going to be a post of quality.
Well, I like to learn languages. I don’t think I am necessarily that great at it, and it doesn’t help that I don’t spend nearly enough time studying. It is more of the overall concept I enjoy– techniques to learn best, or how languages are related, or how the grammar works (but not actually the work of memorizing all those words*), etc. The patterns and connections in systems and the ways multiple systems fit together pleases me. I personally believe that is why a biology major is a very good fit for me; every piece connects with each other at some point. (I am definitely calling out physics here *cough cough* general relativity and quantum mechanics inconsistencies bother me. I need answers.) I’m sure there are points where topics of biology don’t fit together nicely either, but everything feels more definite? Maybe it’s all in my head haha.* I enjoy learning it and being able to use it, but in natural ways, such as through using the word/grammar in a real conversation, or learning the meaning because you heard it in a song. Memorization without application is rather humdrum in my opinion.
Anyways, two things that have been exasperating me are as follows:
- “____ is the hardest language in the world.”
- “You can become fluent in two months with ____ program/book/method/etc.”
There are more things than that which bug me, but these two in particular are hard to explain to people who have maybe only experienced one year of high school Spanish classes… To tackle the first, I feel the semantics need to be discussed. What do you mean by hardest? How is this question even being qualified? Hardest for a native speaker living in a place that speaks it to pick up as a child and master? Hardest for a native English speaker to learn as a second language? And to what extent? And once we clarify that, what if a person’s abilities or educational background makes them more conducive than someone else for a specific language?
When I need to use Google Translate for Polish at work, one of the question suggestions that pops underneath says something about Polish being the hardest language in the world. Oh gosh. It irritates me. Every. Single. Time. I mean, I’ll live, it just annoys me since I know there will be people who will read that and believe it. But I think if we are looking at what makes a language (comparatively) harder, here are some points to keep in mind:
Native speakers, specifically those that grow up in a place where that is the native language spoken, will probably learn whatever is used in their daily life. Live in an isolated mountain village that uses “improper” grammar or has a different accent? Technically, wouldn’t they be speaking the language of that specific place? Maybe people with speech impairments or disabilities would be considered otherwise, but we are going to say that would be a special case for any language. I tried to look this up briefly, but the best I could find through a couple of Google searches was a Quora post. Scientific, huh? But guess what– there was no agreement on that either. A good point was that a language without a written system may present challenges, but I would assume a true native speaker would, for lack of better words, not know what they’re missing? Someone said languages like English, where we host spelling bees because our words come from such a mix of places, could be considered harder than a more consistent language. I guess you could also look at which languages take longest to master for children, but things like school systems and parents’ role would be variables in that, among a slew of other things. So. In short, in this mess of a blog post, I have not found enough evidence for one native language to be harder for a native speaker than another. Boom?
Now, which language is hardest for a non-native speaker to learn? Well first, this totally depends on which language is the original native language. I would assume learning a language in the same/close family to what you already know would be significantly easier than a more different language. Or maybe not, maybe the person will mix things up? I would doubt this in the big picture of learning, though, and only mention it to play devil’s advocate. I seriously imagine it would be much easier for a native Spanish speaker to learn Portuguese than it would be if they tried to learn Russian. Now you have a different alphabet, new sounds, new grammar (ah declensions), and a lot more things I’m too tired to mention here.
Personal things, like motivation and availability of resources, play a role. I think having a strong desire to learn a harder language would make it easier, and if there are tons of videos and books and websites dedicated to teaching it, you’d have more, err, “things,” your brain could use to understand. These are just examples. My point is that there are so many factors that play a role. Plus, what about languages we don’t talk about as often? Are you telling me, say Polish, because I mentioned it before, is harder than learning Inuktitut (a native Inuit language)? Or Wenzhounese (I believe it is nicknamed “the devil’s language” and is a Chinese dialect)? Or *in a valley girl accent* like oh-my-gawd soooooo many other languages!
So yeah, hence why I am frustrated from hearing that. I think a better question would be asking a language learner what the hardest language they’ve attempted is, or better yet– what is the easiest they’ve tried and why was it easy? What was the weirdest language feature you have encountered? Most interesting dialects? Have you learned a language isolate and did you notice any shared features with other languages? Don’t let me get carried away here.
At this point, I’ve decided to save issue two for next time. I feel like it won’t be as much of a rant, but rather just what I feel fluency is, what others say it is, and how to get to that point as a non-native learner.
Happy reading,
-Beppa
*This is a republished post due to a domain change.*