- People talk about this topic quite often, and Abdullah told us that Arabic is the most difficult language in the world, but I would like to object to his claim.
- First of all, no language is difficult as the first language. Every child can master her/his native language no matter what the language she/he speaks. In this sense, it might be meaningless to discuss which language is more or less difficult.
- Second of all, each language has a different difficulty in each skill. For example, Korean is fairly easy to write; however, they have a really difficult system of honorific expressions. You have to distinguish many ways of expressions depending upon who you are talking to.
- Regarding Chinese, they have tons of characters. In addition, Chinese is a tonal language. This means, depending upon how you tone a word, the meaning differs. I believe there are at least four tones in Chinese (or more). However, their grammar is fairly easy.
- I don't know much about Arabic. Arabic writing seems daunting, but it might be so complicated once you learn it. I think the hardest part in Arabic, as we heard in class, its variation. Even if you learn the formal Arabic, that is not enough. You need to learn a dialect.
- Third of all, if you are learning a language, how difficult a language is depends on your first language. For the Japanese, Korean and Chinese are easier to learn because we share so many features in common. One research showed that the Japanese need only half of time to learn Korean compared to English. However, Korean is often regarded as one of the most difficult languages for English speakers.
- Similarly, Spanish and French are fairly easy for English speakers. But they are as difficult as English for Asians. Not only Korean but also Chinese and Japanese are also difficult ones to learn for English speakers.
- So the answer to the question: what is the most difficult language in the world can not be single. It depends on how you take a look at a language.
- Still, English does not seem to be one of the difficult languages in the world. That may be why lots of people chose to use English for communication, and we end up by learning it.
- This is an interesting site to take a look at. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardest_language) Although Wiki is not really trustable, if you believe in this article, Koreans should be proud to be able to handle the most(?) difficult language in the world!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
What is the most difficult language in the world?
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I totally agree with you opinion about the language, our 3 countries have some basic words, so that's why i can know your name's meaning! lol
ReplyDeleteI like your style when you teach us English. I will study hard in your class, i hope you will like me too.
Thank you Nobi for your article. It's very interesting topic, also I agree of that Korean, Chinese and Japanese have a similarly system of language. So Asian people difficult to learn about English and French at first.
ReplyDeleteBut most important thing that people's language ability improve that It depends on that how many times people read, speak and write a lot, in my opinion.
I can't agree more about that. I also think Korea is difficult to learn. Chinese is also a language that is hard to study. For me, writing is the most difficult part for me to study another languages.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Nobi, there is no difficult language as the first language because the chile will live in the family which speak this language so he/she will get use to it. but the difficulty is when the person will learn the second language.
In Arabic, I can notice as an Arabian that in Arabic you will find a lot of word which is really difficult to pronouns it, but it is easy to us.
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ReplyDeleteHi Nobi , this is Mohsen
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that's there is nothing called the most difficult language in the world , because it depands to how are you look at it . But what i want you say is we said that arabic language is the most difficult in the wold because even if you learned the arabic language you'll no be perfect on it.
There is no one can learn this language and speak as a native speaker , unfortunetly it's impossible.
That's all.
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ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, there is only one sentence I don't agree with you. Chinese grammar sometimes is not so easy and if we want to get high marks in the exam we should pay attention on the grammar too.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, the rest sentences I agree with you.
Except Chinese, all languages are difficult. In fact I want to learn French very much because I want to live in France. France is very beautiful. And I think the listening is the most difficult in English. I will work hard for Improving my English listening. It is a difficult job.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both Abdullah and Nobi . but I think Abdullah was meaning it is difficult to learn Arabic the second language. also it is very difficult to learn the first language if you want know all things about Arabic. I think any first language it is easy for anyone.
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ReplyDeleteI think no difficult in the education,any one can learn any languages if he/she needs to do that,also the children can learn better off than adult.
ReplyDeletewell I still believe that is Arabic is more difficult , even for Arab people , it's grammar is very difficult , It has restricted rules for writing , grammar and reading , in our school we use to study arabic and I always get the worst degree comparing with other subjects , and I 'm arabian.. so it's difficult .
ReplyDeleteand I still believe that each language has it's difficulty at the begining but, Arabic is more than begining I can say that it's a complected language.
I agree with your opinion. Everyone think that it is too difficult to learn
ReplyDeleteother language, when they are not child.
I think what is more difficult language is that when you meet that language first? if I learn arabic when I was young, it is not too difficult.
I didn't study japanese, chinese and English when I was child, but I could see and listen many times. So I feel it is not too difficult to learn arabic.
I definitely agree with that opinion ,which probably means that not only korea but also Japanese and chinese are so difficult for English speakers to learn.
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ReplyDeleteI think the difficaulty of a language depend on :
ReplyDelete1-the person that want to learn that language.
2-The relation between the person's native language and the language that he want to learn it, if there is similarity of phonology between them, it will be easer to learn. If not it will be difficult to learn .
3-The ability of the person himself to learning other languages, it differ from one to the others .
4-Did that person like the language, and really he want to learn the language.
So there is no language to be difficult among the other languages, the difficulty of the same language change from place to place, and from language to the others.
It was my opinion I hope you enjoy it.
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ReplyDeleteI already heard about that. I'm proud because I can speak Korean. The other way, I'm learning English, but English is also very difficult to me. when each native speaker learns other language, they also suffer from learning other language. In conclusion, I think it is difficult to learn other language for each native speaker.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I disagree with that the Korean is the most difficult language in the world to learn although I am Korean.
ReplyDeleteLearning language against first language is very difficult for anyone, but you are probably familiar to some language, which is close to you.
For example, the Korean is close to China and Japan, so the Korea people is familiar to Chinese and Japanese.
as a result, I believe that the most difficult language is not Korean in the world. the article's opinion is general thinks. Just general. the most difficult work in the world is learning language.
Of course most of language is so difficult to learn. Especially, Arabic have so difficult writing(Just I think). But Korean mixed some chinese and japanese. So If you wanted to learn Korean, you should knew many chinese characters meaning and North-East History.
ReplyDeleteSo, I think, the most difficult language in the world is Korean.
yes, the Arabic language is not difficult. it difficult for some people only.
ReplyDeleterelated to Nobi's article and wikipedia's article, I think the languages divided to many group, each group has many similar languages. So each language in the same group can any body learn it easly. but if he move to another group it will be difficult.
I agree that it is easy for child to learn any language, no matter how difficult it is.
ReplyDeleteI guess it's so interesting to know some information about other languages, such as Korean or Japanese or any language.
i was working in the biggest oil company in the world, and there was a combination between the saudi company and japanese one, called Somotomo. so i used to work with japanese for 2 years. i learned so word, but now i couldn't remember all of them. i know that they said Mosh Mosi when they answer the phone, also if you called some one you should say san.
For example; Nobi san