How complex its system of sounds is. You’ll start to notice when something is wrong. You’ll make mistakes in French as well, but don’t worry about it. And that’s pretty much it. The French R, the nasal vowel sounds, the French U. As for Thai, the grammar is much more approachable than many other Asian languages. Now, FSI have their own way of teaching. The French will tell you that their language is terribly hard in terms of grammar because they are utterly traumatized. Remember how you learnt (or failed to learn) French at school. And it makes us a little proud to have mastered it. Is French Hard to Learn? Like the Pimsleur Method, the Mimic Method teaches you to speak French by immersing you in conversations and music in order to teach you French in a way you learned your mother language, by listening and mimicking. 1. If I were you, I'd only learn French if I ever went to paris and I wanted to pick up some French chicks. The cadence and tone of the speech need extra consideration. So if you want to learn a language, French could actually be one of the easiest options, … eval(ez_write_tag([[300,250],'autolingual_com-banner-1','ezslot_3',115,'0','0'])); So 575 hours might not be the number of hours that you need to learn French. The difficulty of a language also depends on its similarity to your own language. And there are so many more cliches. On the other hand, French can seem easy to learn, too. What was your French like when you left the school? So no – French is not a particularly difficult language to learn. Another free French learning site is Learn French. It’s a refrain Irish speakers, learners, and teachers hear over and over again. Difficult French Word Pronunciation Solution Number 3 Learn French with audio first. One of the most thorough courses we found for the price is FrenchPod101 by Innovative Languages. Five little words, with such vast meaning, and such a complex answer. You need to focus much more on listening. ). I study both French and German for A-Levels, and there are aspects of both language which are more difficult than the other. People tend to build up Japanese as an impossible language to learn but, in my experience, Japanese is straight-forward and easy to learn. Then why do they say so? Learning the French language: A dream come true? It’s a hugely important and influential language in today’s world. It offers a variety of everyday scenarios you can work through with recorded pronunciations. If you’re struggling to learn a new language, breathe, you’re not alone. First, Hindi uses an SOV (subject object verb) word order and has new sounds for English speakers, including dhaand hka. one other note, In studying about the french language, I've come to learn that the English language was mostly derived from french and a number of our words are of french origin. And for the English words you're still getting wrong, check out The 14 Hardest Words to Pronounce in the English Language. It all comes down to history. Keep working on pronunciation, but focus on listening, and gradually you will improve. So have a look at that one. There are no set rules as to why a noun takes a certain gender, so these must be memorized. The supposed difficulty of Vietnam's official language is a point of national pride amongst its 90 million inhabitants, and locals are happy to tell you “tiếng Việt khó!” (Vietnamese is hard) at every possible opportunity.. Just like our own family tree heritage, languages have evolved over thousands of years. I consider my English good for a second language, but I still make a lot of errors. For example, the English H is pronounced ash in French. They use specific material, and you’re expected to also study in your free time when you enroll in their program. How complicated its grammar is. One of the most effective ways of gaining fluency is by immersing oneself into the language. Bonjour, First of all congratulations on willing to learn a foreign language. This means that with some memorized vocabulary, you can build sentences as you would a Lego tower, stacking words without worry of conjugatio… But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work with your pronunciation. In this list I will explain why learning Dutch is difficult. I remember hearing fellow Danes speak of the Danish language as one of the most difficult in the world. It’s a language in which swearing is its own art-form. There are generally three major things that make a language easy or hard for any given learner: 1. It can sometimes be difficult figuring out how a word is pronounced only from looking at its spelling. There are so many silent letters, exceptions and weird letter combinations. You need to study every day and to keep doing it. In fact, the only difference is the pronunciation of those letters. But if you’re looking for a tougher linguistic challenge, try learning Hungarian. You can choose just one set of conjugations to learn, but you must be able to recognize both. Is Russian hard to learn? Number of native speakers: 260 million Grammatical concepts: 3/5 Language family: 3/5 Sounds and tones: 3/5 Writing system: 4/5 Cultural distance: 3/5 Language resources: 1/5 Hindi is highly phonetic, which means it’s spelled the way it sounds – score! A few other factors include: Becoming completely fluent in French can take up to five years, but this is not guaranteed. The Grammar Is Totally Different… But That’s a Good Thing. Besides that, however, Hindi has some challenging differences in terms of grammar, pronunciation and writing. Not when compared to other languages in any case. Every language has some sort of difficult quality and you shouldn’t let “perceived” difficulty turn you off from starting the language of … In my opinion you could get far in learning to pronounce French simply by focusing on your listening a lot. The relative difficulty of French actually might not be a good excuse. Aren’t they supposed to be the experts? French is one of the major languages in the world and while not spoken nearly as much as English, Mandarin, Arabic and others that hail from countries with large populations it is considered a diplomatic language and is spoken as a second language in many places around the globe thanks to French colonization of ages past. I’ve taught many English speaking adults in my life: some extremely intelligent, with really advanced degrees (rocket scientists and brain surgeons… literally!) So in that regard, French is easier than a lot of languages. Is Chinese Hard to Learn? Still a significant commitment, but only half as much as the hard ones! There is a reason why nearly a quarter-million Americans are now actively learning the language which may speed the day when it becomes as mainstreamed into the public schools as Spanish or French. Just have a look at this poem called “The Chaos“. Although it does indeed help, you don’t really have to understand grammar to master English. FSI, or the Foreign Service Institute has divided all the languages that they teach in to three categories. But the French spend years studying grammar and dissecting their own language in school. French can be tricky because it’s not a phonetic language and the pronunciation of this language is the most difficult among the four mentioned languages. Do you like challenges? They learn conjugation tables, rules and what not until they dream about grammar. 7 Hardest and Difficult Languages for English Speakers. I remember when I first went to spend a semester in Paris as a student. In reality it’s not that bad. But it’s definitely doable. While French will likely be more intimidating to speak initially, its shared vocabulary with English will help lessen the difficulty of memorization. When learning French as an English speaker, you’ll have one great advantage. French is not hard to learn, especially when compared to English! Otherwise: Stay tuned, I’ll eventually write something about Spanish as well. Though it sounds much prettier than English, it can be hard to decipher where one word ends and the next begins. So no – French is not a particularly difficult language to learn. You already know a significant amount of words in French! - Duration: 12:31. During the four hundred years that followed, a dialect of French known as Anglo-Norman became the language of the crown, the educated elite, the ruling administration and the justice. I learned German, then I took French in high school and I absolutely HATED IT! If you think picking up a little French or Spanish in your spare time is difficult, ... To help you understand what you're getting into, we've compiled this list of the hardest languages to learn. Many may find French hard to learn because of the complex grammar and other linguistic nuances that don’t exist in English, and especially for those who have never learned another European language (or more precisely, Roman language) such as Spanish or Portuguese. If you are a native English speaker, one of the best reasons to learn French is to help you understand your language. French became fashionable, and the language left an impressive imprint on the English we speak today.eval(ez_write_tag([[300,250],'autolingual_com-leader-4','ezslot_7',119,'0','0'])); What this all means is that you have been granted a shortcut to learning French. You need to put in the time, be consistent and keep at it. You’ve done it once, so how hard can it be to do it a second time?eval(ez_write_tag([[250,250],'autolingual_com-mobile-leaderboard-2','ezslot_16',123,'0','0'])); French people will tell you that French grammar is impossible. FSI’s easy category are languages likes Spanish, Danish and – yes, French. Why? Some people have a natural aptitude for languages and pick them up quickly; children, of course, absorb new languages much more easily than adults. Is French difficult or easy to learn? Even if they are ranked as difficult, it does not mean that they are impossible to learn and maybe it is not hard for you at all. The medium category requires 1100 hours of classroom study, or 44 weeks. “The pronunciation is just so complex.”. How many classes did you have with teacher every week? In addition, their writing sys… Not that it can't be done. 4 Reasons It’s Actually Easier Than You Think! There are many factors that determine how long it takes to learn to speak French. They’ll mention how their pronunciation is difficult. Conjugation can seem quite difficult at first, but once you know the pattern it becomes easier. Or people in the street. Similarities To English That Simplify Learning Spanish . It’s exactly the same configuration. Each category is scored between 0-5, with 0 being the easiest and 5 being the hardest. The Best Free Resources for Learning French, The Best Paid Resources for Learning French, Best Black Friday 2020 Deals for Language Learners (and Cyber Monday! You need to learn a few verb conjugations, you need to memorize the genders of each word as you’re learning them. It's difficult to read!! It is colorful and keeps learning interesting and fun. German is so much better and easier to take. The French language shares the same alphabet and quite a few cognates with English so you don’t need to learn new letters or completely new vocabulary. French is the language of romance. But you won’t learn to speak French fluently over night. Click the image below to read our review: The Mimic Method, developed by Idahosa Ness, is another paid resource for learning French. eval(ez_write_tag([[580,400],'autolingual_com-large-mobile-banner-2','ezslot_1',120,'0','0'])); Many people think that learning foreign pronunciation is about “training” other muscles to be able to make other sounds with the organs we use to speak. The right answer to this is quite simple: French is NOT hard to learn, if you use the right language learning methods, and you enjoy them. When studying German, you're going to run into the familiar quite frequently, and that helps a lot psychologically. Here, you can explore the seven most difficult languages to learn. Why people will tell you French is difficult, what the results are of that kind of rigid grammar study, What’s The Best Way To Learn Dutch By Yourself? Spanish is considered an easy language to learn because it shares so many characteristics with English. They both have tongues, lips, throats and so on. I am learning a little French now, and my instinct is that perhaps French is a bit more difficult, but again that is entirely subjective. As mentioned French and English share quite a few cognates since they are both Indo-European languages. Some tried to teach themselves a bit, but quickly became overwhelmed and gave up. However, you won’t find in-depth coverage of grammar rules and such. Those of us who grew up studying French in American schools during the past three decades or so were told time and again that learning Spanish was more advantageous, period. These are languages very far from English in terms of grammar, structure and vocabulary. Although originating in France, today it is spoken in all different countries all over the world, and officially in a total of 30. I think that to a large extent, it’s about listening. But you don’t need any special talent to learn French. 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