I've heard that. We are often asked what is the most difficult language to learn, and it is a difficult question to answer because there are a lot of things to take into consideration. Firstly, as a first language, or mother tongue, the differences are unimportant, so the question of how hard a language is to learn only arises in the area of second language acquisition. A native speaker of Spanish will find Portuguese much easier to learn than a native speaker of Chinese, for example, because Portuguese is very similar to Spanish, while Chinese is very different, so first language is an important factor. the more different a language is from our mother tongue, the harder it will be to learn. Many people answer that Chinese is the hardest language to learn, possibly influenced by the thought of learning Chinese characters, and the pronunciation of Chinese does appear to be very difficult for foreign learners. However, for Japanese speakers, who already use Chinese characters in their own language, the writing will be less of a challenge than it will for people from languages using the Roman alphabet. Some people can learn languages naturally and easily without much effort, while others find it very difficult, so natural aptitude for language learning is another factor. Teachers and the circumstances in which we learn also play an important role, as well as the motivation for learning. If people learn a language they need to use, they often learn it faster than people studying a language that has no direct use in the lives. There is no single answer to this question; it depends on so many factors. However, the British Foreign Office has looked at the languages that diplomats and other embassy staff have to learn and has worked out which they find the most difficult to learn. The second hardest is Japanese, which probably comes as no surprise to many, but the language that they have found to be the most difficult to learn is Hungarian, which has 35 cases (forms of a nouns according to whether it is subject, object, genitive, etc). This does not mean that Hungarian is the hardest language to learn for everybody, but it causes British diplomatic staff, who are used to learning languages, the most difficulty. However, Tabassaran, a Caucasian language has 48 cases, so it would probably cause more difficulty if British diplomats had to learn it. Different cultures and individuals from those cultures will find different languages more difficult. In the case of Hungarian for British learners, it is not a question of the writing system, which is alphabetic, but the grammatical complexity, though native speakers of related languages may find it easier, while struggling with languages that we find relatively easy. No language is easy to learn well, though languages which are related to our first language will be easier. Learning a completely different writing system is a huge challenge, but that does not necessarily make a language more difficult that another. In the end, it is impossible to say that there is one language that is the most difficult language in the world. http://tinyurl.com/2zy3kw

I'm an English speaker but I've asked a lot of foreigners and they said that it was really easy to learn compared to other languages because it is more loose w/ less rules.

no way... i would think that my language is hardest to learn... i speak ukrainian fluently as well as russian... there are so many different ways to say so many things... like everything changes by number of people, who youre talking to, and everything like that... if one of those things changes, there is a new word... and the sentence structure is definitely hard... even though i know it and everything, people have said that it is such a hard language about a million times!

I think as a SECOND language, English might be hard just because it doesn't follow it's own rules so much of the time. The words are easy to pronounce and stuff, but still. It has so many meanings for one word and so many words for one meaning. Other languages might be a little easier in that sense.

as a rule, i would think so. English has a lot of rules and exceptions to those very rules. kinda irritating for those learning it.

No. Try Inuktatut or Navaho ...

I think the hardest language to learn would be one of the native american ones only because they are not a written language which makes it a much more difficult language to learn than english or any other written language.

Well, I believe it depends on what aspect of English you mean. For instance, if you presume that the prosodic elements of English is the canonical feature of the language, then English might well be the hardest language to learn, say, for East Asian learners like Koreans and Japanese, all because of the phonetic or phonological difference between the native and the target language. But if you view English just as a means of communication without putting much emphasis on the phonetic or prosodic aspects, then I should say that it's not that difficult at all to learn English because it seems like a much more logical language compared to other languages.

i think it's a very special deal with english. the spelling is definitely confusing, but thats not because the language is hard but because a long time ago, somebody failed in creating a spelling system that makes sense. the structure of english is indeed simple. words never change their shape and the plural... come one: there are only very very few exceptions. i dont know about russian or ukrainian, but for example Icelandic and German dont even have rules in building the plural at all. the way you do it is just totally random. so, i think it is very easy too acquire a basic english knowledge, but the more you get into it, you realize that you need a huge vocabulary to speak and understand properly. that is, i think, the greatest difficulty. take the word "superfluous" for instance. it is considered quite a fancy word in english and an uneducated people might not even know it. In german it means "überflüssig" and you can be sure that every six year-old knows it. so as i said, its hard to speak english well, but very easy to pick up the basics, in fact much easier than any other language i can think of. but one reaches the point where u need to keep working on it, or you wont make progress. thats the hard part.

Possibly more confusing than most but not the hardest to learn.

It does depend on who´s looking at the question. For Asian speakers it is definitely a difficult language. But languages like Icelandic, German and Polish are even harder to comprehend due to their complex grammar and pronunciation. English no longer distinguishes between set cases like German, Icelandic and Russian do. The Accusative and Dative have been somewhat merged. English also doesn´t assign genders to nouns and/or verbs like Icelandic and German and many other languages. German also exists in many different dialects that can be mutually incomprehensible, similar to Chinese (Mandarin vs. Cantonese). If you´ve ever heard a Bavarian and Tyrolean speak you´ll understand! It depends on the person that is learning the language, background knowledge and willingness to learn a particular language. Some native English speakers even have trouble speaking proper English it seems.

From my point of view the english language might be hard to learn for people who don't understand basic rules of english or just can't remember words and so on. That's not my native language. My mother tongue is Polish ;)

It is not difficult I have been fluent in it since I was 4 and my GF had come an amazingly long way in only 9 months. She only spoke Spanish and American so it has been difficult but so worthwhile.