Why is Japanese considered hard?

The Japanese language is considered one of the most difficult to learn by many English speakers. With three separate writing systems, an opposite sentence structure to English, and a complicated hierarchy of politeness, it's decidedly complex.
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Is Japanese as hard as people say?

Japanese is ranked by the U.S. Foreign Services Institute as the most difficult language for native English speakers to learn. The institute uses the time it takes to learn a language to determine its difficulty 23-24 weeks for the easiest and 88 weeks for the hardest.
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Is Japanese harder or Chinese harder?

If you generally have no problems with grasping foreign grammar concepts, Japanese is the easier language. If you find tones easy, and getting used to using them correctly when speaking, Chinese might be easier.
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Is Japanese as hard as Chinese?

Learning to read and write Japanese is probably harder than Chinese because most Japanese characters (kanji) have two or more pronunciations, whereas the vast majority of Chinese characters (hanzi) only have one. In Japanese you also have to contend with two syllabic scripts (hiragana and katakana).
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Why is writing Japanese so hard?

It is Japanese in its written form that presents the most difficulties. Experts agree the Japanese writing system is one of the most complex in the world because it combines five different systems — kanji, hiragana, katakana, Arabic numerals and even the Roman alphabet.
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Is Japanese Hard to Learn?



Is Japanese harder than Korean?

Conclusion. In terms of difficulty, I think Japanese and Korean are at about the same level. Some parts are harder for Korean while other parts are harder for Japanese. However, considering the larger number of sounds and the different particles in Korean, Japanese is definitely the easier language to start in.
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What's the easiest language?

15 of the easiest languages to learn for English speakers - ranked
  • Frisian. Frisian is thought to be one of the languages most closely related to English, and therefore also the easiest for English-speakers to pick up. ...
  • Dutch. ...
  • Norwegian. ...
  • Spanish. ...
  • Portuguese. ...
  • Italian. ...
  • French. ...
  • Swedish.
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What's the hardest language to learn?

1. Mandarin Chinese. Interestingly, the hardest language to learn is also the most widely spoken native language in the world. Mandarin Chinese is challenging for a number of reasons.
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What is the most difficult language in the world?

1. Mandarin. As mentioned before, Mandarin is unanimously considered the toughest language to master in the world! Spoken by over a billion people in the world, the language can be extremely difficult for people whose native languages use the Latin writing system.
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Is Korean more like Japanese or Chinese?

Because Japanese and Korean have Chinese roots, there's a lot of similar vocabulary between these three languages. Linguists believe that around 60% of Korean words and 50% of Japanese words come from Chinese. So if you know one of these languages, it gives you a massive head-start when learning the others.
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Can I learn Japanese in 3 months?

With consistent studying and speaking, for about 30 minutes to an hour a day, you could speak at a conversational level in Japanese in about 3 months.
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Is Mandarin or Japanese more useful?

Since there is so much competition with English speaking Chinese natives, it's hard to find a job that will hire you for language skills alone. Japanese, on the other hand, has less supply and more demand—thus making it a potentially more useful language.
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Is Korean grammar hard?

Korean Grammar Is Really Easy

In Korean, you can speed right through conjugation pretty fast. Korean verbs change based on several factors, such as tense and politeness level. But even when they do change, then they change in a predictable way based on the final consonant (or vowel) of the verb.
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Is Russian easier than Japanese?

After reading through all the differences, Russian probably comes across as the easier language to learn. And it is! For native English speakers, Russian is categorized as taking 44 weeks to learn (or 1,100 hours), while Japanese takes 88 weeks (2,200 hours).
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Is pronouncing Japanese easy?

Compared to English, Japanese pronunciation is easier as it has less vowels and consonants than English does. Further, each syllable in Japanese has the same length and strength, as opposed to English where you have to be careful about which syllables to stress and speak strongly.
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Is learning Japanese worth it?

Understanding the Japanese language will open your eyes to Japanese history, martial arts, entertainment, culture and fashion. Learning Japanese will help you to appreciate your own culture as well as your own language because it improves your communication and cognitive skills.
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What is the sweetest language in the world?

According to a UNESCO survey, Bengali has been voted the sweetest language in the world; positioning Spanish and Dutch as the second and third sweetest tongues.
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Which is the toughest language in Asia?

Mandarin

The most difficult Asian language (and sometimes viewed as the most difficult language) is the same language that is spoken most in the world; Mandarin Chinese.
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What is the most beautiful language in the world?

And the most beautiful languages in the world are…
  • FRENCH – MOST BEAUTIFUL SPOKEN LANGUAGE. If there is a language which draws a unanimous worldwide consent regarding its beauty, it is French. ...
  • GERMAN – MOST BEAUTIFUL SUNG LANGUAGE. ...
  • ARABIC – MOST BEAUTIFUL WRITTEN LANGUAGE. ...
  • ITALIAN – MOST BEAUTIFUL BODY LANGUAGE.
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What are the top 3 languages in the world?

The most spoken languages in the world
  1. English (1,132 million speakers) Native speakers: 379 million. ...
  2. Mandarin (1,117 million speakers) ...
  3. Hindi (615 million speakers) ...
  4. Spanish (534 million speakers) ...
  5. French (280 million speakers) ...
  6. Arabic (274 million speakers) ...
  7. Bengali (265 million speakers) ...
  8. Russian (258 million speakers)
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Can a child learn 3 languages at once?

What we know is that children can learn multiple languages at once, and the benefits of being bilingual are endless. Learning multiple languages from birth is not a new phenomenon either. In fact, raising multilingual children is more common than most people think.
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What is the top 10 hardest language to learn?

Without further ado, these are our top ten hardest (but most rewarding) languages to learn.
...
Top 10 Hardest Languages For Translators to Learn
  1. Mandarin. Mandarin is a language within the Chinese language group and is actually the most spoken language in the world. ...
  2. Arabic. ...
  3. 3. Japanese. ...
  4. Hungarian. ...
  5. Korean. ...
  6. Finnish. ...
  7. Basque. ...
  8. Navajo.
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What language is closest to English?

The closest language to English is one called Frisian, which is a Germanic language spoken by a small population of about 480,000 people. There are three separate dialects of the language, and it's only spoken at the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany.
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What third language should I learn?

All in all, Mandarin is the best language to learn because of its growing economy and number of language speakers. Spanish and Arabic are next for the the top spots for the best language to learn abroad because of the sheer demand and job opportunities for them.
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What is the most useful language to learn?

8 Useful Languages to Learn
  • English. You might be surprised that English isn't the most commonly spoken language in the world. ...
  • Chinese. With more than 1 billion native speakers, Chinese dominates Asia and the world as the most frequently spoken language. ...
  • Spanish. ...
  • Arabic. ...
  • French. ...
  • German. ...
  • Portuguese. ...
  • Russian.
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