The toughest (and easiest) language for English speakers to learn

By Felicity Duncan.I came across a fabulous chart yesterday showing how hard it is for English speakers to learn other languages. The chart ranks languages in five categories based on how long it takes for the average English speaker to learn them..Included in Category One, taking around 24 weeks to learn, are Afrikaans, French, Norwegian, and Romanian. In Category Two, taking 30 weeks to learn, is German. In Category Three, taking 36 weeks to learn, are Indonesian, Malaysian, and Swahili. Included in Category Four, the largest category, and taking 44 weeks to learn, are Albania, Finnish, Hindi, Greek, Polish, Turkish, Xhosa, and Zulu. Finally, in Category Five and taking 88 weeks to learn, are Arabic, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, and Korean..___STEADY_PAYWALL___.Personally, I'm surprised at how quickly languages can be learned – it's hard to imagine that I could be speaking Hindi after less than a year of study – but I also find it encouraging..In Premium today, you can listen to Alec Hogg talk to Johann Rupert about why Reinet is buying back 20% of its own shares. You can learn how South Africa's audit scandals have exposed grimy truths about the global audit industry and you can read about Toyota's $500 million Uber bet. You can also read about the challenges that Tesla must face up to now that the furore around Elon Musk's half-baked buyout plan is over.

The toughest (and easiest) language for English speakers to learn

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