This category also includes Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian. Here you’ll find Slavic and Baltic languages such as Polish, Croatian, and Latvian, as well as Greek, Turkish, and Icelandic. (Note: there are no Category III languages spoken in Europe.) Category IV: For people who like a challengeĬategory IV includes the most challenging European languages for English speakers to pick up. Swahili also counts as a Category III language. Category III: IntermediateĬategory III languages are mainly spoken in Southeast Asia, and they include Indonesian and Malay. FSI estimates it would take 30 weeks of intense study to become proficient in German. Though German is very closely related to English, there are grammar quirks that bump it up in difficulty. It uses 26 letters in its alphabet like English (although it also contains additional phonetic sounds), and has a lot in common with modern Dutch.
It might be surprising also to learn that Afrikaans is in this “easiest” category as well. There is a mix Romance and Germanic languages in this classification, including Dutch, Swedish, French, Spanish, and Italian.
The FSI organizes languages into five broad categories based on how different each language and culture is to the United States: Category I: The Quick OnesĬategory I languages are the easiest for English speakers, who can reach reading and speaking proficiency within about half a year of intense study. American diplomats, for example, need to become proficient in the official language of their posting country, and it helps immensely to know how long that might take.
government’s main provider of foreign affairs training – quantifying the “learn time” of various languages is vital. Learning a new language as an adult is big undertaking – so if you want the best value for your time, choose wisely.įor most people, there are no time constraints on becoming fluent in another language, but for the Foreign Service Institute – the U.S. Language Difficulty Ranking For English Speakers
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