Editing Second-language acquisition (section)

== Language difficulty and learning time ==

The time taken to reach a high level of proficiency can vary depending on the language learned. In the case of native English speakers, some estimates were provided by the ''Foreign Service Institute'' (FSI) of the [[U.S. Department of State]]—which compiled approximate learning expectations for several languages for their professional staff (native English speakers who generally already know other languages).<ref>[https://www.state.gov/foreign-language-training/ FSI’s Experience with Language Learning]</ref> ''Category I Languages'' include e.g. Italian and Swedish (24 weeks or 600 class hours) and French (30 weeks or 750 class hours). ''Category II Languages'' include German, Haitian Creole, Indonesian, Malay, and Swahili (approx. 36 weeks or 900 class hours). ''Category III Languages'' include a lot of languages like Finnish, Polish, Russian, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and many others (approx. 44 weeks, 1100 class hours).

Determining a language's difficulty can depend on a few factors like grammar and pronunciation. For instance, Norwegian is one of the easiest languages to learn for English speakers because its vocabulary shares many cognates and has a sentence structure similar to English.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wordcheats.com/blog/easiest-languages-for-english-speakers-to-learn|title=Easiest Languages for English Speakers to Learn|work=Word Cheats|date=24 September 2024 |access-date=4 Oct 2024}}</ref>

Of the 63 languages analyzed, the five most difficult languages to reach proficiency in speaking and reading, requiring 88 weeks (2200 class hours, ''Category IV Languages''), are Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean. The Foreign Service Institute and the [[National Virtual Translation Center]] both note that Japanese is typically more difficult to learn than other languages in this group.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://zidbits.com/2011/04/what-is-the-hardest-language-to-learn/|title=What's the Hardest Language to Learn?|work=Zidbits|access-date=10 June 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120611010429/http://zidbits.com/2011/04/what-is-the-hardest-language-to-learn/|archive-date=11 June 2012}}</ref>

There are other rankings of language difficulty as the one by ''The British Foreign Office Diplomatic Service Language Centre'' which lists the difficult languages in Class I
(Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin); the easier languages are in Class V (e.g. Afrikaans, Bislama, Catalan, French, Spanish, Swedish).<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.baylanguages.com/language-scale | title=Language Scale | work=Bay Language Academy: The British Foreign Office Diplomatic Service Language Centre | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200220000042/http://www.baylanguages.com/language-scale | archive-date=20 Feb 2020}}</ref>