Expat's Manual
- Introduction
- What is an Expat?
- The Best Countries to Live In For You
- Expat Contract Negotiation
- Planning a Move Abroad
- Expat Insurance
- Settling In
- Learning a Foreign Language
- How to Learn a Language
- Tips for Learning a Language
- Foreign Language Profiles
- Raising Bilingual Children
- Expat Partners
- Moving Abroad Alone
- Living Abroad With Children
- Taking Pets Abroad
- Keeping in Touch
- Starting a Company Abroad
- Work Overseas
- Retiring Abroad
- Coming Back Home: Repatriating
- Meeting Obligations at Home
- Relinquishing Citizenship and Passport Surrender
- Expat Resources
Welcome to our
Expat's Manual
3rd February 2012
Learning a Foreign Language : Foreign Language Profiles
Tools
There are just under 7000 languages spoken throughout the world and it is generally accepted that some of these are harder to learn than others. Here we review foreign language profiles, assessing the difficulty of some of the most commonly spoken languages in the world.
Below we have provided an overview of the top 12 languages, the number of speakers of these languages throughout the world and the difficulty associated with learning that language. This is only intended as a guide and has obvious limitations but we hope that it can be of use as a high level tool for identifying what you are taking on when you choose a language to learn.
Top 12 Foreign Language Profiles
| Language | Difficulty | Popularity | Official language |
| Mandarin Chinese | 5 out of 5 | 1.051 billion speakers | People's Republic of China, Republic of China, Singapore |
| English | 2 out of 5 | 510 million speakers | Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Brunei, Cameroon, Canada, Dominica, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Fiji, The Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Hong Kong (People's Republic of China), India, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Maldives, Malta, Marshall Islands, Maritius, Micronesia, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevs, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somolia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Vanuatu, Zambia, Zimbabwe. |
| Hindi | 3 out of 5 | 490 million speakers | India, Fiji |
| Spanish | 2 out of 5 | 420 million speakers | Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, United States (New Mexico, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela |
| Arabic | 5 out of 5 | 255 million speakers | Modern Standard Arabic: Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Niger, Oman, Palestinian Territories, Quatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Western Sahara, Yemen. | Hasaniya Arabic: Mauritania, Senegal. |
| Russian | 4 out of 5 | 255 million speakers | Abkhazia (part of Georgia), Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyyrgyzstan, Russia, Transnistria (part of Moldova). |
| German | 3 out of 5 | 229 million speakers | Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy (South Tyrol), Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, Siwtzerland |
| Bangali | 3 out of 5 | 215 million speakers | Bangladesh, India |
| Portuguese | 2 out of 5 | 213 million speakers | Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Macau (People's Republic of China), Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé e Príncipe. |
| French | 3 out of 5 | 130 million speakers | Belgium, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo-Brazzaville, Congo-Kinshasa, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, France, French Polynesia, Gabon, Guernsey, Guinea, Haiti, India (Karikal, Pondicherry), Italy, Jersey, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Monaco, New Caledonia, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Switzerland, Togo, United States (Louisiana), Vanuatu |
| Japanese | 5 out of 5 | 127 million speakers | Japan, Palau |
| Urdu | 3 out of 5 | 104 million speakers | India, Pakistan |
| Oriya | out of 5 | 32 million speakers | India |
Sources of Information for Foreign Language Profiles:
Popularity= Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 15th ed. (2005) & Wikipedia.org
Difficulty= http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/languages/index.html
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