For Vietnamese speakers, some languages are especially tough because they differ massively in grammar, sound systems, and writing. Here are 5 of the hardest, with clear reasons:
🧠 1. German language
👉 Hard mainly because of grammar
- 4 grammatical cases (Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive)
- 3 genders (der / die / das)
- Word order changes depending on sentence structure
👉 Why hard for Vietnamese:
- Vietnamese has no cases, no gender, no conjugation
- German forces you to “think structurally” in a new way
🧠 2. Russian language
👉 Even harder grammar than German
- 6 cases
- Verb aspects (perfective vs imperfective)
- Completely different alphabet (Cyrillic)
👉 Why hard:
- You must learn new script + complex grammar together
🧠 3. Arabic language
👉 Very different from Asian/European languages
- Written right → left
- Letters change shape depending on position
- Root-based word system (3-letter roots)
👉 Why hard:
- Almost no similarity to Vietnamese or English
- Pronunciation includes unfamiliar throat sounds
🧠 4. Japanese language
👉 A “triple difficulty” language
- 3 writing systems:
- Hiragana
- Katakana
- Kanji (Chinese characters)
- Complex honorific system (politeness levels)
- Different sentence structure (SOV)
👉 Why hard:
- Writing alone can take years to master
🧠 5. Korean language
👉 Looks easier, but tricky in practice
- Alphabet (Hangul) is easy
- But:
- Grammar is very different (SOV)
- Many speech levels (formal/informal)
- Verb endings change constantly
👉 Why hard:
- You must adjust how you speak depending on social context
🎯 Honorable mention (also very hard)
- French language → pronunciation & spelling mismatch
- Thai language → tones + writing system
- Chinese language → characters + tones
🧾 Final takeaway
👉 Hardest for Vietnamese = languages that have:
- ❌ Complex grammar (cases, conjugation)
- ❌ New writing systems
- ❌ Very different pronunciation
👉 Easiest tend to be:
- Similar structure
- Or already familiar via English/Chinese influence
