lpetrich
Contributor
Here is the main source that I've found for difficulty of (natural) language learning for English speakers.
Foreign Language Training - United States Department of State
Is that ranking even halfway plausible? Has anyone made any similar lists for native speakers of other languages? I can imagine the KGB and its successors doing so for speakers of Russian, but I haven't found anything on that.
Foreign Language Training - United States Department of State
Wikibooks:Language Learning Difficulty for English Speakers - Wikibooks, open books for an open world has an earlier version of this list.FSI’s Experience with Language Learning
The following language learning timelines reflect 70 years of experience in teaching languages to U.S. diplomats, and illustrate the time usually required for a student to reach “Professional Working Proficiency” in the language, or a score of “Speaking-3/Reading-3” on the Interagency Language Roundtable scale. These timelines are based on what FSI has observed as the average length of time for a student to achieve proficiency, though the actual time can vary based on a number of factors, including the language learner’s natural ability, prior linguistic experience, and time spent in the classroom.
- I (24 weeks) Afrikaans, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, Galician, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish
- I' (30 weeks) French
- II (36 weeks) German, Haitian Creole, Indonesian, Malay, Swahili, Javanese, Jumieka
- III (44 weeks) (most languages)
- IV (88 weeks) Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean
Is that ranking even halfway plausible? Has anyone made any similar lists for native speakers of other languages? I can imagine the KGB and its successors doing so for speakers of Russian, but I haven't found anything on that.