The map above shows how long it takes US diplomats to learn how to speak various European languages.
Here are the categories and an explanation:
- Native English Speaker
- Category I (24 weeks / 600 class hours)
- Category I* (30 weeks / 750 class hours)
- Category II (36 weeks / 900 class hours)
- Category III (44 weeks / 1100 class hours)
- Category IV (88 weeks / 2200 class hours)
- Unclassified
The following language learning timelines reflect 76 years of experience in teaching languages to U.S. diplomats, and illustrate the time usually required for a student to reach “General Professional Proficiency” in the language, or a score of “Speaking-3 / Reading-3” on the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) 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 several factors, including the language learner’s natural ability, prior linguistic experience, and time spent in the classroom.
N.B. The FSI estimates above refer to full-time classroom hours, where students meet for five 5-hour classes per week. It is expected that students at the FSI supplement their class hours with an additional 3-4 hours of self-study outside of classroom hours every day.
www.state.gov/foreign-language-training
Here is a full list of all languages by category:
Category I Languages: 24-30 weeks (600-750 class hours)
Languages similar to English.
| Danish (24 weeks) | Dutch (24 weeks) | French (30 weeks) |
| Italian (24 weeks) | Norwegian (24 weeks) | Portuguese (24 weeks) |
| Romanian (24 weeks) | Spanish (30 weeks) | Swedish (24 weeks) |
Category II Languages: Approximately 36 weeks (900 class hours)
| German | Haitian Creole | Indonesian |
| Malay | Swahili |
Category III Languages: Approximately 44 weeks (1100 class hours)
“Hard languages” – Languages with significant linguistic and/or cultural differences from English. This list is not exhaustive.
| Albanian | Amharic | Armenian |
| Azerbaijani | Bengali | Bulgarian |
| Burmese | Czech | Dari |
| Estonian | Farsi | Finnish |
| Georgian | Greek | Hebrew |
| Hindi | Hungarian | Icelandic |
| Kazakh | Khmer | Kurdish |
| Kyrgyz | Lao | Latvian |
| Lithuanian | Macedonian | Mongolian |
| Nepali | Polish | Russian |
| Serbo-Croatian | Sinhala | Slovak |
| Slovenian | Somali | Tagalog |
| Tajiki | Tamil | Telugu |
| Thai | Tibetan | Turkish |
| Turkmen | Ukrainian | Urdu |
| Uzbek | Vietnamese |
Category IV Languages: 88 weeks (2200 class hours)
“Super-hard languages” – Languages which are exceptionally difficult for native English speakers.
| Arabic | Chinese – Cantonese | Chinese – Mandarin |
| Japanese | Korean |
Do you think these are accurate?
Frank Cranmer says
Presumably no-one bothers to learn Maltese – which must be fairly difficult, given that it’s a Semitic language.
Peter B. Ives says
I took a short course in Japanese and didn’t consider its structure that difficult. However, the writing system is unnecessarily complicated by the large number of ancient Kanji characters from Chinese. Also, the silly use of Katakana that differentiates foreign words. Unlike the tonal languages, Japanese can be rather easily Romanized. Should have been adopted long ago.
Brilliant Maps says
I agree with this. Spent a year teaching English in Japan and learning the basics of Japanese was not that hard, with the exception all the Kanji characters. I liked the use of Katakana as there was like a 50% chance the word being an English one, very useful for restaurant menus.
Patrick Mahaffey says
I don’t understand why they rate French as harder to learn than most other Romance languages, given that there is at least a 40% overlap in vocabulary with English. Perhaps it is because of its somewhat difficult nasal sounds and non-phonetic spelling? Also I don’t understand why Spanish is rated as harder than Italian and Portuguese. Personally, I have found them all about the same.
Marko Trzun says
I agree on Spanish. French is harder though, as reading/writing is much harder. A non Spanish or non Italian speaker can, theoretically, read the languages pretty much comprehensibly, not so in French. Many sounds get ommitted while reading, which does not occur in Spanish or Italian.
Portuguese though is something different, there again some sounds are not always the same in reading… but it is easier than French, so I guess that is why it is green…