I Learned the World's Hardest and Easiest Languages - Here's What I Found

Today we investigate the world's HARDEST and EASIEST language, both of which I have studied. Let's compare and contrast and see what makes them so easy and so difficult!
0:00 Are some languages really “harder” than others?
2:08 What is the hardest language in the world?
5:43 What is the easiest language in the world?
8:03 Do languages “get” anything by being harder?
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[@frenchfilmco4197]

I'm Navajo, raised off the reservation, and have been studying Navajo for years. It's so incredibly difficult and different than English. I've also been studying Japanese for a number of years, and even then, Navajo is so much more difficult, and there are hardly any resources out there to help me pass it down to my kids.

[@christianweatherbroadcasti3491]

Repent and trust in Jesus. He's the only way. We deserve Hell because we've sinned. Lied, lusted stolen, etc. But God sent his son to die on the cross and rise out of the grave. We can receive forgiveness from Jesus. Repent and put your trust in him. John 3:16 Romans 3:23❤❤😊❤

[@Frau_Brotchen]

@@christianweatherbroadcasti3491 screw off 🥰

[@SamBrickell]

Yá'át'ééh 😊 I am not Navajo, but I grew up listening to Tony Hillerman books on tape and love what I understand about the culture.

[@alexsessions4555]

I live on the border of the reservation and my dad's employee is a native speaker, it's wild to hear him talk and he always translates for people who need car service off the reservation. Super cool to see the culture growing up here.

[@lotuscabrio2937]

My indigenious habibi come marry arab woman lol

[@SamuelLumentut]

As a proud Indonesian.. I'm very happy that our language is the easiest to learn. Please start learning our language and you will be amazed as how easy it is to learn. We have no changing words, very easy to read. What you see is what you read literally. Even we basically have no confusing grammar. Just jammed in all your known vocabulary together and we are 99% sure we know what you're talking about. Its THAT simple! Thank you Xioma for learning our language!

[@deutschegeschichte4972]

I definitely have plans to learn Indonesian in the future. I am however moving to Germany from the U.S. soon, so I have to work on getting my German to fluency, and after that I will probably learn Czech, Swedish, Finnish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Polish, and Latvian (I have a language bucket list lol). Once I finish some of those I might try Indonesian.

[@rizkyadiyanto7922]

bahasa melayu speaker: am i joke to you?

[@MattHope13]

@@deutschegeschichte4972Ich auch lerne deutsch zu sprechen aber es ist nicht einfach 🤣

[@stevebrown4486]

​​@@rizkyadiyanto7922indonesian is more structured than melayu because of it was new language that was made in 1945's after independence day. Melayu in other hand is harder because it has accent and the grammar is not always structured like indonesia because it was older and too hard to standarized because of people are use to it.

[@longlivezionism]

@@stevebrown4486 Melayu lebih mudah bagi org yg fluent English, Krn bahasa Melayu skrg banyak influence dr inggris,

[@lilypadsid942]

As a native Indonesian speaker, it was so hard for me to learn English because we simply didn’t possess the knowledge of ‘complicated grammar.’ Even to understand the difference between ‘the’ and ‘a’ took me so long because we simply don’t really use such thing 😅

[@mikael9325]

I feel you. It can be compared to the feeling of trying to learn が and は in Japanese grammar

[@norbertomassari]

Try learning spanish, italian, french or more in general any latin language, there are so many articles and coniugations, english is such an easy language

[@mikael9325]

@@norbertomassari Try learning anything else than a latin language. Maybe Finnish. Navajo. You will find even more conjugations

[@sevilla82400]

@@norbertomassari I would honestly argue English is harder for many people to learn than Spanish, mostly because English breaks its own rules all the time, where as Spanish has a few exceptions here and there but almost always keeps to its own code. Pronunciation is easy and grammar is simple, conjugation is really the only hard part of Spanish in my opinion.

[@bobbobertson9325]

​@@mikael9325as a speaker of English, I found it easier to replace them with "is the one that" and "as for" to understand their function and distinction.

[@WSElC1WS]

My sister had a child with a wonderful guy who was a member of a native Navajo tribe. Unfortunately, he passed away due to some complications, but he quit drinking and smoking when he met my sister. His family is so grateful to have his child and do a lot of celebrations when its his birthday. He is 2 years old and will be turning 3 in January. Their language sounds so majestic and very calming.

[@magvs_maestro216]

Real love. What a beautiful story. My he rest in peace with his ancestors

[@yutub561]

ok

[@paintriarchdave7977]

You sister had a baby with an alcoholic North American? Good for her. What did he do for a living?

[@ryanolsen294]

@@yutub561 that's not very kind

[@Lv-hr2hh]

You could have just said your nephew chap 🤣

[@aqshalst]

Bonus points: Indonesians don't care about grammar, we still know what you mean😂 But dont get your hopes up after learning indonesian, because we only use it only for formal uses. The rest is filled with custom words/slangs that you've probably never heard before. Also different in lots of locations.

[@pax24]

Yes word order is not as important than in other languages. Nama kamu siapa / siapa nama kamu /kamu nama siapa all working to ask the name, even the short contracted "namamu ?" (nama+(ka)mu). It's an easy language but to express complex ideas you will need a longer sentence and use of auxiliary words as sudah, akan, etc.... For example, I am married=saya sudah menikah / I was married=saya sudah menikah... no difference so you have to add context like : I was married but I'm not anymore=Saya sudah menikah tapi sekarang tidak lagi /or/ Saya sudah menikah sebelumnya (before).

[@Dominus_Potatus]

yup... Living in Jakarta, once spoke with Medan people, he used a lot of slang that I had no idea what was the meaning.

[@sneakyeze]

Yup 😂 formally it might be pretty easy to learn but in casual use on top of the slang, literally everything is shortened

[@auralarchipelago]

I actually found that learning casual Indonesian was easier than learning formal Indonesian. For example, casual Indonesian drops most prefixes, so you don't have to remember "BER-bicara" or "MEM-balas," and a lot of grammatical rules that are technically correct for Formal Indonesian (yang baik dan benar) are never used.

[@rizkyadiyanto7922]

i disagree. informal indonesian is used only in jakarta or other metropolitan areas, while other parts of the regions only knows its own local language and the formal indonesian that is tought in school. i grew up in rural eastern javanese and speaking "jakartanese" indonesian feels really weird. i much prefer the formal one.

[@bentoleal8690]

What I like the most is how Ari's experience of learning and speaking so many languages has endeared himself to so many people around the world, all races, cultures, and nationalities. It shows the humanity of it all -- that whatever our language, we seek connection and relationship. People are thrilled when he speaks their language -- "He understands me!!" Keep it up, Xiaomanyc! :-)

[@user-dk6og6mr1g]

I totally agree 😊

[@leoncepierre3963]

When I moved to Indonesia I lost my luggage in flight. Of course I reported the loss and began the process of finding it. After three weeks I went back to the airport and went into the appropriate office. When I walked in I was able to say, "Hello, how are you? I am good, thank you. I am here to check on my lost luggage" in bahasa Indonesian. The office workers were stunned. They immediately wanted to know how I had learned so much in only three weeks. Honestly the language was so easy to learn after three weeks of immersion I was surprised by their reaction. Later I realized they were just surprised that a bule had taken the time to pick up some simple phrases. (Oh, my luggage was in China. It took me six weeks and a kidney to get it back. Just kidding it only took 5 weeks.)

[@scottmarcus6443]

I flew from Jakarta to Singapore then nonstop Singapore to Newark and my luggage somehow ended up in Los Angeles.

[@julzamidala2865]

I feel you. I got air tags for suitcase, laptop and purse. I was able to show the baggage people at my destination that my bag was still at the intermediate stop and they delivered it the next day.

[@KapiH]

Apa Kabar is still my favourite one so far, it was one of the first words I learned during my first time in Java, man lost luggage is the worst feeling ever, I usually try to only take carry on with me but sometimes that is just unavoidable and I always dread the chance of it happening!

[@gfimadcat]

And a kidney? Same. I moved to Indonesia and while I did do some reading beforehand, all I knew was apa kabar and terimah kasih. Took me about a week to be able to order nasi goreng at a streetfood stall, and a few months to learn a good chunk of vocabulary. Still wasn't fluent after 8 years but fluent enough for day to day life. And I got the same reaction a lot, but I always figure that if you live somewhere, you should at least be able to speak some of the native language because well, why not? Living in France now, so trying to osmosis my way into learning that...

[@leoncepierre3963]

I found out that if you just make the attempt people always appreciate it. Loved the crazy fried rice but Rendang is the king of foods as far as I am concerned. That kind of sucks because I am living in po-duct Louisiana now and can not get the ingredients. C"est la vie. @@gfimadcat

[@sserafimimpact]

This was such a fun video! I had a feeling Indonesian would be the easiest. Even as a native English speaker, who grew up learning French, I still found Indonesian significantly easier to study/learn than any of the other languages (French, Spanish, Korean, etc) I'd studied. It's just so intuitive and is one of the few languages where I feel like everything "makes sense"!

[@rifkynda8588]

Glad Indonesian recocnized as 10th official languange of UNESCO, soon be the official languange of United Nations. Indonesian can unify 700 languanges and 1,300 etnichities so I think Indonesian has potention to become international languange

[@slagaming6643]

whats ur discord?

[@ImMrHibachi]

This was one of the most enjoyable and fascinating language related videos I've seen in a long time. Thank you for making it!

[@thudable]

HEY MISTER ! Thanks again for some great intellectual content. I'm almost 60, and I'm getting into Spanish online. You were the final inspiration to proceed. Thank you!

[@Cundor]

Suerte aprendiendo español!

[@FebruaryHas30Days]

Silakan berbicara bahasa Indonesia

[@FebruaryHas30Days]

@@Cundor Say no to conjugations

[@magdalfalfa]

Muy bien! Sigue así 😊

[@FebruaryHas30Days]

@@magdalfalfa Silakan

[@tonyfrobisher9580]

Hi Ari...I've been speaking Indonesian for 26 years, am married to my wife who is from Java. Indonesian is very easy to pick up and learn to communicate in, I agree. But it's rich complexity in nouns (verb - duduk: sit..noun dudukan: seat penduduk: resident) make it challenging as you progress. It's simplicity is its beauty..but I'm still learning. Terima kasih!

[@EDWARDTHE9TH]

This guy is honestly just on another plane of existance.

[@xakcisx]

Yes

[@magvs_maestro216]

He is the Phoenix Force. He's existing on ALL plains of reality, at once

[@artugert]

Nah, he's really not.

[@EDWARDTHE9TH]

@@artugert can you speak more than 3 languages?

[@josedorsaith5261]

​@@EDWARDTHE9TH Yes

[@93games]

I love these types of videos can you do more like this please 🙏🏽

[@itreallybelikethatdoe829]

love ur channel nobody killin it like u fr 🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@devadana1924]

mind blown, excellent video thank you

[@knucklehead0980]

Great run down. Thanks for that!

[@mrgoatbeard]

Now that was a super awesome video thanks Arieh...I honestly knew you were going to say Navajo was the hardest, but was very surprised to hear Indonesian was the easiest...makes me want to learn it now, but live in Germany for 8 years and don't even have the drive to keep learning the language even though I can hold a basic conversation with a German.

[@wordcoffee101]

wouldn't it be easier to learn because you are there surrounded by the German speakers? I am just wondering because I hear that's the easiest way to become fluent

[@mrgoatbeard]

@@wordcoffee101 yeah I would agree immersion does help a lot.

[@dwalther4856]

Wenn Du schon 8 Jahre in Deutschland lebst, solltest Du längst fließend Deutsch sprechen können.Begib Dich heraus aus Deiner Komfortzone , und rede nur noch Deutsch, anstatt alle Personen um Dich herum Englisch reden zu lassen.Du solltest diese darauf hinweisen, nur noch Deutsch mit Dir zu reden.

[@dwalther4856]

@@wordcoffee101These guys are too lazy to speak German, they let the Germans speak English instead.Many people in Germany speak English fluently as well, that`s the problem.

[@mrgoatbeard]

@@dwalther4856 That was 25+ years ago to be honest and I was living on a military base...it wasn't required to know or learn german and I was a kid. The little I did learn and know was to get buy food at the christmas markets and play on a german football team. It is very rare that I meet anyone in the states that speaks but they usually just speak english.

[@Yothatslee]

Yá'át'ééh Xia! Just dropping in to say ‘Thank You’ for the shout out of my people. You honor us Diné ❤️ Ahéhee 🙏🏽

[@whitneysmiltank]

That was a great video. Well done.

[@misskaterinat]

I love this style of video! Super interesting hearing you break languages down

[@countrygirl432]

My late mom spoke 3 languages, one an endangered language, it's called Hogan/Uchinaguchi. When the Rykukan island became under Japanese Empire and renamed Okinawal,the original Okinawan language was banned/forbidden and Japanese was mandatory among other Okinawan traditions ie women hand tattoos etc. Japanese ppl don't understand it,so we will speak it if we are talking about them. There are 8 different dialects in Hogan and now 1 dialect is totally extinct. 😂 My late dad spoke Chahta/Choctaw language. Btw the 1st code talkers wasn't during WW2 with the Navajo. During WW1 the US military used the Choctaw language during the war.

[@williamtaylor3924]

Great Video! You should look into Finnish/Estonian or Lithuanian. The Baltic and Finnic Languages are quite amazing! Although vastly different groups, the case system and inflection is very fascinating. Navajo is even more complex though! Love your videos!

[@anniina00]

I was gonna suggest learning Finnish also. I'd be happy to help ^^

[@Komatik_]

Finnish is really regular though, unlike Navajo.

[@heropyro]

@@Komatik_Fluency takes time i'd assume

[@Komatik_]

@@heropyro Definitely does. It's still way easier than Navajo will ever be.

[@ZackeroniAndCheese]

Excellent video. I will be sharing this

[@cshubs]

One of your best vids!

[@bes03c]

It took me about 3 years of studying Korean to learn what I could in one year of Spanish.

[@FebruaryHas30Days]

And it will take you 3 years of studying Spanish to learn what you could in 1 year of Indonesian

[@Hoppitot]

God I wish I was a spain weeb instead...

[@Pero-zl4jp]

Theoretically. It all really comes down to immersion and interest. I was able to hold a decent conversation in a category 4 language after only 9 months of learning. Took Spanish in school for 4 years and made no such progress. It comes down to interest at the end of the day.

[@imadethiscuziwsbored]

for sure. i'd say my 2 months of very intense Korean study in Korea 5 days a week 4hrs of class a day plus other immersion activities had me speaking better Korean than I did in 3 years of learning French in High School. @@Pero-zl4jp

[@JokosSchaf]

Super interesting video! Would you be interested in making a video to explain the longest and shortest language in spoken and written word? For example Thai takes so much characters to form the same sentence in comparison to English. I would like to know what you think about this aspect. ❤

[@dantesbarbati7519]

Gran video, se aprendió mucho. Abrazo

[@emcovebe478]

What an interesting video! Thank you ❤

[@madmigraineur3815]

I suddenly feel so much better taking an eternity learning Navajo on Duolingo 😂

[@pauldunecat]

And you're a beautiful person for wanting to learn such an interesting language! Wish you all the best in your journey!

[@madmigraineur3815]

@@pauldunecat thank you! I live in AZ, and wanted to connect with some of my friends and neighbors in a meaningful way, and find the language so very complex, but also beautiful. It is by far the hardest language I have ever tried to learn!

[@BartShinn]

​@@pauldunecatsuch a waste of time

[@Komatik_]

That has more to to with Duolingo than Navajo, even if Navajo is stupidly hard.

[@Lendipiano]

Most of us indonesian speak in our own local language for our daily conversation. For example javanese language, sundanese language, and a lot other. We use Indonesian for talking to people from other region that speak different local language, and in formal setting like in school. I'm glad that bahasa indonesia is an easy language because we use it to communicate between us. Would be nightmare if it is hard.

[@ninjanana102]

Wonderful video. Thank you.

[@BruceMount]

I found this really interesting, thank you!

[@namtaw]

Fascinating about navajo. Makes me want to attempt to learn it jus because of the all the fascinating new perspectives that I’d be forced to understand although learning Indonesian sounds good too cause it sounds like I could actually become conversational which is always fun in a new language. I don’t disagree with you about harder languages not necessarily having more to offer, but I do find that sometimes what makes a language difficult to learn is also what makes it more interesting because the irregularities or things that “don’t make sense” that make it harder to memorize are sometimes based on cultural phenomena which comes from random but cool ways that the native speakers express themselves. For example, in Brazilian Portuguese the way you say bodysurf is “pegar jacaraei” which literally means to catch a ride on an alligator. Bodysurfing makes way more sense since it describes the exact action surfing with your body and there aren’t even any alligators in the ocean but somehow this expression caught on as the correct and way cooler way to express the action.

[@czyko]

I still remember my Greek teacher insisting it was such an easy language while we all struggled with the grammar! Interestingly I also met an Arabic speaker who truly believed it was one of the most intuitive language for any child

[@bujfvjg7222]

Try Latin....

[@richardhoulton4016]

@@bujfvjg7222 Exactly!!!!!

[@Kolious_Thrace]

The easy thing of our language 🇬🇷 is the letters and pronunciation! Each letter makes one sound and we read all the letters! Hellenic is the definition of phonetic language! But the nightmare of Hellenic is grammar! For us hearing it and learn to think in Hellenic of course it’s easier to assume the correct form but for a foreigner it’s surely impossible. Grammar is nightmare even for us! Not to mention the ancient Hellenic rules that don’t apply in modern Hellenic because and some of them were stopped being used. But some of them are still used… brainf**k😵‍💫😂

[@Apollonos]

@@Kolious_Thrace Don't forget the other fun aspect of Greek: you have two languages, Katharevousa and Demotiki. Street signs are all in Katharevousa, but everybody speaks Demotiki.

[@Kolious_Thrace]

@@Apollonos demotiki derived from demos meaning people. The simplest like people’s daily language with slang phrases and dialects. Katharevousa derives from katharòs meaning clean/pure. The archaic form of our language without simple forms and slang phrases. The weird thing it that even if katharevousa, the archaic form was abolished at 1978, today we use a mix of ancient modern words and phrases in our demotiki! We don’t use the polytonic system, archaic forms in sentences but we use a huge amount of ancient words… Both rules of ancient and modern grammar are applying in our daily speech… It’s a mess😂

[@alexistheis8860]

SUPER GREAT AND COOL GRAMMATICAL BREAKDOWN!!! Love ur vids man, would love ur thoughts on Romanian, especially its root relations to french and spanish if you ever get the chance!!! love the language work you do all around!

[@J.Arnold]

Great video!

[@Matthew.Morycinski]

Every language has a unique aesthetic quality. It's like various kinds of buildings: a modern skyscraper vs. a Baroque palace. Both are suitable for human habitation, but similarities end there. Languages evolve as people try to be expressive, while continuing to be able to communicate freely. Sometimes this chaotic process ends up creating horrible and wonderful tangles. I love the resulting soundscapes and wordscapes. I am too lazy to learn many, but those I can appreciate, add a special spice to my life.

[@magvs_maestro216]

Now my brain hurts........and I love it! Such an awesome community to be a part of

[@LIZZARDWOLFE]

Great video Ari!

[@StrenkoB]

This was an awesome video. Makes me want to learn Indonesian. I've watched a few Indonesian KZbinrs and listened to some Indonesian music and I really like the sound of the language. I kinda just assumed it would be hard to learn, but this made me feel like I could actually learn it do a decent level.

[@rifkynda8588]

If you like RnB listen to Kaleb J and Pamungkas but if you like Rap listen to Rich Brian

[@user-er9so8mt1s]

The complexity itself doesn’t make language better then others . But the complexity make rooms for attachment and cultural context within it . I am Thai and learn Chinese until native level, its clear to me that two languages are different a lot in how they convey meaning and twist. It s easy to say we can translate the message or idea but not able to equip with all the meanings and contexts .

[@martineloiselle]

super interesting like always. big hug

[@bencorwin]

Fascinating!

[@Petr_97]

Hello Arieh, Well, as a French native speaker, speaking English (C2), German (C1), Russian (B2+) and Spanish (B1), English and Spanish were the easiest for the similar patterns ; German and Russian the "hardest" ones. Yet, after learning German, I found many similarities in the Russian grammar and already knowing the declension system helped me out. I also minored in Dutch and Czech at university and it was rather easy cause I acquired learning mechanisms. I also learned a bunch of other languages out of curiosity such as : Esperanto, Ukrainian, Polish, Yiddish, Jamaican Creole, Hebrew, just to name a few. Learning languages has always been part of a multicultural and social experiment for me. Last but not least, I started to learn Spanish last year out of love, only by communicating with my Peruvian girlfriend. I think the most powerful language is our "love language". For you, it was Mandarin Chinese, for me it was español peruano ❤🇵🇪 Thank you for the great insights 😃😉 ! If people were more open-minded and willing to found out about new cultures and languages like you, there would be less conflicts in this world... Peace ☮ Pierre

[@elen_sth]

Капец ты мощный

[@Petr_97]

@@elen_sth Привет, Алёна! Спасибо за комплимент). Это да, я полиглот 🇫🇷🇬🇧🇩🇪🇷🇺🇪🇸, а безработный...

[@elen_sth]

@@Petr_97 мне нравится, что ты ставишь ) как смайлик

[@Petr_97]

@@elen_sth Уже с 2016 года общаюсь с русскими)) хаха

[@pjb5757]

You should try learning Welsh (Cymraeg) 32letters, 7vowels, 9vowel combinations, word accents, letter mutations - 9 letters can change or mutate, nasal mutations, aspirate mutations, plurals, feminine & masculine nouns, etc. Best wishes, cymru am byth!

[@lw1814]

Im sure he knows how to speak welsh. I wouldn't be surprise if he spoke most European languages as he said that they're the most easiest languages to learn as a whole. He is a native English speaker so it was probably the easiest regional languages he has learned.

[@ibRebecca]

I’d like him to try Welsh too lol

[@janellek21]

He learned Irish, so he may have a fairly easy time with Welsh as they're in the same family, but I'm guessing he'll have difficulty with the pronunciation because of the unique sounds that aren't found in English and words being spelled differently from how they sound. Bechingalw, Llandudno, etc.

[@pjb5757]

@@janellek21 yes, I would like to see him try and pronounce some of those longer Welsh place names.

[@leviturner3265]

@@janellek21 Welsh and Gaelic are not similar. They are both of celtic languages, but are very different. Irish and Gaidhlig would be much more similar. As Irish and Scots are much more related. Either way I would love to learn both Scots, and Welsh.

[@angelmage99]

I think you did a wonderful example a common topic. The only thing you could of added is a slight discussion on ancestral langauges and how the people around you can make a language easier to learn. For example I grew in a location with a lot of Latin American's making it is to study Spanish, because I had people to regularly have conversations with.

[@HandsIntoHistory]

Professional sign language interpreter here. Would love to see you master ASL!

[@mr-vet]

I learned Indonesian in 1995 through a language school, in the DC area, contracted by the Defense Language Institute (DLI). Nine months of school, 5 days/week, 6 hours/day, plus homework. I also studied Spanish at DLI in Monterey CA in 1989 (26 week course), French at the Foreign Service Institute (34 weeks). I learned a little bit of Japanese when I was stationed in Okinawa, Japan. And, I can read, both Portuguese and Italian; with very good comprehension…listening comprehension is a struggle with Portuguese, unless the speak very slowly and enunciate clearly….I can understand spoken Italian, with a decent level of comprehension if the speaker slows down a little bit. I’ve been trying (half-heartedly) to learn Catalan…I can still understand it (spoken and written) to a good extent due to my fluency in Spanish and French, however. And my first foray into languages was in High School where I took both German (2 years) and Spanish (3 years).

[@savvysevvy5654]

Going through Korean in Monterey as we speak! Thank you for your service!

[@katarzynazdrojewska4233]

And?

[@hkrohn]

I agree with you so much! I am a native speaker of Norwegian, and also speak Spanish and Indonesian. Indonesian should definitely be the global language! And as for those supposedly more "sophisticated" languages, like Russian and Arabic, that's complete bs. Even an easy language like Norwegian has, for instance, a set of modal particles ("vel", "jo", "nok", "visst"...) that you might not learn during your first years as a foreign language student, but make the language very precise and seemingly "impossible" to translate. However, such elements are present, in one way or another, in any language in the World.

[@WedsleyFelix]

I'm learning indonesian, and I have to agree with you.

[@LunaR34]

Terima kasih sudah mau belajar bahasa Indonesia :)

[@vhugo77]

I'm a native Spanish speaker and I also speak a little Danish, they also have those words like vel, nok, and vist in Danish

[@Kinjutsuu]

I speak english, danish, spanish, russian, mandarin... of these, Russian is the hardest and most intellectual. Sorry but true. They have many words to describe emotions that are not conceptualized in other languages, like "hygge" in danish. Furthermore russian has tons and tons of endings that can be added to form unique distinct meanings. The palette offers more colors. Maybe xiaoma and other people who dont speak the language should stop pretending to know shit lol

[@ladycempluk2481]

John McWhorter(linguist) suggested that colloquial Indonesian would be an ideal universal language for the world.

[@DaveLopez575]

Excellent video 🤓

[@mondarship]

I would love to hear you speak my language, Greek. Keep making videos we love them

[@HansenPiano]

Please do more videos about Norwegian!

[@AndrewBrown-fq6vp]

Bro one of your best videos. I learnt German for about 3 years but barely remember it because of lack of practice but when I hear Dutch I feel that I can almost understand it but seems like one turn of a Rubix cube away. People think Aussies have ruined their English with slang but I feel its done the opposite. I can fully understand British, American, Canadian and Australian English including slang. Even broken English is pretty easy. You could almost say that Australian slang is a dialect of it's own because I could have a conversation with a friend of mine that I think you would have trouble understanding. There are no set rules. You just have to know it.

[@lw1814]

huh? Australia speaks English.

[@sneakmore]

@@lw1814 thehs na-way yew juhst leunt this

[@Snoop_Dugg]

I think the reason English became so popular is because it has no issues with borrowing words from other languages, from Hindi, French, German, Latin, Greek amongst others.

[@sneakmore]

@@Snoop_Dugg agreed, built off the knowledge and work of others, from many cultures.

[@sneakmore]

@@Snoop_Dugg to be fair it is still a Germanic language so German influence is kinda implied, but the fact it has so many outside influences other than the languages it was born from is the surprising part mostly German, French and Latin but thats definitely not the only influence on English

[@yorkaturr]

As a Finnish person I can say that our language is extremely phonetically consistent. Every letter corresponds to a sound and you say the same sound every time regardless of the word or context. This is why Finnish kids learn to read usually before first grade or during first grade at the latest. However, the conjugation system for nouns and verbs is such a monstrosity that to date I have not met a single foreign person who can nail it. The closest I have had the pleasure to speak with was a Swiss architect who could speak 5 languages on a native level before spending 20 years learning Finnish. So very easy in one way but very difficult in another.

[@gchecosse]

Isn't "first grade" an American thing? As a non US person I think it has something to do with school, but don't know if you're talking about 4 year olds or 18 year olds.

[@Anjasotherchannel]

@@gchecosse it's 6 or 7 years when they start school.

[@Moonwizard420]

As an English speaker and Finnish learner of roughly a year, conjugation was frightening at first but I am finding it easier every day. I can't wait to see where I am at in another year.

[@rinnikuchan1551]

As russian native i can say that our language is really complex which can be considered beautiful. For instance, I love musicals and disney songs and recently i found myself confused by how weirdly complex the same songs I've heard in English are in my mother tongue. And little kids get them and sing them along with the cartoon because they are used to it. But at the same time I think the brevity of these songs in english is far more interesting. More so, I've read Anna Karenina both in Russian and English and i can't say that English SPOILED it for me. Of course it is better to read the book in the original, but it isn't criminal

[@user-dk6og6mr1g]

Hello from Macedonia, the land of the Alexander the Great! 🤗🇲🇰 I love Russia, and i love Russian language so much, it's really melodic and soft. I tried to learn russian, and the vocabulary is very easy, but the grammar is REALLY HaAaaAarDd. 😅

[@ShireTown1824]

love this video

[@bobabooey285]

One of your best videos....I think I have said that to you a few times now

[@paulharrison8379]

I think that the languages of large countries are easier to learn than those of small isolated countries. This is because in a large country historically the language needed to be learned by dozens of groups who only spoke their local dialect well. To communicate these people simplified their language grammar to communicate more easily.

[@laureng7802]

One important point that you didn't cover that contributes to the difficulty level is the availability of resources and conversation partners. The more readily you have access to learning materials or media in your target language, and the easier it is to find someone to converse with, the easier it is, in my opinion, to learn.

[@sarahhatfield6911]

You have just inspired me to start my next language. Indonesian will be my 17th language and thank you because I have been pushing myself to keep up my hobby but have also been procrastinating because of the upkeep of actually using each language so I don't lose it... Your explanation of the structure and simplicity of the language combined with a more exotic feel inspired me again. No more *just upkeep* on the 16 I currently speak/read I am finally going to learn a *new* language again! Thank you Xiaoma.

[@sarahhatfield6911]

Also just to note... Of my current languages Korean has been most difficult for me. The slightest variety of sounds changes the word entirely and structuring words and sentences is so confusing as well. But my cousin and I learned it together and because of that bond we both pushed through the difficulties.

[@CrazfortheZoo]

17? That's impressive. 😅 I feel like I can barely speak English. It's my second language but I haven't spoken my first in near 20 years so it's not that great either.

[@gentleken7864]

Since you mentioned two languages that I've learned (not including my secondary school French 'B' grade), I think I can pop in here. Moved to Sweden from England when I was 24 and worked as a chef for four years. No time for studying, but got an audible 'ping' after two years and knew that I was fluent. It was amazing, a little like the matrix in how I could understand everything going on around me especially in buses and in crowded areas. Then at 29, I moved to South Korea to work as a teacher, and I'm still here. After 16 years here, am high intermediate and frustratingly know that I'm not near the 'ping' yet. Korean grammar is vast. As I live in the countryside, I don't have easy access to classes that someone who lives in Seoul would have. But Koreans are very complimentary when foreigners speak Korean, but I know, as I became fluent in Swedish, that I can do it again. But age is not on my side. But to hear that 'Korean is one of the most difficult' and 'Swedish is easy' helps me feel a little better. Because that's what I've experienced.

[@austinweaver3957]

Anybody else feel better knowing Ari understands the struggle of mastering Spanish as a second or third language? 😂 the conjugations can feel endless with irregulars to remember. It’s vastly different country to country. I grew up an hour from the Mexico border, started studying Spanish at 13, lived in Spain for a year, and now work for a Spanish company and I’m still only B1-B2 level…. Maybe I’m just dense… haha

[@Pero-zl4jp]

If they hired you I think you’re underestimating yourself sir… most people usually do.

[@bangboombam]

You make me feel like I should stop learning Spanish (after one year with slow progress) and start picking another language.. as an Indonesian.

[@austinweaver3957]

@@bangboombam definitely don’t stop! I just get frustrated sometimes not being ‘fluent’. Keep it up 👍🏼

[@bangboombam]

@@austinweaver3957 I will.. err.. won't? Okay.

[@ivanovichdelfin8797]

Por si no lo sabías, existe una tabla de "Terminaciones de los verbos regulares" en la que explica cómo debes conjugar los verbos en función del pronombre, conjugación y tiempo verbal. Incluso los verbos "irregulares" cumplen un patrón determinado en cómo se conjugan. Por cierto, no sé de dónde sacas que es muy diferente de país en país, porque eso es totalmente falso. Mucha suerte, espero que esto te ayude a lograr tu nivel perfecto.

[@zenepow]

The consistency of Indonesian language is like no other Because it's simple grammar rule, learning that would be so much easier

[@estern001]

More of this!

[@JPCorwyn]

All of your vids make me grin, but this one took the proverbial taco. Absolutely hard agree with your picks and your overal thesis at the end. Just...yeah, kinda spot on. Fangz man. :) ~Your Friendly Neighbourhood Blind Guy

[@AnthonyBullard]

The theory that John McWhorter, Professor of Linguistics at Columbia University, has is that languages that are learned by a lot of adult learners simplify over time. In England, this was the Vikings in the Danelaw (and to some extent Welsh / Gaelic speakers). In Indonesia, Bahasa Indonesia was developed as a language of commerce and diplomacy between many hundreds of linguistic groups found on the many islands (and the Malay peninsula). Languages like Navajo that are always learned naturally from birth tend to accrete complexity through time as it’s not that hard for a baby to learn any language they are surrounded by.

[@rifkynda8588]

Imagine Indonesia has 1,300 etnichities and 700 local languange mix austronesian and melanesian but all of them can speak Bahasa Indonesia as lingua franca

[@KapiH]

As someone learning Indonesian and I agree it is easy, the only hard part is to switch off the overcomplicated mindset I have due to speaking several European Languages, the amount of times I make mistakes because I am trying to add another word into the mix then realise no... It is just as literal as it gets! It is a fun language to learn and anyone visiting Indonesia as a whole (not just Bali) should try to learn a bit, it creates some really fun interactions with the locals!

[@lucthenerd]

I hope you'll continue having fun learning Indonesian!

[@whereserik]

+1 for Indonesian. I am interested in your efforts with Navajo and look forward to more vids🎉

[@palinkas78]

Hey, Thank you for your video. I'm a native Hungarian and I'm speaking english, spanish, german and greek. I have to tell you, spanish was super easy to learn after english. With greek I have struggled the most. But all that matters is that you speak, even if you make grammar errors.

[@swedishpsychopath8795]

I asked ChatGPT to write a poem in Navajo language as if it was written by a drunk person. It did and the text came out as perfect Finnish.

[@imadethiscuziwsbored]

oh i tried and it said they don't have navajo in their program database so can't generate text with it

[@danielg6566]

My ex is from Indonesia and I came to the exact same points about Indonesian. The only difficulty I found was as an English native. There are no words that share the same origins, such as Luna in Spanish and the term lunar in English.

[@hawaniadugna]

Hey! Thank you so much for your dedication to learning the languages of the world and sharing your journey with us! It's been super helpful as someone who has interest in learning languages. My question is, what website or app do you use to learn languages---specifically one that is not as common such as Amharic?

[@julienphebert]

Hey 小马，love your stuff man! Finally watched this one, after putting it aside thinking your street work is what I liked best about your channel. But this was great and refreshing, for real. Awesome how you got in to theory a little bit, and your perspective on language learnability. This maybe 千篇一律, but how do you feel about Noam Chomsky philosophy in linguistics? You kinda hinted that you don’t agree. But do you find it interesting at all?

[@CircleOLove]

I love your content! Have you tried learning Hungarian? My great-grandparents on my mother's side of the family were from Hungary. I tried to learn Hungarian and it was impossible (for me).

[@takacsi]

I am Hungarian and I really would like to see him in a two (or more) weeks challenge with my language like he made with the Norwegian language!!

[@MimeFlies]

I've studied several languages (for fun; I'm not fluent in anything but English lol) and subjectively, I think the easiest to pick up so far is the constructed language Esperanto because of how extremely regular it is - I'm about as far in self-study Esperanto in two months as I am in Japanese after a year and change of self study and a few months of formal instruction. I have an equally hard time with German as Japanese for very different reasons, despite German's structure similarity to English, for example, and Japanese's straightforward particles or difference in word order (SOV vs SVO). Learning a gendered language is harder for me than learning a non-gendered language, but might not be for someone that already natively speaks a truly gendered language. There are just so many things that influence this, and it's just so interesting to me. Learning Indonesian has been rather hard for me, too, for some reason. Different strokes for different folks!

[@tysonblake515]

Jes! Mi estas komencanto sed mi amas paroli Esperanton. Estas facila kaj amuza!

[@romajimamulo]

Mi studas Esperanton (kaj studis ĝin dum longa tempo), kaj mi pensas ke ĝi estas tre simplan eŭropan lingvon. As a long time Esperanto studier, I think it's very simple as a European language but some of the assumptions it makes don't totally work for those from other language groups. Ironically though, the prevalence of English helps Esperanto as it puts some of those ideas out there for non-european language speakers to grab onto. It's also a great way to learn language structure. I'm sure if I wasn't studying Esperanto, I wouldn't have gotten as far as I did in Mandarin

[@randallharp7010]

Thank you for a truly fascinating video. Practically speaking (pun unintentional), American English is my only language. I spent a week on a Navajo reservation, and learned only two words. I can speak ABOUT other languages, but I'm not conversational in any of them. I am, however, on a journey to memorize Psalm 119 in Biblical Hebrew. So far, only through the ד stanza.🙂

[@jimyoung6499]

Hello from Manitoba, Canada. I love watching your videos

[@dosgos]

I liked how you backed up your case with detailed examples! How about another video on easy vs. hard beginner-level languages. Spanish is easy to start but gets pretty brutal at the advanced levels. . . And a video on the writing challenges of hanzi, kanji, etc. and how that impacts learning for natives and adult language learners....

[@Windshear_beer]

It would be awesome to try and learn one of the many Aboriginal Australian languages, they're often mentioned as some of the most difficult to learn.

[@ilovecarnitas]

good idea

[@Connor-rt6co]

Great video

[@bacchushollywood2021]

What a great video

[@DerpASherpa117]

It's funny that you mentioned Iceland, because I'm currently on holiday in a hotel room in Laugarvatn, Iceland watching this video. As a native English speaker, I managed to get some Icelandic down while I was here, but I would still put it on the same level of difficulty as German, in fact probably a bit harder. It definitely is more difficult rhan Swedish, Dutch and Norwegian at any rate. I do agree with you about Indonesian being the easiest to learn as for my senior year Field Linguistics course in college, we had to write down and categorize an entire language from scratch from a native speaker of that mystery language (the professor never told us in advance). We had to determine which phonemes and allophones occurred in the language, what morphemes glossed what parts of speech meaning, verbs, conjugations and tenses that were used, what kind of syntax and sentence structure it had and finally generate an entire story from the knowledge we gained. The native speaker was Javanese, which is an Austronesian language very similar to Indonesian (it is geographically part of Indonesia) and we all found the language very intuitive once we understood its pronunciations and basic rules. We especially liked the pluralizing via reduplication and the lack of verb conjugation/tenses.

[@ezxrcfvygbuhinjmk7161]

Nice vid. I think that learning languages is interesting, no matter how difficult they are. btw, the most popular poet in Russia is Pushkin, the second most popular is Lermontov, but few people outside Russia know them. Therefore, that statement about learning Russian for the sake of literature does not look too stupid. But again, the main thing is that the study is interesting.

[@golevka]

я живёт в Америке. I learned Russian because I was a Tarkovsky fan. буд здоров )))

[@icesentence1182]

Enlightening video thanks 🫶🏻

[@ialrakis5173]

Nice video. There's of course also the 'interest' factor. Learning a language just for fun will in most cases be easier than having to learn it for school or work.

[@braydenjohnson730]

Im Choctaw and have been learning to speak it. Choctaw also had code talkers but I find that the language is super simple. You should try it!

[@armandomukti]

As an Indonesian i'm glad xiaoma find Indonesian easy to learn but in extremely rare case, Indonesian will not be phonetic. Take Apel (Apple), Apel (Ceremony), and Apel (To go on a date) for example. The fruit is pronounced differently but the other are completely the same. So yeah context is the most important thing in learning Bahasa Indonesia. Thank for setting light on this.

[@Irishb0y]

that's why i think bahasa indonesia should have 2 type of spelling the letter E, which is E and ẽ for example to differentiate Tebet and Menteng, even for us indonesians is quite confusing, not to mention for foreigners 😅

[@ShinTsurugi7]

Which is why conversational context is very important here as Xiaoma mentioned. Buah Apel, Apel Pagi, Ngapel ma bebeb.

[@yorgunsamuray]

Indonesian has sort of a future tense though. "Akan+V" The difficult part of Indonesian for me: too many similar sounding words. This definitely needs practice and since I'm at a beginner stage, it might make sense afterwards, so I'm not complaining. But let me explain that, to make new words, Indonesian uses a set of affixes such as ber-, me-, ke-, di-, -an, and so on. These make meanings, or at least the word category easy to guess, but ends up having too many words starting and ending similarly. Pengalaman=experience, pembatalan=cancellation, pengadilan=courthouse, permainan=game, perjalanan=travel, pendengaran=hearing...it sometimes gets frustrating.

[@rizkyadiyanto7922]

isnt it the same in english? pengalaman=experience dialami=experienced berpengelaman=experienced mengalami=experiencing batal=cancel pembatalan=cancelation dibatalkan=canceled etc

[@sentinel6660]

Not sure if you get to read all of your comments but I'm going to mention something and hope that you see it. Have you ever heard of an old language called Cornish? It originates from England and is closely related to Welsh and Gaelic. It would be great to see you taking on this language in one of your videos 😊

[@retrograde3654]

just for a little context, formal Indonesian is mostly pretty easy for foreigners. *the problem is that they don't use it daily.* they use slangs more often, even sometimes in formal contexts. add words from other indonesian tribal languages, and you have standard Indonesian spoken by natives. the difficult part is not the language itself, but the form people use daily. everyone will definitely understand "sudahkah kamu membaca surat kabar hari ini?" (have you read today's newspaper), but people tend to use "udah baca koran hari ini belom?", which can sound alien to foreign speakers.

[@gamingandfun7923]

As an english speaker I really want to learn Spanish. I have duolingo and in upcoming yearsI will be able to take Spanish as an elective in school. Anybody have any suggestions, tips, advice etc. Mostly because this video demotivated me to learn Spanish because he just absolutely dissed it the whole video lol.

[@Vehuelmikael]

Deep dive into it, learning phrases in Spanish. Then, survive with it.

[@therealj5girl]

This might be your most interesting video yet!

[@atift5465]

This was a very interesting video

[@swinfeflue]

Try some Finno-Ugric languages, Finnish Estonian Hungarian

[@juliaastarina8763]

Indonesian is an easy language grammar wise, but it will be quite challenging in terms of pronunciation (I personally think Italians, Spaniards, and people from Balkan and Slavic countries will handle this quite well) and how the SVO works in daily spoken form. This doesn't mean any learning materials out there are useless, you still need to know the 'textbook' stuff otherwise you will be stuck with purely casual form and got completely lost in understanding how the grammar works.

[@rifkynda8588]

The pronounciation R in Indonesian similiar with Spanish

[@Nova-Franconia]

Indonesian is not that difficult pronunciation wise, it’s made up of standard letters and sounds, with no special characters (like: äöüëęùúæœøþðãõåłÿýžźżšśß… just to name a few) that make weird sounds. It’s no Court Chinese we’re trying to pronounce here.

[@JoeJoe-bc4pr]

Ari I have been watching you for years from Australia, love your channel! 1 request - please hire a camera man or use a different camera. I get head spins watching your videos these days

[@No_thank_you]

I’d love to challenge you and have you learn native sign language, you’d learn a language and without speaking, what a weird cool challenge for your page! That would be such a rad video!!!

[@ayapamungkas2267]

Indonesian might be easy because its role as unification language (lingua franca). The challenge you'd face when you arrived in Indonesia would be the slangs. Each region has their own language/dialect so the Indonesian slangs would be based on the local language/dialect. But don't you worry. Locals won't use way too much slangs on tourists. But please learn the basic daily slangs before you really plan to visit Indonesia. It'll help you a lot in communicating with locals.

[@_arman_]

Any suggestions on how and where to learn slang or be exposed to it? I've been learning using online resources but I'm discovering that they're teaching me a very formal version. It would he great to learn slang without needing to be in Indonesia

[@rizkyadiyanto7922]

​@@_arman_informal indonesian is just indonesian with broken grammar/word forms because people are too lazy to speak correctly. you can understand them easily. most (99%) indonesian youtubers use informal indonesian so it should be easy to find.

[@_arman_]

@@rizkyadiyanto7922 OK awesome - thanks for the suggestion!

[@ashleymeredith82]

Come to Wales or visit Welsh communities across America and learn Cymraeg.

[@richardhoulton4016]

The language that vowels forgot…or vice versa.

[@Nickle314]

One thing that really annoys me as an Englishman. Why doesn't the BBC put out a program on learning Welsh? It says the BBC want to piss on the Welsh.

[@Nickle314]

It's still an Indo European language. @@richardhoulton4016

[@FYMASMD]

@@Nickle314oh well. 😂

[@Nickle314]

@@FYMASMD it would be good, that every Englishman [or woman] knew a smattering of Welsh. Hello, good bye. How to order some food. Say thank you. Talk about the weather. What's your name? etc. What would that cost the BBC? Peanuts. Instead its two fingers up to the Welsh.

[@trackqueen42]

My husbands cousin just married a native Navajo woman two weeks ago!! Her aunt said a very beautiful prayer of blessing. She said she would try to make it short and now I know why it was not 😅