[Infographic] Vietnamese Only “Moderately” Difficult for Native English Speakers

Many foreigners living in Vietnam find Vietnamese a challenging language to master, often citing its many tones as the biggest stumbling block. According to the US Department of State’s Foreign Service Institute, however, there are plenty of other languages that are more difficult to master for native English speakers.

The Institute categorized 23 languages to see “which…are easiest and most challenging for native English speakers to pick up,” placing them in easy, medium and hard difficulty buckets. 

It also pointed out that the time it takes to learn a language depends on many factors, such as how many hours per week one spends studying, available learning resources, motivation and complexity of the language.