Article score: 5 out of 5 (5 reviews)
Which foreign language to choose? Languages for education, travel, career and migration. We will tell you about the peculiarities of languages and difficulties in learning.
Free consultation
Learning a foreign language has many advantages. First, it is good for the brain: people who speak several languages better retain concentration and their intellectual abilities maintain good condition longer[1]. Secondly, it is useful for the career: knowing a second foreign language increases your salary by 20-30% if you work in an area where it is in demand[2]. Finally, it's just interesting: a foreign language opens up a new culture for you, which means a new way to look at the world.
But how to choose a language to learn? The most correct approach, in our opinion, is to choose what your heart tells you. This is at least a guarantee of good motivation. If you have not yet decided what you like, then you can start from more rational considerations. For this, we have prepared a list of languages with educational, career and immigration benefits.
The difficulty level of a foreign language depends on your native language. Generally speaking, the most popular languages can be divided into four groups. Depending on the group where your native tongue belongs, the others can be either simpler or harder to learn.
| Language | Number of speakers, million | Countries | Free education | Scholarships | Cost of language courses, per week | Difficulty level |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| German | 135 | Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium | Germany | DAAD, Erasmus | 370 USD | 1 |
| French | 267 | France, Canada and 27 more countries | No | Erasmus, French Embassy Scholarship | 436 USD | 2 |
| Spanish | 543 | Spain, Mexico, Argentina and 17 more countries | Argentina | Erasmus | 418 USD | 1 |
| Italian | 67 | Italy, Vatican, San Marino | No | Erasmus, state scholarships in Italy | 305 USD | 2 |
| Chinese | 1325 | China, Taiwan, Singapore | No | State scholarships in China | 360 USD | 4 |
| Czech | 13 | Czech Republic | Czech Republic | Erasmus | 655 USD | 3 |
| Russian | 258 | Russian Federation | Russian Federation | State quota for foreigners | 186 USD | 3 |
| Turkish | 88 | Turkey, Cyprus | No | Turkiye Burlari | 380 USD | 3 |
| Japanese | 126 | Japan | No | MEXT | 200 USD | 4 |
| Korean | 82 | Republic of Korea, DPRK | No | Global Korea Scolarship | 181 USD | 4 |
| Arabic | 274 | Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and 22 other countries | No | University scholarships in the UAE | 259 USD | 4 |
You can start learning a new language yourself, there are many useful resources for this. Apps like Babbel, Duolingo, and Memrise have courses in all major languages. If you understand that your choice of language is final, you can enroll in a language school or get a tutor. To make progress even faster, you may take a vacation for language courses abroad. There, in two weeks you will achieve the same results as after a few months of studying at home. For selection of language courses, you can contact us.
German is the official language in six countries: Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Belgium, with 76 million native speakers. The language of Heine and Goethe is the second most widespread in Europe[3]. The total number of German speakers around the world is almost 135 million[4], and another 15 million are learning it as you are reading these lines.
Difficulty level: 1
German is related to English and other Germanic languages: Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish. Moreover, 60% of the vocabulary of German coincides with English[4]. So if you already know English, it will not be so difficult to learn new vocabulary. And then it will be much easier for you to start speaking Scandinavian languages.
Although German is far from the most difficult language, it has its own challenges. To begin with, it is famous for long compound words: they often include more than two roots. For example, the word Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften means "insurance companies providing legal protection." One of the main difficulties in learning German is its grammar. Four cases and three grammatical genders, which are alien to an English speaker, and even articles are inflected. The complex conjugation system, a rigid word order — all this complicates the learning process.
| Country | Monthly living expenses | Average monthly net salary |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | 1,469 USD | 2,860 USD |
| Austria | 1,571 USD | 3,096 USD |
| Liechtenstein | 2,413 USD | 5,522 USD |
| Switzerland | 2,653 USD | 5,139 USD |
| Luxembourg | 2,437 USD | 4,037 USD |
| Belgium | 1,579 USD | 2,556 USD |
The French language has a rich history. Once it was the international language of diplomacy and aristocracy, it was spoken in all European capitals. But from the beginning of the 20th century, English began to replace it in this role. And although French has now lost ground, it is still a truly international language: it is spoken by 267 million people, holding 7th place by the number of speakers, and is recognized as an official language by the UN and 29 former French and Belgian colonies. In modern culture, French has become famous for cinema, music, continental philosophy and literature. French writers have won the most Nobel Prizes in the world.
Difficulty level: 2
French is famous for its beautiful phonetics, but it is not easy to enunciate: there are many sounds absent in English. In oral speech, different words are linked into one according to special rules, and because of this, it is difficult for beginners to understand what the speaker is saying. This phonetic phenomenon is called liaison. Grammar is also difficult: nouns and adjectives are agreed by gender and number, and verbs have 18 tenses. Each has its own rules of formation and exceptions.
But for English speakers French words will be easier. You already know some of them: there are lots of borrowings in English. In addition, after French, it will be easy to learn Spanish and Italian, because these languages are related — they all descended from Latin.
| Country | Monthly living expenses | Average monthly net salary |
|---|---|---|
| France | 1,494 USD | 2,514 USD |
| Canada | 795 USD | 4,162 USD |
| Belgium | 1,579 USD | 2,556 USD |
Since the 16th century, Spanish has been spreading across the globe and is now spoken by 543 million people. By this metric, it ranks 4th in the world after English, Chinese and Hindi. And in terms of the number of speakers, it is second only to the Chinese[8]. Spanish is recognized as official in 18 Latin American countries and in Equatorial Guinea. The largest Hispanic population is in Mexico. 120 million people live there. The second place, oddly enough, is held by the United States. There are even more Spanish speakers than in Spain itself — 59 million people[9].
Difficulty level: 1
There are many dialects in Spanish, which are very different from each other. Therefore, it is better to decide in advance where you are more drawn — to the Iberian Peninsula or to Latin America. Difficulties can be caused by grammar: in Spanish there are articles, agreement on gender and number, many tenses and irregular verbs. Therefore, you just have to memorize the conjugations. On the other hand, English will be of some help in learning vocabulary: you will recognize some words by common roots. And French after Spanish will seem quite simple: the lexical similarity between the two languages is 75%.
| Country | Monthly living expenses | Average monthly net salary |
|---|---|---|
| Spain | 1,243 USD | 2,016 USD |
| Chile | 1,065 USD | 653 USD |
| Uruguay | 935 USD | 590 USD |
| Mexico | 654 USD | 475 USD |
| Argentina | 648 USD | 488 USD |
The language of Dante and Petrarch in the modern world is spoken by 67 million people, or 15% of the EU population[11]. It is recognized by the state in four countries: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino and the Vatican. But in fact, Italians live not only there. In the 20th century, fleeing from terrible poverty, they settled all over the world and flooded Europe, reached the United States and even Latin America. In the States, for example, there are more than 700 thousand of them, and in Argentina — more than a million[12]. There, Italian even influenced the local dialect of Spanish. So there may be more practical uses for Italian than meets the eye.
Difficulty level: 2
Italian sounds very pleasant to the ear, but pronunciation can be difficult. First of all, intonations will seem unusual. In addition, you will have to learn to speak loudly and to actively gesticulate.
Also in Italian there are many irregular verbs, the conjugation of which must be memorized. But some words will be familiar to you from English. And if you already speak French, then the language will be easy for you.
Another feature of Italian is a huge number of dialects, and the differences between them are quite serious. Of course, most Italian citizens have command of the literary norm, but dialects are used for everyday communication in the regions. So if you come, say, to Naples and realize that you do not understand anything, do not be alarmed. When the locals find out that you are a foreigner, they will speak to you in the literary Tuscan dialect.
| Country | Monthly living expenses | Average monthly net salary |
|---|---|---|
| Italy | 1,357 USD | 1,954 USD |
The first language to have ever been spoken outside of Earth’s atmosphere is also the 8th most spoken one in the world[15]. It’s the most widespread one in Eurasia[16] and the language with the largest number of native speakers in Europe — at 258 million speakers worldwide. Russian is officially recognized in the majority of former Soviet republics and satellites, and is the de-facto lingua franca throughout the Commonwealth of Independent States. It has many more utility than it might initially seem — from being used as language of business communication with Russian partner companies, to moving to the country in pursuit of lower tax rates and entrepreneurship opportunities. In addition, you might be surprised by the amount of Russian communities outside of the national borders. For example, there are huge communities of Imperial Russia refugees in Latin America, who have been living there since the 1920s[17].
Difficulty level: 3
Russian is commonly considered to be one of the hardest languages for a native English speaker to learn, right up there with Arabic and Chinese. The alphabet is oddly similar, and yet different. For example, the letter [B] is read as the English [V], not [B]. That sound is indicated in Russian with the letter [Б]. Word stress is hard to understand, as the pronunciation rules are very vague. As a final stroke, there are six entire grammatical cases — and everything needs to be conjugated and agreed accordingly. However, things are not as grim as they might appear at first glance.
For instance, the word order is very flexible — you won’t mess up the meaning of the sentence if you change the word placement. This is mostly thanks to the aforementioned case system. There are no articles, and the verb "to be" is not used in the present tense — once you understand the inflections, is never a problem to make sentences, tovarisch! Another pleasant feature — to change a phrase from a question into a statement and vice versa, you simply need to change the intonation.
| Country | Monthly living expenses | Average monthly net salary |
|---|---|---|
| Russian Federation | 652 USD | 658 USD |
Chinese is the largest language in the world by the number of native speakers, and in terms of the total number of speakers it is only slightly smaller than English[20]. But most of them live in China, and very few in Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia. Once, Chinese had already been an "international" language in East Asia — it was used in Japan, Korea and Vietnam. Now, along with the growth of the PRC's economy, interest in Chinese is also growing: in 2012, 5 million people took the HSK language test, and by 2018 the number had grown to almost 7 million[21].
Difficulty level: 4
There are two main difficulties in learning Chinese. The first is the tone system that replaces the stress we are accustomed to. Don't worry, though, the Chinese phonetics can be understood by anyone. You just need to give it a little time and effort.
The second difficulty is writing. You will have to learn hieroglyphs all the time, especially if you are going to get higher education in China. There is nothing you can do to avoid it. True, modern computers and telephones make life much easier: characters can be typed using the Latin alphabet (Pinyin), you only need to memorize their reading. In fact, you need to be able to recognize them, but writing by hand is no longer so important. And knowledge of hieroglyphs is not required for vocal communication. Another good thing: the grammar in Chinese is easy. You don't need to memorize conjugations, there is no grammatical agreement either — everything is expressed using just word order.
About 70% of the PRC's population speak the standard dialect, which is also sometimes called "Mandarin." But the remaining 30% is 400 million people. Many of them speak dialects that are very different from the standard language. A resident of Beijing and a southerner may simply not understand each other.
| Country | Monthly living expenses | Average monthly net salary |
|---|---|---|
| China | 751 USD | 2,042 USD |
Compared to previous languages, Czech is quite "small" — it is spoken by only 13 million people[25]. Nevertheless, the language and the country have a rich history. Once the Czech Republic was called Bohemia and was part of the Holy Roman Empire. In the 14th century, the Czech king Charles IV even became the emperor. Prague, located in the very heart of Europe, was the center of cultural life. In 1348, Charles University was founded there, one of the oldest institutions of higher education in the world. In the 20th century, Czech culture became worldwide famous thanks to outstanding writers (Jaroslav Hasek, Milan Kundera, Karel Čapek), artists (Alfons Mucha) and composers (Antonín Dvořák).
Now the Czech Republic is a member of the European Union and one of the most developed post-communist countries. At the same time, living costs there are 2-3 times less than in Germany, France or the Netherlands.
Difficulty level: 3
Czech is a Slavic language, a close relative of Russian. The lexical similarity of the two languages is 74%. But there are certain interesting differences. Czech, as well as Russian, has a complex grammar with its own nuances. The nouns here have 14 declensions to learn, and the word order in the sentence is slightly different.
Contrary to the popular myth, knowing one Slavic language doesn’t mean that you will be magically able to perfectly understand any other. However, there are a handful of exceptions, here’s one: Czech is very similar to Slovak. So once you have learned one, you will understand both.
| Country | Monthly living expenses | Average monthly net salary |
|---|---|---|
| Czech Republic | 1,081 USD | 1,236 USD |
Turkish is spoken by 88 million people[27], and not only in Turkey: a large number of migrants live in the Balkans, France, the USA and especially in Germany — more than 2 million people.
Difficulty level: 3
Turkish is a language from the Turkic language family. Therefore, for English speakers, some things in Turkish grammar will seem unusual. For example, the word order: the verb is always placed at the end of a sentence. And there is also a huge number of suffixes that are layered on top of each other. As a result, the word turns out to be very long and can sometimes replace a whole sentence.
| Country | Monthly living expenses | Average monthly net salary |
|---|---|---|
| Turkey | 553 USD | 473 USD |
There are 126 million native speakers in Japan. Interest in the Japanese language is increasing throughout the world: the number of language courses for foreigners in Japan doubled from 120,000 in 2012 to 240,000 in 2017[29]. Many people start learning the language due to their passion for manga, anime and video games. Others do it out of interest in classical painting, literature, or martial arts. Still, there are career prospects: Japan speaks English rather poorly, but due to japantimes.co.jp/opinion/demographic problems-commentary/looking-overseas-solve-japans-labor-shortage/, it is in dire need of foreign workers.
Difficulty level: 4
There is a popular belief that Chinese and Japanese languages are similar, but in fact this is a big delusion. The two countries are really close culturally and geographically, but between the languages there are more differences than similarities. The Japanese writing system consists not only of hieroglyphs, but also of two syllabic alphabets, which add up to a total of 92 characters. Function words, pronouns, endings and foreign borrowings are written with them. Japanese grammar, unlike Chinese, is very complex. You will find many things unusual:
But the pronunciation will not be so difficult. Japanese is a phonetically poor language with fewer sounds than most others.
| Country | Monthly living expenses | Average monthly net salary |
|---|---|---|
| Japan | 1,240 USD | 2,517 USD |
81 million people speak Korean in only two countries — North and South Koreas. Despite this, in recent decades, Korean culture and products have flooded the global market. This phenomenon has even been called the "Korean Wave." Thanks to K-Pop, TV-dramas and manhwa, the number of Korean learners is growing. In the USA, for example, over 20 years it has increased by 85 times: from 163 to 14,000 people[33].
Difficulty level: 4
In the Korean language, unlike Chinese and Japanese, not hieroglyphs are used, but a phonetic alphabet — Hangul. There are only 24 letters in it, so it won't be difficult to learn. But the grammar and phonetics for native speakers of Germanic languages will be unusual: there are many overlapping suffixes and unfamiliar sounds. Another hallmark of Korean is polite speech. To use the language at work, you will have to memorize special polite words and phrases. There are seven styles of courtesy in Korean.
| Country | Monthly living expenses | Average monthly net salary |
|---|---|---|
| Republic of Korea | 1,430 USD | 3,100 USD |
Arabic is the fifth most spoken language in the world, with 346 million speakers[35]. It is recognized as official in 25 countries around the world. The language has a rich history: most of the heritage of the ancient era — Ancient Greece and Rome — came to us thanks to Arabic translations. In addition, it is the official language of worship in Islam, the second most widespread religion in the world. The sophisticated oriental aesthetics pushes many to study Arabic: traditional Islamic miniature, the art of calligraphy, classical poetry and mystical music reveal a world perception that is unusual for Europeans.
Arabic is actually not one language, but a whole group. They are usually called dialects, but the differences are so significant that, for example, a Maghreb resident will not be able to understand the Syrian dialect. It is worth learning the literary Arabic language, as it is used for international communication by the inhabitants of the entire Arabic world. Unless you are going to read the Quran — it is written in the classical language, that has its own differences.
Arabic is considered a difficult language. Nouns and verbs agree in gender, there are three cases that, similar to Russian, change the endings of nouns. Difficulties will be caused by phonetics with unusual sounds and writing, in which letters are written differently depending on the position in the word in a sentence. But this does not mean that Arabic is not worth trying to learn. If you put in enough effort and time, you will definitely succeed.
| Country | Monthly living expenses | Average monthly net salary |
|---|---|---|
| Saudi Arabia | 958 USD | 1,675 USD |
| UAE | 1,695 USD | 2,735 USD |
| Qatar | 1,884 USD | 3,148 USD |
| Kuwait | 1,430 USD | 1,877 USD |
| Bahrain | 1,430 USD | 1,497 USD |
| Oman | 1,036 USD | 1,732 USD |
60+ countries
we work with
$1,000,000 saved
by students through scholarships
6,400 offers
our students got
By clicking “Leave request”, you accept the terms of our Privacy policy and consent to the processing of your personal data.
