Chinese or Arabic: difficulty level according to foreign service institute

Foreign Service Institute or FSI has categorized languages into different difficulty levels based on the average time it takes to achieve a working proficiency level while learning a foreign language. The basis for this ranking is the time it takes for a native English speaker. Thus, the difficulty for Chinese and Arabic would vary greatly if a person speaks a native language which has some similarities with these languages.

FSI places both Chinese and Arabic in category V which is the category of the most difficult languages to learn. According to this, it takes 88 weeks to learn these languages. They are very different from English in terms of script and many other aspects and thus considered difficult to learn.

We bring you some of the aspects that prove to be a challenge from a learner’s perspective who is trying to learn Chinese or Arabic as a foreign language.

Writing system

Both Chinese and Arabic have unique writing systems which are very different from English. Chinese uses a character system whereas Arabic is written from right to left unlike most languages.

However, many people find learning the Arabic writing system easier, because after the initial hurdle of learning a completely new alphabet, it is easier to practice and master them. The reason being that the Arabic writing system has 28 alphabetic letters which can be learnt with practice.

Chinese on the other hand uses characters for writing which can be very intimidating because it is said that you need to learn anywhere between 3000 to 4000 characters to be able to read a newspaper which is a challenging task.

Spoken language

Both Chinese and Arabic have some unique aspects to consider when it comes to learning how to speak these languages

Chinese is a tonal language which means the same word can mean different when pronounced differently. For example, the word ‘ma’ can mean mother, horse, rough or scold depending on how you say it.

To speak in Arabic could be a challenge for new learners as well because some of the sounds in Arabic do not exist in other languages and it could be a tough task for a learner to get familiarised with the sounds that are made in the back of the throat.

Language variants or dialects

It might not be an exaggeration to say that most languages have more than one variant which is also known as a dialect.

Mandarin and Cantonese are the most known dialects of Chinese and learning standard Mandarin can help even if people speak Cantonese because standard Mandarin is learnt as a second language by many who speak other dialects and can be understood by the majority.

This may not be the case with Arabic. Modern Standard Arabic which is the language of politics and media and is also learnt as a foreign language by many may not be the language that most native speakers use.

Grammar

According to most learners’ Chinese grammar may not be very difficult as it has no gender, tenses and making plurals could be simple with just adding many before the word.

Arabic grammar on the other hand could be more challenging with root words, patterns, verb conjugation, word order, gender, dual and plural forms etc.

Well, this could be a difficult question to answer. However, the difficulty would vary from one individual to another which would be based on many factors. These include the native language of the learner, experience with learning other languages, their learning style, attitude towards learning, the reason for learning etc. The commitment that an individual makes towards learning Chinese or Arabic could also make a huge difference in making the language difficult or easy.

Though both languages are considered to be difficult to learn, the learner’s approach and the resources they use could also make a huge difference in how easy or difficult it can be to learn Chinese or Arabic.

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