<p>Fluency in Chinese though… Now that’s hard.</p>
<p>@mrnephew </p>
<p>Imagine trying to learn Akkadian…</p>
<p>Gah. I still maintain Chinese is the hardest. Doesn’t matter what you say. [-X </p>
<p>@mrnephew </p>
<p>Mandarin Chinese isn’t that bad once you get a decent level of mechanics</p>
<p>I suck hard enough at Spanish, even though I got 99% in Spanish II, I can’t talk or listen and understand it to save my life. I’m just good at conjugating. </p>
<p>Grammar-wise, Chinese isn’t too hard 
It’s just the characters and pronunciation that gets to people. Chinese pronunciation is very hard, especially with all the tones and sounds that aren’t in English. If you’re comparing Chinese to other common languages learned in high school, like Spanish or French, you’ll find it a lot more difficult. But if you’re comparing it to other Asian languages, like Japanese or Korean, you’ll find it easier (once you can get past the pronunciation and characters). If you’re just talking speaking it, Chinese is the easiest to be fluent in But if you’re talking about the writing system, there are about 50,000 characters in the whole language…</p>
<p>Not even pronunciation. That’s easy. But the fact that there’s like a million meanings for every word and a million words for each meaning… Gah. </p>
<p>I find Japanese and Korean MUCH easier than Chinese. And saying that Chinese is the easiest to be fluent in is a flat-out LIE.</p>
<p>Anecdote time: I became fluent in English in six months. I learned Chinese for six years and I haven’t grasped it yet.</p>
<p>Oh, I’m not even experienced in Chinese, really xD I guess I should just say the pronunciation is harder than Japanese. Japanese is the same in that there’s a lot of different ways to say the same thing. I guess it’s just the different word order that gets to me >_<</p>
<p>I only just started Chinese, and I’ve been learning Japanese for only a year 
I shouldn’t be talking about stuff like this :P</p>
<p>I’ve been learning Hebrew since kindergarten. Right now I’m basically at the Hebrew SAT2 level. I’m spending a year abroad in Israel next year and if I think I’ll be able to carry on a conversation with anyone then I’m just dreaming. (Admittedly, most of my instruction [especially in elementary school] was in biblical Hebrew, but either way, I’ve had enough education in vernacular Hebrew to know that mine… could use some work.)
Most of these language class structures are into breadth, not depth.</p>
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<p>This right here.</p>
<p>@mrnephew Well if you’re a native chinese speaker from day 1 then i don’t think it’s hard…</p>
<p>I started with Spanish 1 in 7th grade, Spanish 2 in 8th grade… up til Spanish 4 in 10th. Then I went the IB route and took SL Spanish in 11th, then stopped (kinda wish I kept going, but also not).</p>