Hardest Languages To Learn For German Speakers

When I first tried learning German, my neighbors cheerfully told me,
„Ach, Deutsch ist gar nicht so schwer!“
Then they added,
„Aber Spanisch, Französisch, Englisch… die sind ja alle ganz einfach.“
I nodded politely while thinking: If German is the easy one, what terrifying languages do you struggle with?

It turns out German speakers have their own “boss-level” languages—ones that twist grammar, sounds, or writing systems into beautiful nightmares. If you’re an English speaker learning German, this list gives you a fun peek into what Germans themselves fear when they open a new textbook.

Quick Primer

German speakers usually learn English easily. Dutch feels like a friendly neighbor. Spanish and French are doable with effort.

But once they step outside the European comfort zone—especially outside the Indo-European family—difficulty skyrockets.

The usual villains:

• unfamiliar grammar
  
• new writing systems
  
• tones
  
• completely new vocabulary
  
• very different sound systems
  

Let’s look at the languages German speakers consistently rate as “ouch.”

East Asian Heavyweights

Mandarin Chinese

German Perspective	IPA	Meaning
die Töne	/diː tøːnə/	tones
die Schriftzeichen	/ˈʃʁɪftˌt͡saɪ̯çn̩/	characters

Why it’s hard:

• Tones (four main ones + neutral)
  
• Characters instead of an alphabet
  
• No cognates (nothing looks familiar)
  
• Word order feels alien
  
• Pronunciation requires new mouth movements
  

German example sentence:
Chinesisch ist für viele Deutsche sehr schwierig.
/çiˈneːzɪʃ ɪst fyːɐ̯ ˈfiːlə ˈdɔɪ̯tʃə zeːɐ̯ ˈʃviːʁɪç/
Chinese is very difficult for many Germans.

Japanese

Even scarier to many Germans because:

• Three writing systems (Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji)
  
• Honorifics (levels of politeness)
  
• Grammar order (SOV)
  
• Particles everywhere
  

Vocabulary barely overlaps with German, so memorizing feels slow.

Korean

Korean earns immense respect from German learners because:

• Agglutinating grammar (stick-on endings change meaning)
  
• Particles
  
• Honorifics
  
• New phonemes
  
• Politeness levels
  

Good news: Hangul is easy to learn. Bad news: everything after Hangul.

Middle-Eastern Giants

Arabic

German speakers regularly mention:

• Right-to-left script
  
• Different letter forms depending on position
  
• Sounds like ḥ, ʿ that don’t exist in German
  
• Complex verb patterns
  
• Huge dialect differences
  

A German learner must choose: Standard Arabic or a regional dialect?
Answer: both will challenge your soul.

Hebrew

Hard for similar reasons:

• Different alphabet
  
• No vowels written in everyday text
  
• Unfamiliar consonant clusters
  

And again, no cognates to hold onto.

Languages With Unique Sounds

Icelandic

Germans expect it to be easy (Germanic cousin!)…
Then the spelling and sounds hit them like a snowy Viking axe.

Challenges:

• Old-Norse grammar patterns
  
• Complex inflections
  
• Very long compound words
  
• Sounds like þ /θ/ and ð /ð/
  

Finnish

German speakers mention Finnish as “the polite linguistic punch to the face.”

Reasons:

• 15 cases
  
• Completely different vocabulary family (Uralic)
  
• Vowel harmony
  
• Long words with unpredictable endings
  

A German sentence has maybe 1–2 word endings. Finnish has… all of them.

Languages With Tonal Or Musical Speech

Vietnamese

Challenges:

• Six tones
  
• Tonally rich diphthongs
  
• Fast speech rhythm
  
• Pronunciation extremely precise
  

Germans often struggle to produce clear tonal differences.

Thai

• Five tones
  
• New consonant clusters
  
• Script with its own ordering rules
  

Vocabulary relationship to German: absolutely zero.

When Grammar Becomes A Mountain

Hungarian

Another Uralic language (like Finnish) and deeply intimidating:

• 18+ cases
  
• No Indo-European cognates
  
• Agglutination everywhere
  
• Vowel harmony
  
• Flexible word order that still obeys subtle rules
  

German learners often say it feels like solving puzzles instead of learning.

African Languages German Speakers Find Hard

Amharic

Difficult because of:

• Abugida writing system
  
• Unique set of consonant-vowel patterns
  
• Sounds new to German mouths
  

Swahili (less hard but still unfamiliar)

Not as punishing as others but challenging due to:

• Noun-class system (instead of gender)
  
• New vocabulary
  
• Different word order patterns
  

Region Notes

German learners often agree:

• Most Indo-European languages feel somewhat manageable.
  
• Languages with tones, non-Latin scripts, or complex morphology jump to “very hard.”
  
• Scandinavian languages feel familiar in vocabulary but not always in pronunciation.
  
• Eastern European languages like Polish, Russian, Czech are “medium-hard”:
  
  • tough cases, tough consonants
    
  • but at least alphabets are learnable
    

Mini Dialogues

Dialogue 1 – Talking About Chinese

Lernst du wirklich Chinesisch?
/lɛʁnst duː ˈvɪʁklɪç ʃiˈneːzɪʃ/
Are you really learning Chinese?

Ja, aber die Töne bringen mich um.
/jaː ˈʔabɐ diː tøːnə ˈbʁɪŋən mɪç ʔʊm/
Yeah, but the tones are killing me.

Verstehe ich.
/fɛɐ̯ˈʃteːə ɪç/
I get it.

Dialogue 2 – Discussing Japanese

Wie läuft’s mit Japanisch?
/viː lɔɪ̯fts mɪt jaˈpaːnɪʃ/
How’s Japanese going?

Die Schriftzeichen sind brutal schwer.
/diː ˈʃʁɪftˌt͡saɪ̯çn̩ zɪnt bʁuˈtaːl ʃveːɐ̯/
The characters are brutally hard.

Respekt!
/ʁeˈspɛkt/
Respect!

Dialogue 3 – Icelandic Reaction

Warum lernst du Isländisch?
/ˈvaːʁʊm lɛʁnst duː ɪsˈlɛndɪʃ/
Why are you learning Icelandic?

Ich mag die Sprache, aber die Wörter sind so lang.
/ɪç maːk diː ˈʃpʁaːxə ʔabɐ diː ˈvœʁtɐ zɪnt zoː laŋ/
I like the language, but the words are so long.

Das glaube ich sofort.
/das ˈɡlaʊ̯bə ɪç zoˈfɔʁt/
I believe that instantly.

Quick Reference

Language	Why It’s Hard
Mandarin	tones, characters, new structure
Japanese	3 scripts, particles, politeness levels
Korean	grammar endings, honorifics, pronunciation
Arabic	script, new sounds, dialects
Hebrew	alphabet, missing vowels
Icelandic	archaic grammar, pronunciation
Finnish	many cases, new vocab, vowel harmony
Hungarian	18 cases, Uralic structure
Vietnamese	tones, pronunciation precision
Thai	tones, script rules

Five-Minute Practice Plan

• Say aloud 5 languages from the list with their IPA.
  
• Create tiny sentences: Für Deutsche ist ___ schwer.
  
• Shadow Dialogue 1 once with rhythm and stress.
  
• Imagine learning one language—why would it be hard for a German?
  
• Write one micro-line in German: Ich finde ___ interessant.
  
• Pick two languages and compare them using aber (but).
  

Hard Languages? Germans Know The Feeling Too

Next time someone tells you German is “not that bad,” remember this: every language has its monsters.
For German speakers, tones, cases, scripts, and wild grammar systems become the dragons they fear.
And once you see what challenges them, you realise—every learner is heroic, including you, coffee-powered yak and all.