If Arabic is the hardest language in the world to learn, or Chinese, why do so many people know it?

[jennifer_bloom]

Does that mean it’s not hard for those who are raised with it?

[Anonymous]

English is considered the second most difficult language in the world, I've been told. And I believe it. There, they're, their. Who/whom. Knife. Read a red book I didn't want to read.

Hell, most English-speakers don't even do it properly. Doesn't stop us from using it though. I assume the same is true of Chinese.

[DiegoO]

Hard for learners. If you grew up speaking arabic of Chinese, it's nothing but part of your daily life.

[DiegoO]

or Chinese (...)**

[DiegoO]

Thanks for the MHO

[purplepoppy]

I assume you're referring to people born outside the area rather than 1st language speakers.
The first thing I'd ask is do they really know it or have they just memorized a few phrases?

Secondly is what do they mean by know it? Can they only understand it written down? Can they understand it spoken but can't speak it well?

Too many claim they speak a language when in reality they've only just begun to learn.

[jennifer_bloom]

So I was a guest visitor in some bilingual Arabic and English social groups and some of their activities were exclusively spoken or written in Arabic but I might low tier medical professionals who said Arabic was hard even though they were born in Arabic speaking languages.

[jennifer_bloom]

*met some medical professionals

[purplepoppy]

European races don't hear subtle tonal differences between sounds as clearly as other races. It can make it harder to learn languages like Chinese.

[DiegoO]

I hope you are joking. There are no races in our species. We are essentially one race.

[brownup]

Arabic is not that hard.. it's grammar is the most complete.. unlike English there are no silly rules like same spelling but different pronunciation

[DailyLife]

Of course. If you hear same words since your born then you can talk.

[love_conquers_lust]

I heard Chinese has a lot of unique characters that are context specific.

[minaed]

Any New language besides your main language, is going to be hard at a point, but when used, in conversation, you will get better eventually. and it will be easy

[AnusNdaPainus]

Chinese is hard asf

[BLP11520]

Finnish is very hard