Every language, and a real person to learn it with

The default language of work, research and the internet — and the one most often learned for a specific, dated goal like a visa, a degree or a promotion.

1500M speakers

Grammar far simpler than most learners expect, with tones and characters carrying nearly all the difficulty — both of which need live correction.

1100M speakers~2200h to fluency

One of the fastest languages for an English speaker to reach conversation in, and the second-most common native language on earth.

560M speakers~690h to fluency

Modern Standard Arabic and the spoken dialects are different projects — picking a teacher from the right region is the single biggest decision you make.

400M speakers~2200h to fluency

An official language of the UN, the EU and the African Union — and the one whose written form English speakers already half-recognise.

310M speakers~690h to fluency

Brazil alone makes this a top-ten world language, and European and Brazilian varieties diverge enough that choosing a teacher from the right one matters.

260M speakers~552h to fluency

Six cases and a new alphabet up front, then unusually regular going — the early weeks are the whole difficulty curve.

255M speakers~1012h to fluency

The most widely spoken native language in Europe, and the one most often tied to a concrete work or study move.

135M speakers~828h to fluency

Three writing systems and a grammar unlike anything in Europe — the clearest case in this catalogue for learning with a teacher rather than an app.

125M speakers~2200h to fluency

Almost no irregularity and perfectly phonetic spelling; the work is rewiring your instincts for word order and vowel harmony.

88M speakers~1012h to fluency

Phonetically regular and forgiving to pronounce — you sound like yourself in Italian much earlier than in most languages.

85M speakers~552h to fluency

Hangul is genuinely learnable in an afternoon; the honorific system underneath it is what takes years and needs a native ear.

82M speakers~2200h to fluency

Poland's economy has pulled in millions of new residents, and Polish rewards learners with near-phonetic spelling once the consonant clusters stop being frightening.

45M speakers~1012h to fluency

A language people learn for family, heritage and solidarity as often as for work — and one where finding a good teacher has always been the hard part.

40M speakers~1012h to fluency

The closest major language to English, which makes it fast to read and deceptively hard to be taken seriously in — Dutch speakers switch to English the moment you hesitate.

25M speakers~552h to fluency

Readable in a fortnight and quietly hard to say: Swedish is one of the few European languages where pitch carries meaning, so anden is the duck or the spirit depending on the tune. The grammar concedes early, with no cases to learn, and then leaves you two genders that almost nothing predicts.

13M speakers~552h to fluency

One of the fastest languages for an English speaker to read, and the one where the whole difficulty is spoken: two written standards, dialects that nobody smooths out for you, and a citizenship test graded on how you speak.

5M speakers~552h to fluency

Fifteen cases and no relation to the languages beside it, but perfectly regular spelling and no grammatical gender — the difficulty is all front-loaded, and the exam that gates citizenship is scored one skill at a time.

5M speakers~1012h to fluency