Do you want to speak more languages? Sure, as Sally Struthers used to say so often, we all do. But the requirements of attaining proficiency in any foreign tongue, no doubt unlike those correspondence courses pitched by that All in the Family star turned daytime TV icon, can seem frustratingly demanding and unclear. But thanks to the research efforts of the Foreign Service Institute, the center of foreign-language training for the United States government for the past 70 years, you can get a sense of how much time it takes, as a native or native-level English speaker, to master any of a host of languages spoken all across the world.
The map above visualizes the languages of Europe (at least those deemed diplomatically important enough to be taught at the FSI), coloring them according the average time commitment they require of an English speaker. In pink, we have the English-speaking countries. The red countries speak Category I languages, those most closely related to English and thus learnable in 575 to 600 hours of study: the traditional high-school foreign languages of Spanish and French, for instance, or the less commonly taught but just about as easily learnable Portuguese and Italian. If you'd like a little more challenge, why not try your hand at German, whose 750 hours of study puts it in Category II — quite literally, a category of its own?
The map reckons Gaelic, Welsh, Breton, and Basque are off the charts.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday December 04 2017, @05:55PM (4 children)
And the inputs to that function can change very quickly - let's look at the hardest splat on the map - the Ugrimugris. I can assure you that if you encounter an Estonian under the age of about 35 (non-rural, and one with Estonian as their home tongue rather than Russian) you are pretty much guaranteed very good English, some of the best in Europe. Flip to the over-50s, and you'll find such skills relatively rare, proof of how well and how quickly Estonia was able to reinvent itself and educate its youth after the soviet occupation.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Virindi on Monday December 04 2017, @06:57PM (3 children)
Actually, Arabic is the hardest language on the map. Look at the bottom :)
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday December 04 2017, @07:48PM
I thought Arabic was off the chart, and the dark blue is just the Arabic-laden version of French they speak in the former Colonies, which should also show up as a dot representing Marseille.
(grin, as he says)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 04 2017, @08:57PM
Arabic hard? Looks to me like Germany is Orange.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Monday December 04 2017, @09:41PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves