So why are English and Chinese considered some of the hardest languages to learn? If they are on the isolating side of the spectrum? What does make a language harder or easier to learn anyway? <br><br>I think that spectrum is an awesome analogy for this concept of language.  It makes me think of other properties of light.  The categories, "isolated" "synthetic" etc... Could be thought of like light temperature, 5600k may be an average color of light, but that light is composed of many other frequencies as well.,(reply>), +veggiet2009 English and Chinese are considered difficult because you have to learn how a word is written along with it's pronounciation. Chinese has a logography and English has irregular spelling rules. In languages with consistent ortographies, when you hear the word, you already know how it is written (with few exceptions)<br><br><br>The grammar of both English and Chinese are very simple compared to other languages. Learning only the spoken language would be very easy.,(reply>), Both because pronunciation and writing. Why isn't “day” pronounced as “die”? “Enough” as “ee-know-g”?,(reply>), @veggiet2009 Even if English and Chinese would be considered hard, it would mostly be because of the pronounciation and the absolutely huge cultures that stand behind them.,(reply>), @veggiet2009 English is NOT considered to be diffucult to learn at all. The only people in the world who believe that are native english speakers. Hundreds of millions of people who learned it as a foreign language can tell you that is in fact a realtively easy language.