Reasons some languages are harder to learn
Some examples of language features alien to English speakers:<p>* Conjugated adjectives, as in Japanese.  To say &quot;it was delicious&quot;, you need to say &quot;it is delicious-ed&quot; (<i>oishikatta desu</i>).<p>* Agglutinative languages, like Finnish or Hungarian, where word order is largely irrelevant and conjugations, not word order, determine meaning.<p>* Topic&#x2F;subject languages, like Japanese, where previously defined context can radically alter meaning.  &quot;Watashi wa hamburger desu&quot; can mean &quot;I&#x27;m a hamburger&quot;, &quot;I&#x27;ll have a hamburger&quot;, &quot;If you ask me, it&#x27;s a hamburger&quot;, etc.<p>* Grammatical gender, as in a whole lot of European languages.<p>* Tones, as in Chinese, Vietnamese, etc.<p>Here&#x27;s a fun survey of the &quot;weirdest languages&quot;, defines as those that exhibit the most features from the World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS):<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;corplinguistics.wordpress.com&#x2F;2013&#x2F;06&#x2F;21&#x2F;the-weirdest-languages&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;corplinguistics.wordpress.com&#x2F;2013&#x2F;06&#x2F;21&#x2F;the-weirdes...</a>