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People often say that Czech is one of the most difficult languages in the world. An English person, however, might find Czech very hard because the grammar structure and words are very different to English. Our students are mostly English speakers and they know that learning Czech is not always a breeze.
The Foreign Service Institute categorizes Czech as a level IV language, which means a very hard language that takes 44 weeks or 1,100 hours to learn at a basic conversational level. If you still decide to learn the basics – you are in for a hard road.
Czech seems a bit easier than Polish for a few reasons. But they are both West Slavic languages, they both have seven cases, and they share similar grammatical features in terms of conjugation and syntax. Written Czech is easier to understand than the spoken language, though.
A fairly common reason why Czech is said to be a very complex language to learn is its supposedly fantastically complicated grammar. Since Czech has seven cases, that , combined with the singular and plural forms, means that you would have to memorise fourteen different forms of one single word.
But the language is beautiful. And you should absolutely go for it. You could also try learning Slovak, since it is basically czech with fewer grammatical rules. It is also understood by most czechs since the language is very similar.
Is Czech worth learning? So from a practical viewpoint, it’s only useful to talk to 16 million people who are almost completely located on the Czech and Slovak territory. But if you want to learn a culturally important Slavic or similar language , Czech is a great choice.
The 6 Hardest Languages For English Speakers To Learn Mandarin Chinese . Interestingly, the hardest language to learn is also the most widely spoken native language in the world. Arabic . Another of the hardest languages for English speakers to pick up is also in the top five most spoken world languages: Arabic . Polish. Russian. Turkish. Danish.
Tier 1 – the best courses for learning Czech online iTalki. CzechClass101. Mluvte Cesky. Pimsleur. Duolingo. Memrise. FSI. Glossika.
You Don’t Need to Speak Czech (but it helps) Outside of Prague and among the older generation you ‘ll find plenty of people who don’t speak English, but nearly all of the younger people in Prague – especially those working in the tourism industry – will be able to help you even if you can barely muster a “prosim.”
Of the Western Slavic languages, Polish is the most important and most useful. There are far more speakers of Polish than of Czech . More Polish -speaking communities can be found abroad than Czech -speaking ones. These communities tend to be far larger, too.
There are 7 cases in Polish and only 4 in German , Polish had lots of consonant clusters which take a lot of time to get used to pronouncing, and German is much more logical in terms of the grammar while Polish is more irregular. On balance, most people would say Polish is harder than German .
Czech language, formerly Bohemian , Czech Čeština , West Slavic language closely related to Slovak , Polish , and the Sorbian languages of eastern Germany. It is spoken in the historical regions of Bohemia, Moravia, and southwestern Silesia in the Czech Republic , where it is the official language.
My understanding is that Polish is generally considered the “hardest” Slavic languages due to the relatively large amount of irregularities — a legacy of extensive contact and influence by non-Slavic languages (like German, Hungarian, French , and so forth).
As a wife/husband of Czech citizens , you can apply for permanent residence after just two years of continuous stay in the Czech Republic (compared to standard five years waiting time). However, it must be at least one year after the wedding.
Czech is really only useful if you live in the Czech Republic or if you are some kind of Slavic language/history/literature academic. Russian will get you by not only in Russia but in Ukraine, Belarus, Khazakistan, the Baltic States, Mongolia, and much of Central Asia.