What is the hardest language to learn? Polish with its "Seven Cases, Seven Genders and very difficult pronunciation". While the average English speaker is fluent by age 12, the average Polish speaker isn't fluent until age 16. Finnish, Hungarian, and Estonian, rate as "very hard". Chinese and Japanese are "fairly hard" though "easy to speak" apparently. Interestingly, as far as this English speaker is concerned, English rates as a "basic to hard" ... Read full entry

Speaking in tongues How does a country where there are over 700 languages and dialects, such as Indonesia for example, go about choosing just one language as its national tongue? Needless to say the prospect presents a number of challenges. A new collection of essays from the Singapore-based Institute of South-East Asian Studies (ISEAS) reviews the region's struggles to build monolingual nations. Several themes emerge: first, globalisation is forcing governments to ... Read full entry