News, views and top stories in your inbox. Don't miss our must-read newsletter Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

It is easier to learn Swahili than Welsh – according to a new study.

New research has reveals it takes a native English speaker an average of 1,040 hours to learn Welsh compared to just 550 hours to become fluent in French.

But learning the tongue-twisting ancient Celtic tongue of Wales is a doddle compared to some other languages.

Mandarin, Arabic or Korean all take 2,200 hours to learn for an average English speaker.

French is the easiest to learn with Portuguese next easiest to at 575 hours of tuition.

(Image: REX)

That is followed by Italian at 590 hours just ahead of Spanish at 600.

German, spoken by 210 million worldwide, takes 750 hours.

In comparison Swahili, an east African language spoken in countries including Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda, takes 900 hours to learn.

The study works out that tuition costs £27 an hour - so is estimated to cost £20,250 for you to chat to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The research, from translation service LanguageLine, estimated that learning Welsh would cost around £28,000 based on £27 per hour tuition.

(Image: Getty)

Julie Brake, senior lecturer in Welsh at Wrexham Glyndwr University, said:

“I don’t think you can categorise a language as being either ‘difficult’ or ‘easy’ to learn but it is certainly easier to become fluent in a language which has similarities with your mother tongue.

“It is also easier to acquire a language if you are surrounded by fluent speakers of that language.

“Welsh learners, particularly those in predominantly English speaking areas of Wales often lack the direct contact with fluent speakers which can facilitate the learning process.”

It is estimated that around 310,600 speak Welsh fluently within Wales.

(Image: Facebook)

It is also spoken by people living in England, Australia and the United States and, most famously by a small colony in Patagonia in the Chubut province of Argentina.

The difficulty rating and time to learn were based on the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) of the US Department of State for most of the languages.

Hindi, Russian, Bengali, Urdu, Punjabi, Farsi, Tamil, Javanese and Telugu are all harder than Welsh but only just.

They take an average of 1,100 hours to become fluent.