FSI language ranking system that rates languages in terms of how long it usually takes English speakers to learn them.

  1. Catagory I: requires around 24 week or 600-750 class hrs - French, Spanish, Romanian, Dutch.
  2. Catagory II: requires around 30 weeks - languages like German.
  3. Catagory III: requires around 36 weeks or 900 hrs - Indonesian, Swahili.
  4. Catagory IV: requires around 44 weeks or 1100 class hrs - Hindi, Thai, Vietnamese, Turkish, Finnish etc.
  5. Catagories V: requires around 88 weeks or 2200 hrs - Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic.

Source: FSI Language Difficulty Ranking