English scores the highest number of words per minute, followed by Spanish with shorter syllables. In non-alphabetic languages, reading speed is slow since they have characters rather than syllables.
Results. The maximum reading speed for Chinese characters was 259.5 ± 38.2 characters/min, which was significantly faster than that for English letters (135.7 ± 18.5 words/min, p = 2.8 × 10‐18).
Whether you write by hand or type, Chinese appears to be the quickest language to scribe in all round.
Types of reading
Auditory reading: hearing out the read words. This is a faster process. Visual reading: understanding the meaning of the word, rather than sounding or hearing. This is the fastest process.
When it comes to published studies, there is no recognized connection between speed reading and IQ or intelligence. If anything, the correlation is not strong enough for it to be considered factual.
Josh Alfred claimed to read 1,679 pages in two seconds in a hilarious skit. A skit by Nigerian comedian Josh Alfred (popularly known as Josh2Funny) in which he claims to be the fastest reader in the world is going viral.
On average, native speakers use 150 syllables a minute. But Spanish people go along at an amazing 300 syllables a minute. Japanese is another fast language. Mandarin is probably the slowest.
Chinese. It's no secret that Chinese has one of the most complicated writing systems out there. The seemingly nonsensical characters can be a bit much even for Chinese toddlers learning to write. This means reading can be a real struggle until you have memorized a certain amount of characters.
Syllabic Rate: This refers to the number of syllables per second. Japanese is the highest here, just beating out the fast-talking Spanish. The hypothesis of the study is that languages with a lower information density (like Japanese) will make up for it by speaking faster.
1. English – 1,121 million speakers. It is the most widely spoken language in the world because of the global impact of England and the United States in the last three centuries.
“When learning a new language, bilinguals rely more than monolinguals on the brain processes that people naturally use for their native language,” Lead author Sarah Grey added, “We also find that bilinguals appear to learn the new language more quickly than monolinguals.”
Fastest talker
Steve Woodmore can rapidly articulate at a rate of 637 words per minute, four times faster than the average human.
2. Arabic. Arabic is the queen of poetic languages, the 6th official language of the UN and second on our list of toughest languages to learn.
Generally, if you're an English speaker with no exposure to other languages, here are some of the most challenging and difficult languages to learn: Mandarin Chinese. Arabic. Vietnamese.
That metaphorical process is at the heart of Toki Pona, the world's smallest language.
Kawishana. Spoken near the Japura River in Brazil, Kawishana (Kaixana) was once a popular language utilized by many. The numbers began dwindling, eventually dropping down to 200. Now, there remains only one documented person still able to speak the language.
Speed Reading — Elon Musk - Level 3 — 100 wpm. Every December, TIME magazine announces its Person of the Year.
It's speculated that Bill Gates reads at a speed of approximately 750 wpm, which allows him to go through 150 pages in an hour.
Speed reading is not a talent, it is a skill, and like every other skill, anyone can learn how to speed read with adequate focus and determination. Just like speaking, nobody was born with the ability to read.