Learning a new language can seem overwhelming. This overwhelming feeling is only intensified when you stumble across a word with an obscene amount of letters. Merely trying to read some words out loud can feel like attempting a complex tongue twister. Mark Rice-Oxley recalls in an article for the Guardian that when attempting to learn German he came across many lengthy words.

It was the first thing I found strangely fascinating about German: a word that went on and on until you ran out of breath or got totally lost in the middle. Invariably it had to be hyphenated on to the row below. Geschwindigkeitsbeschränkungen, all 30 letters of it: a very big word for a fairly simple idea (it means speed limits).

(source: The Guardian)

German is not the only language that contains such intimidating words for a non-native speaker. The longest nontechnical word in the English language is thought to be floccinaucinihilipilification (an estimation of something as worthless). Growing up in Wales it was a fun challenge to attempt to pronounce the village Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. Of course many lengthy words are not in common usage and some are coined just to be the longest word in a language. Although some long words can seem intimidating at first, once you tame the beast and are able to pronounce and remember them, casually dropping them into conversations with your friends is bound to impress them.