2's fine (as I think you know). 1 is not.
You could say 'He has a hard time learning English...' or 'He finds learning English hard...'. If he's demonstrative about it, you could say 'He makes hard work of learning English...' or 'he's making heavy weather of learning English...'. The '...does John' is OK, though not formal (and rather dated - my teachers used to say it but my peers don't).
b
According to you , it seems to me that the following four sentences are all right.
'He has a hard time learning English, does John.
'He finds learning English hard,does John.
'He makes hard work of learning English,does John.
'He is making heavy weather of learning English,does John.' (of course he=John)
But I don't know why "He learns English hard, does John," is not , and why "She's a hard life ,has Ma Parker," is right.
In my eyes , if the original 2# is right, 1# is right, too.
By the way, the forth sentence of yours “He is making heavy weather of learning English,does John ," putting up a new question, should we change "does" into "is"?
Thank Bobk very much!