The 6 Most Influential Languages in the World, and How to Learn them Online for Free
If you’re interested in global travel, you’re probably also interested in learning a couple new languages. There’s no better where to really get involved in foreign cultures than to talk to the locals in their native tongue! But what language(s) should you learn? There are literally thousands of languages spoken in the world today. After all, language learning is tough. It makes the most sense to learn a one of the more influential modern languages, which you can use to communicate with a high number of people across a vast geographic area.
So, which are the most influential languages in the world? Inspired by Andy Hobotraveler’s recent post on The Six Languages to Learn, I decided to do a little research of my own and contribute to the debate of which are the most useful languages to the global traveler. I stumbled across a 1999 study by George Weber ( http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/reprints.../rep-weber.htm) that suggests that the 6 most influential languages in the world are:
* English
* French
* Spanish
* Russian
* Arabic
* Chinese
This study looks at the total number of world speakers, geographical influence, economic power of countries speaking the language, literary and scientific use of each language. These are the same 6 languages suggested by Andy in his post, and consequentially are also the 6 official languages of the United Nations.
Personally I found this information extremely interesting and helpful as a traveler. I unfortunately cannot spend my time learning thousands of different languages, so this study lets us know which languages will give us the biggest “bang for our buck”. All of the factors that Weber considered in his study are not necessarily pertinent to the traveler. However, two big factors he considered, that I think are extremely useful to the traveling community are: Total number of speakers (both primary and secondary), and number of countries that speak each language.
Country Total number of Speakers (primary & secondary) Countries in which Language is Spoken
English 480 million 115
French 265 million 35
Spanish 320 million 20
Russian 285 million 16
Arabic 221 million 24
Mandarin Chinese 1.12 billion 5
(Weber, 1999)
The map at the end illustrates just how global each of these languages is. Highlighted countries either claim the language as their official dialect, or have a significant percentage of population that speaks that language.
languages
(original map template taken from Wikipedia.org, idea from Andy Hobotraveler)
Now I don’t want to discredit local languages here, and certainly would not say that local languages are not worth learning. Languages do a lot more than just communicate, they express feelings, sentiments, and emotions, each in its own unique way. To forget that demonstrates an extreme insensitivity to those populations and humankind for not listening to each native population through its own medium of expression. However, I do think it’s very interesting to visualize, just how far-reaching each of these languages is. It seems that one really could travel the globe, and COMMUNICATE, with just 6 languages!
Learn the other 5 languages online for free:
After putting together the map above and visualizing each language’s global influence, I felt pretty motivated to start learning some new languages. However, 5 new languages is a daunting task, where to start!? I’ve been interested in linguistics for some time now, and have recently done a lot of research on the many online resources available for language learning, so I put together a list of resources for learning each of these global languages (other than English as I assume my readers already have a good grasp on that one). The following links will take you to a list and short review of some of the better free resources available on the web for starting your study of each language.
* French - http://gobudgettravel.com/languages/...nline-for-free
* Spanish - http://gobudgettravel.com/languages/...nline-for-free
* Russian - http://gobudgettravel.com/languages/...nline-for-free
* Arabic - http://gobudgettravel.com/languages/...nline-for-free
* Mandarin Chinese - http://gobudgettravel.com/languages/...nline-for-free
If you’re interested in global travel, you’re probably also interested in learning a couple new languages. There’s no better where to really get involved in foreign cultures than to talk to the locals in their native tongue! But what language(s) should you learn? There are literally thousands of languages spoken in the world today. After all, language learning is tough. It makes the most sense to learn a one of the more influential modern languages, which you can use to communicate with a high number of people across a vast geographic area.
So, which are the most influential languages in the world? Inspired by Andy Hobotraveler’s recent post on The Six Languages to Learn, I decided to do a little research of my own and contribute to the debate of which are the most useful languages to the global traveler. I stumbled across a 1999 study by George Weber ( http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/reprints.../rep-weber.htm) that suggests that the 6 most influential languages in the world are:
* English
* French
* Spanish
* Russian
* Arabic
* Chinese
This study looks at the total number of world speakers, geographical influence, economic power of countries speaking the language, literary and scientific use of each language. These are the same 6 languages suggested by Andy in his post, and consequentially are also the 6 official languages of the United Nations.
Personally I found this information extremely interesting and helpful as a traveler. I unfortunately cannot spend my time learning thousands of different languages, so this study lets us know which languages will give us the biggest “bang for our buck”. All of the factors that Weber considered in his study are not necessarily pertinent to the traveler. However, two big factors he considered, that I think are extremely useful to the traveling community are: Total number of speakers (both primary and secondary), and number of countries that speak each language.
Country Total number of Speakers (primary & secondary) Countries in which Language is Spoken
English 480 million 115
French 265 million 35
Spanish 320 million 20
Russian 285 million 16
Arabic 221 million 24
Mandarin Chinese 1.12 billion 5
(Weber, 1999)
The map at the end illustrates just how global each of these languages is. Highlighted countries either claim the language as their official dialect, or have a significant percentage of population that speaks that language.
languages
(original map template taken from Wikipedia.org, idea from Andy Hobotraveler)
Now I don’t want to discredit local languages here, and certainly would not say that local languages are not worth learning. Languages do a lot more than just communicate, they express feelings, sentiments, and emotions, each in its own unique way. To forget that demonstrates an extreme insensitivity to those populations and humankind for not listening to each native population through its own medium of expression. However, I do think it’s very interesting to visualize, just how far-reaching each of these languages is. It seems that one really could travel the globe, and COMMUNICATE, with just 6 languages!
Learn the other 5 languages online for free:
After putting together the map above and visualizing each language’s global influence, I felt pretty motivated to start learning some new languages. However, 5 new languages is a daunting task, where to start!? I’ve been interested in linguistics for some time now, and have recently done a lot of research on the many online resources available for language learning, so I put together a list of resources for learning each of these global languages (other than English as I assume my readers already have a good grasp on that one). The following links will take you to a list and short review of some of the better free resources available on the web for starting your study of each language.
* French - http://gobudgettravel.com/languages/...nline-for-free
* Spanish - http://gobudgettravel.com/languages/...nline-for-free
* Russian - http://gobudgettravel.com/languages/...nline-for-free
* Arabic - http://gobudgettravel.com/languages/...nline-for-free
* Mandarin Chinese - http://gobudgettravel.com/languages/...nline-for-free
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