In a previous article, I explored some of the many benefits learning a language brings to our lives. If this interests you and you are not yet bilingual, where would you start if you already speak English?
Primarily, your passion for a language will determine whether you want to learn it or not. To help you, in this article I show you a countdown of the most important languages currently, according to the global context.
12. Russian
Russian has more expressions for shades of blue than most other languages. In fact, it divides these shades into light blue (голубой) and dark blue (синий).
Contrary to what it might seem, Russian is the most widely spoken language in Europe. A total of 258 million people speak Russian, 153 of whom speak it as their first language. In addition to Russia, there are six countries that have it as their main language and many others have population centers that speak this language. If you want to learn it, Cyrillic characters are the main difficulty for a foreigner, besides declensions and grammatical modes. It will take you about a year of study for a basic level of communication.
11. Arabic
It is one of the richest languages in vocabulary and has one of the largest lexicons in the world, with about 12 million words. For example, the word "lion" أسد in Arabic has more than three hundred synonyms and there are more than fifty ways to say "love" حب.
This is a macro-language (it has many dialects) spoken by more than 270 million people. It is an official language in 23 countries and co-official in six, all located in the Middle East and Africa. It takes over 2,000 hours of study to communicate in everyday situations, which makes it one of the most difficult languages to learn. Professionally, it is a very useful language to work in translation, tourism, cultural centers, teaching, NGOs and humanitarian institutions.
10. Portuguese
The word "saudade" is typically Portuguese and has a nuance that is difficult to translate. It can be interpreted as "I miss you", although it is not exactly that, as it also refers to a certain state of "melancholy" mixed with love in the distance.
Although the Portuguese spoken in Brazil and Portugal differ in vocabulary, pronunciation and syntax, a Brazilian and a Portuguese can communicate speaking their own language without any difficulty. This language is spoken by 234 million people. Eight countries have it as an official language and there are small populations from various parts of the world. Portuguese is a very useful language to work in tourism, hospitality and in the marketing and import/export departments of international companies.
9. Korean
Although Korean as such is one of the oldest languages, its alphabet is one of the newest. Linguists love Korean. They describe it as the "most accurate phonetic system ever devised," with an alphabet that fits the language like a glove.
Some experts consider it to be a language isolate (no kinship with any living language has been demonstrated). It is estimated that about 77 million people speak Korean. It is spoken mainly on the North and South Korean peninsula and in the Chinese province of Heilongjiang, although population groups can also be found in several countries. Korean is considered a difficult language to learn because of its grammar and vocabulary. South Korea's economy has been ranked as the most competitive in Asia, so working in the import and export departments of companies with relations to Korea could have wide-ranging benefits.
8. Italian
If you're familiar with music, you've probably seen classical music scores with terms like "crescendo", "soprano", "alto" or "tempo". While you may not have noticed that all of these words are Italian in origin, it's no wonder that this language has such a strong influence on the art of classical music.
This language is spoken by more than 67 million people in the world (several countries have Italian colonies), and almost 65 million have it as their mother tongue (in Italy, San Marino and Switzerland). You need to speak Italian if you want to work in music, fashion, art, history, teaching, tourism or cultural and commercial work.
7. Spanish
Spanish is the second language with the most native speakers (after Mandarin), 460 million, and more than 74 million have it as a second language, accumulating a total of 534 million speakers.
Spanish takes the gold medal for the fastest language to speak. And this has been determined by the number of syllables an average speaker manages to say in one second.
With about 600 hours of study, you can handle it in a basic way, although foreigners have difficulty understanding accents and verb conjugations. Professionally, it has many opportunities in the tourism sector and in commercial exchanges with Spain and Latin America.
6. French
The word "cheap" does not exist in French. Instead, equivalents such as "bon marché" (good price) or "pas cher" (not expensive) are used.
Some 279 million people speak French in the world, of which only 77 million are native French speakers, in France, various French population centres around the world, and 5 other countries.
Knowing this language is convenient if you want to work in education, hospitality and tourism, or to work in any French company. It is necessary to invest about 600 hours to begin to get by in the language. French uses five diacritics (acute, circumflex, grave, cedilla and diaeresis), which makes pronunciation one of the greatest challenges for foreigners learning the language.
5. Hindi
The most common form of greeting is using the word "Namaste," which is composed of the two words "namas" ("bow") and "te" ("to you"). When greeting each other, this greeting is usually accompanied by the position of the hands in prayer and a small bow forward.
India has 22 co-official languages. However, Hindi is the most widely spoken. It has more than 615 million speakers, 341 million of whom are native speakers. It takes over 1,000 hours of study to be able to communicate in a basic way. Knowing Hindi facilitates commercial relations with Asia, so it is very useful for professionals who want to do business with Asian companies. It is also useful for working in the scientific field, in translation or in the sectors of the music industry, infrastructure and energy.
4. German
Some words do not exist in any other language. In German, "fremdschämen" refers to the feeling of shame for another person's action. And "Fernweh" (longing for distant travel) is the opposite of "Heimweh" (homesickness).
German is increasingly in demand in the engineering, healthcare, teaching, hospitality, tourism and telecommunications sectors.
German is spoken by a total of 132 million people, 76 of whom are native German speakers. According to experts, it takes 15 weeks of intensive study to learn the basics, while it takes about 400 hours of training to master the language. The most complicated part is the declension of nouns and the construction of sentences.
3. Japanese
How should you write in Japanese: horizontally as we do, or vertically? You should know that writing on both axes is allowed. In Japanese, different words are used for the same concept depending on the level of trust or respect you have with your interlocutor. A total of 128 million people speak Japanese worldwide, and the vast majority of them are native speakers.
Japanese is difficult to learn because of its spelling and grammar. To get to grips with the language, it is necessary to learn kanji, one of the three Japanese writing systems. It will take a foreigner living in Japan more than six months to start communicating and more than two years to write the language.
2. Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin Chinese has four tones and the meaning can change depending on the tonal variation. This is one of the great difficulties encountered by people who study this language.
As China is on its way to becoming an economic superpower in the coming years, those who speak this language will be able to work in a large number of international companies. It is estimated that there are more than 1.117 billion speakers of Chinese as a first or second language, out of the 918 million who are native speakers. It is one of the most difficult languages to learn, both orally and because of the presence of ideograms. There are about 50,000 ideograms and in order not to be considered illiterate you have to know 3,000, although the knowledge of a university student can reach between 6,000 and 10,000.
1. English
Statistically, at least a quarter of the world's population speaks some English. This is the language of the air, which means that all pilots must identify themselves and speak English while flying, regardless of their origin.
Due to the degree of International Superpower applied to the United States, this language is professionally related to multiple areas of the economy. More than half of the volume of information handled on the Internet is in English.
It is the most learned language in the world (as a second language). More than 1,132 million people speak English in the world. A total of 379 million have it as their mother tongue and 753 million as a second language. It is an official language in more than sixty countries. Interestingly, although the United States has the largest native English-speaking population, it is not an official language in the United States.
It is not an essentially difficult language, although it is difficult for foreigners to learn the large number of words, the irregular verbs and, in some cases, the pronunciation. With about 200 hours of study you will be able to begin to master the language.
Now that you have seen the most important languages in the world, which of these would you like to learn?
Cover photo: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/welcome-words-greeting-language-905562/
N011.2021-10-07
I like Portuguese and Italian.