Second language speakers
English is a language very spoken. There are several million people that speak it as second language (the same with French, Spanish, etc).
The problem is the minimum level of a language to include people as real speakers.
That is really important because if we are strict English is hardly spoken by 550 million people (only native and bilingual). If we include all people that have a basic level, you can add easily 1 billion.
So, which should be the minimum level to include people as speakers of a language?
Yes. The most important loser of all this is French, of course. If we are stricter, French is spoken by 110-125 million people (native and bilingual)
If we include all speakers (students, second language users, African people, etc) it is spoken by 250 million people. That is the double.
And is Spnish is spoken by just 20 million people and majority of these are 2nd generation hispanic illegal immigrants in the US who have zero knowledge of Spanish.
French is spoken by 60 millions of people, second speakers included. Balinese, Tamil and Javanese are much more spoken.
Spanish is spoken by 20 million speakers including secondary speakers. Quechua, Aymara, Nahuatl, Quiche, and Portunhol outnumbers it in Latin America.
Mandarin is spoken by 5 million native and bilingual speakers. You might also argue that it has a million or so second language speakers on a good day.
Mamma mia! I am the only native Italian speaker, but there are around 100 million secondary speakers.
French has zero native speakers and 1000 millions of secondary speakers.
I know all of your limited languages, as well as an infinite amount of other possible ones donc I am the only native speaka.
Spanish has zero native speakers and -1000 millions of secondary speakers.
Spanish has zero native speakers and -1000 millions of secondary speakers.