The most studied languages

German Speaker   Sun Mar 22, 2009 9:25 am GMT
We can see that the 6 most spoken in terms of non-native speaker are: English, French, Arabic, and Russian.

However the 6 UNO languages are Chinese, English, French, Arabic, Russian.
and Spanish

Finally, the most studied are English, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Arabic.
German Speaker   Sun Mar 22, 2009 9:27 am GMT
We can see that the 6 most spoken in terms of non-native speaker are: English, French, Arabic, and Russian.

However the 6 UNO languages are Chinese, English, French, Arabic, Russian.
and Spanish

Finally, the most studied are English, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Arabic.

It is very interesting that only English, French, and Russian are in all the lists.
Schoenmaker   Sun Mar 22, 2009 9:55 am GMT
I read that the 2 most studied languages are English and French. Spanish has to contend with German and Italian for 3rd place.

It is also amazing that Spanish is in 6th spot.
drew   Sun Mar 22, 2009 8:23 pm GMT
People need to quit posting biased crap here unless they can provide a source. I had trouble finding sources for the most studied languages worldwide. Unless we find one, we'll have to look at the stats for each individual country to add them up.
Mustafa   Sun Mar 22, 2009 8:58 pm GMT
It's difficult to rank Arabic. Native speakers learn to speak one of the dialects or variations, some being unintelligible. Then they learn to read and write the standard in school. But the degree to which they can speak in it varies. I've had Arabs tell me that they have trouble speaking the standard or don't prefer to. Basically, if you learn a variation and/or the standard, not every "Arabic speaker" will be able to talk with you. Here lies the problem.

Also, I don't understand how a language can be written and read one way, but be spoken many different ways. I can understand how it works in Chinese, because they have symbols. But Arabic used a phonetic system, so I don't get that. Can anyone explain?
Explainer   Mon Mar 23, 2009 4:18 am GMT
<< Also, I don't understand how a language can be written and read one way, but be spoken many different ways. I can understand how it works in Chinese, because they have symbols. But Arabic used a phonetic system, so I don't get that. Can anyone explain? >>

It's because Chinese dialects such as Mandarin, Cantonese, Hookienese, Hakka, etc. use the same symbol to write their speeches. If however a Chinese does not speak Mandarin then he would write his message to communicate with the other Chinese as long as the characters are universally known among the Chinese.

It's like when a French speaker who does not speak English and wants to relay "trent-sept" which is not understood by the English speaker and write "37" instead which is universally known all over the world then the English speaker would know what he means.
Smiley   Fri Mar 27, 2009 3:27 pm GMT
"It is amazing that Italian is 6th in the World list of languages. It is only a language spoken by 65 million people in Italy. "

This is a beautiful language, this is the reason. People like the beauty.
Guest   Fri Mar 27, 2009 4:04 pm GMT
"It is amazing that Italian is 6th in the World list of languages. It is only a language spoken by 65 million people in Italy. "


Italy has 65 millions now? wow, the Romanian gypsies are breeding fast.
Burial   Fri Mar 27, 2009 4:30 pm GMT
A good place to learn Arabic is Lebanon:

http://www.showing.com/video/5322/Miss-Beach/
blanchette   Fri Mar 27, 2009 5:47 pm GMT
Italy has 65 millions now? wow, the Romanian gypsies are breeding fast.



Idiot!