The second

In the languages forum there are a lot of trolls speaking about the importance of French, Spanish and Chinese all the time.

This kind of question should be answer by not biased people.

Which is at this moment the second most important language for Anglos?

Chinese, Spanish, German or French?

<<Which is at this moment the second most important language for Anglos? >>


English is the only important language.


<<Chinese, Spanish, German or French? >>


English.

Yes, perhaps English is second. It depends on where you are.

In my city Spanish first and English second.

<<Which is at this moment the second most important language for Anglos? Chinese, Spanish, German or French? >>


With the "Anglo world" being a collection of countries that are flung pretty far around the world and not really capable of acting like a unified bloc in this regard, I would say that your answer will vary by nation.

In the UK, according to the BBC, French and German are the most popular foreign languages taught.

Canadians also have reason to learn French, as it is one of their two official languages and about 9.5 million, or a third of the population, speak it at home. Unfortunately, they don't leave home much to spread it around; 95% of those French-speakers in Quebec. So it's not commonly spoken in the rest of Canada on any kind of day-to-day basis. Fewer than half a million Canadians speak Spanish, but that is the third most common language there. (http://www.focal.ca/publications/focalpoint/fp0509/?lang=e&article=article8)

The US has more dealings with Latin America and a large hispanic population, so Spanish is more likely to be learned as a second language there. In fact, some 28 million Americans simply learned it at home. Chinese, French and German are the next most popular, but their speakers each number 2 million or less -- piddly in comparison. (http://www.gala-global.org/articles/growing-market-spanish-speakers-us)

Australia, in closer proximity to Asia, has more reason to learn Chinese. According to one of their own government websites, "The most commonly spoken languages in Australia are English, Italian, Greek, Cantonese, Arabic, Mandarin and Vietnamese." (http://www.dfat.gov.au/aib/society.html) So you see, French and Spanish don't even make that list.

New Zealand lists Maori as one of their two official languages. Of course, while many people probably take a cultural interest in that tongue, it isn't spoken anywhere else. New Zealand being pretty isolated in the South Pacific, there isn't much call for French or Spanish either, and Ethnologue.com lists for NZ: "Immigrant languages: Afrikaans, Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, Fijian (3,090), Hakka Chinese, Hindi (11,200), Japanese (3,000), Korean, Latvian, Niue (5,690), Pukapuka (1,050), Rakahanga-Manihiki (2,500), Rarotongan (25,000), Samoan (50,000), Tahitian (260), Tokelauan (1,740), Tongan (3,970), Tuvaluan (600), Yue Chinese (20,000). Also includes Arabic (4,000), Chinese (600), and languages of India (15,000)".

South Africa and India have their own melange of native languages to choose from, in addition to SA's Dutch-derived Afrikans, and there are various other places like Uganda, Singapore, etc. where English is only one of several major languages spoken there.

The US census announcement I just got in the mail has instructions for additional web assistance in 5 other languages besides English: Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Russian (of all things!). No French, no German.

Chinese is the Asian most spoken language and Spanish is the most spoken one in Western Hemisphere. Both languages are becoming World languages, like English.

OTOH, German and French are becoming regional languages, like Italian.