Your Language Rank

Dude Who Knows   Sun Feb 05, 2006 9:12 am GMT
In my opinion, the ten most important languages in the world today are as follows:

1. English - The contemporary lingua franca.

2. Mandarin - Spoken by more people than any other language in the world. While Mandarin Chinese is not relatively widespread in use, China's rising political and economic influence ensures that its official language will only continue to grow in importance.

3. Arabic - A language belonging not to a single country or ethnicity, but to an entire region and culture. As long as the Middle East continues to be a focus of international attention, so to will its preeminent language.

4. Spanish - As many or more native speakers as English, depending on the source of the information. Spanish is one of the world's most widespread languages, with official status in more than 20 countries.

5. Hindi - The second most spoken language worldwide, behind only Mandarin. Despite so many speakers, Hindi's importance is limited by the usage of English among India's elite, as well as a large number of other languages dominating the subcontinent's different regions.

6. Russian - Even with the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian language is still an important fixture in eastern Europe and northern Asia, well beyond the borders of its native land. It's one of the few languages besides English to have almost as many second-language speakers as first-language speakers... and it has a lot of first-language speakers (145 million).

7. Portuguese - More native speakers than Russian, as well as any of the languages ranked below it in importance. It is obviously the first-language of Portugal, as well as heavily-populated Brazil. Portuguese is nonetheless spoken relatively little outside of these two countries.

8. German - As German products continue to flood international markets, so too does their language. German actually has slightly less total speakers than Japanese, but the fact that it is significantly more widespread in usage means that it is ranked just above Japanese in overall international importance.

9. Japanese - Just behind Russian in number of native speakers, the language's use is, however, very limited outside of Japan itself. Still, the economic prowess of the Japanese means that their language will remain an important one on a global scale for many years to come.

10. French - While there are quite a few unlisted languages with more native speakers than French, the stature of the language in Europe ensures that it must be on the list. Like English and Russian, French has almost as many second-language speakers as first-language, and its usage is widespread (in Europe, Africa, and the Americas). The esteem in which French culture is often held, both historically and contemporarily, also results in interest toward the French language from across the globe.
Larissa   Sun Feb 05, 2006 10:12 am GMT
"Arabic speaking world is full of terror, explosion, thuggery and kidnap." yes but because of who? In Iraq for example, because of who, huh? I'm not here for discussions about wars and I know they're not allowed on this forum but the truth is truth! To kill millions of innocent people just because of the oil.
Franco   Sun Feb 05, 2006 10:17 am GMT
millions is an overstatement.

It's all just a big cycle. They're wronging us because we wronged them because they wronged us because we wronged them because they wronged us because we wronged them because they wronged us because we wronged them because they wronged us because we wronged them because they wronged us because we wronged them because they wronged us..... it keeps going. Just a big cycle of revenge.
Guest   Sun Feb 05, 2006 10:58 am GMT
1. Globish - simplified form of english (limited vocabulary and approximative grammar), wich is used as default language in most countries.
Its official form (standard english) is useful in trade.

2. Spanish - main language of the american continents, from terra del fuesgo to US border - second language of US (maybe in equality with english one day ?) - originated from Spain, 8th world economy and fastest growing economy of western Europe.

3. Litterate Arabic - lingua franca and official language in arab world (from Morroco to Emirates: in about 20 countries ), also a widespread language in non-arab muslism countries (Turkey, Iran, indonesia,Pakistan, central asia, bengladesh, Malaysia...)- Important language for Europe (big populations of north african origins and sharing the mediterranean)

4. French - Spoken in four continents, from France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Carribean, most of west African countries, pacific islands.
Very important in European union (all capitals of EU being in french-speaking areas : Brussels, Strasboug, Luxembourg) - very important in diplomacy (United Nations, Unesco, IOC, EU, etc.). Considered by some to be a cultural and attractive language.

5. Chinese - world's most spoken language. Only problem : spoken in only one country and not used at all in internatioanl ways (not yet maybe, let's see)

6. German - important language in Europe, germany being biggest European economy, and the geographic center of EU. Widespread in Central Europe. Problem : almost not spoken outside of Europe.

7. Japanese - Language of the world's second power. Problem : almost not spoken outside of Japan.

8. Russian - Important language in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Siberia. Not really used outside. Not so important due to the relatively weakness of Russia.

9. Portuguese. Important language in south America. language of the first economy of south America (brazil), but spoken only there.
Originated from Europe, spoken in Portugal, witch is a wealthy country but small (10 million people only). Due to imperialist past it is spread to lot of countries, giving it an international status (America, Europe, Africa, even Asia)
CHINESE   Sun Feb 05, 2006 11:26 am GMT
Les pays ou régions où l’on parle le francais:

+France
+Suisse
+Canada (Québec)
+Belgique
+Luxembourg


-Monaco
-Cate d’Ivoire
-Tchad
-Rwanda
-Centrafrique
-Togo
-Gabon
-Guinée
-Mali
-Burkina Faso
-Congo (Démocratique)
-Cameroun)
-Congo (Brasseville)
-Benin
-Niger
-Burundi
-Sénégal
-Djibouti
-Madagascar
-Comores
-Seychelles
-Haiti
-Vanuatu
-Tunisie
-Maroc
-Algérie
-Mauritanie
-Maurice
-Andorre
-Réunion
-Martinique
-Guadeloupe
-Guyane francaise
-Polynésie francaise
-Nouvelle Calédonie
-Wllis-et-Futuna
-Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon

Please see the list of countries which is marked with +, and you will know why French is so popular, but I think people learn French NOT because of the countries marked with -, since it's NOT a motivation for French learners, like it or not, most of people learn French due to + countries.
Philx   Sun Feb 05, 2006 11:26 am GMT
1) Lingua italiana (my mother tongue )
2) English language (Spoken by all in the world)
3) Deteusche (Very important european language)
4) Spanish (sounds caliente to me enogh )
Don't know any other languages.....
CHINESE   Sun Feb 05, 2006 11:41 am GMT
According to my above post, I will be able to educe that French almost don't have any advantage of its colonies, and I think Francophonic colonies should be much worse than the Hispanic Latin American world.

So, if France compared with only Spain, France sure will win! But if Francophonic world compared with Hispanic world, French will lose!
Sander   Sun Feb 05, 2006 12:14 pm GMT
Larissa,

=>6. German (well, I had learned it for 3 years at school and I had never liked it, besides I wouldn't say that it's an important language, so all I can say in German is "Gutten tag" lol and I'm not planning to learn it!) <=

It's 'Guten Tag'.That lowers your ability to speak German to ... 0 ?

I can tell you that German probably outweighs Russian in global importance (It's a modern country).



Thank you!
Sander   Sun Feb 05, 2006 12:26 pm GMT
My personal list:

1. Dutch (My native language)
#. English ( Lingua franca and a very diverse language )
#. German ( I love hard languages, and since I already was born with one , see 1, German is a logical step )
#. Afrikaans (I'm still very much intrigued by this language)
#. Frisian (a minority language, but really it has a wonderful sound)
#. Scandanavian languages (would want to learn one, havent decided yet)
#. Bantu language ( It would be great to speak such a language)
#. Hungarian (Hungary is becoming a Dutch vacation paradise, seems only fair)
#. Chinese ( but ony the written version )
#. Spanish (340 million people speak it, and because most of them aren't able to speak a foreign tongue... )
greg   Sun Feb 05, 2006 2:49 pm GMT
CHINESE : pourquoi y aurait-il (dans ton esprit apparemment ) une rivalité franco-espagnole plutôt qu'une complémentarité ?
Damian in Edinburgh   Sun Feb 05, 2006 3:19 pm GMT
It depends on what the determining factors are in the ranking list. If it's order of knowledge and familiarity, then speaking personally it's:

1 **** ENGLISH *****
I've been speaking it on a daily basis for something not far short of a quarter of a century now, and with all that practice I consider myself reasonably articulate and competent, and if any other English speaker has any problems of comprehension when listening to me then it would be definitely an accent situation....but to be honest, that hasn't happened very much at all even in an internationally visited city such as this one. They even understand me in Glasgow.....most of the time.

2 French
3 German
4 Welsh (now it is and getting better)
5 Spanish

Sadly, Gaelic doesn't feature. I'much, much more likely to hear all of the above Languages (even Welsh) being spoken in the streets of Edinburgh than I am Gaelic. Dutch is a Language frequently hear spoken here but I didn't put it in my list because I have very little personal knowledge of it except to recognise it when I hear it spoken. If it tuns out to be Flemish and NOT Dutch (quite feasible), then that just bears out what I've just said.

The Scandinavian Languages are also fairly commonplace but I have to confess I would not know whether the Language I was hearing was Norwegian, Swedish or Danish. I'd just recognise them as Nordic.
Frank   Sun Feb 05, 2006 3:47 pm GMT
For me it's like this:
1 -- Russian -- my native language which is very nice and rich.
2 -- English -- it's a lingua franca, like it or not... so it's important.
3 -- French -- maybe I'd like this language to be a lingua franca. Still, it's quite important in many parts of the world.
4 -- Arabic -- language of Islam...
5 -- Spanish -- popular in Americas, and in Spain of course.
6 -- German -- widespread in Cenrtal Europe
7 -- Dutch -- I can't leave this language out!
8 -- Turkish -- rising in importance...
9 -- Chinese -- I never cared about it, but there's much discussion about it here and on other forums...
10 -- Italian -- I don't like it but many people in different countries do.
*CarloS*   Mon Feb 06, 2006 8:00 am GMT
My list:

1. English (Very useful worldwide, Lingua Franca, but let's not overestimate it because A LOT of people don't speak it.)

2. Español (Second language with most native speakers and third "most learned". The language of the Americas and spoken worldwide as well in Africa, Asia, Europe and I've heard people in Australia are also starting to learn it... I think it ranks 4th or 5th "most learned" there...)

3. German (I consider this the second most important language of the EU... or "UE" after English... Probably this is because many big companies are German. BUT, IT DOESN'T LOOK EASY TO LEARN...)

4. Chinese* (A promise becoming reality... China has the fastest growing economy and cities like Shanghai, Hong Kong and Beijing make cities like New York and Los Angeles look so "yesterday". Also, Chinese products are everywhere and are leaving Peruvians jobless... Not to mention Chinese investments in Peru, Chinese people and Chinese food of course! I know China is still third world, I won't discuss that, but it's making traditional European economies go through a hard moment. It would be nice if other Asian countries would start learning Chinese as well and make it a "regional" language.)

5. French (This language has ranked low for some reason on the rest of the lists also. I know many Francophones say it's very useful... But, people in France don't earn as much money as people living in the US. It's probably useful in Africa, parts of Europe, Quebec and the Caribbean... But it has been very replaced by English and Spanish. Also, I know the number of Francophones has increased lately, but has the proportion, when compared to the total number of language learners increased as well?

Like this:
5 francophones ---> out of a total of 10 language learners
(1/2 of the total language learners are francophones)

9,000 francophones ---> out of 9,000,000 language learners
(1/1000 of the total)

HAS IT INCREASED OR NOT?

6. Arabic (All I have to say is "UAE" and "Petrol". No more reasons.)

7. Italian (The "importance" of this language keeps descending... However, it holds valuable literature, history and probably job opportunities. It would probably gain more importance if the government would support it more... Like France's government "extremely" supports French. Italy can also encourage its former colonies to learn Italian, just like France does.)

8. Russian (I see this language very very far away. It might be useful in the former USSR, Eastern Europe and Asia. BUT, I'm not underestimating this language at all, because I'm aware that Russia has had an admirable economic growth lately for a country that has had so much change and so many reforms...)

9. Japanese (Japan&Japan only.)

10. Hindi (India and its crowed neighbours. I'm not sure what can I use this language for...)



*Mandarin and probably Cantonese.

I didn't mention Portuguese because I'm not sure if I should learn it or simply "revise" it. Anyway, if I were to rank it ALONE, I would probably place it a bit behind French, but if I were to rank it TOGETHER WITH SPANISH I would rank it second.
*CarloS*   Mon Feb 06, 2006 8:10 am GMT
AND NO:

-BRAZIL IS NOT LATIN AMERICA'S MOST IMPORTANT ECONOMY. IN FACT, IT DOESN'T EVEN PLAY A MAJOR ROLE IN SOUTH AMERICAN COUNTRIES!

-NOT ALL ARABS ARE TERRORISTS AND NOT ALL THE MIDDLE EAST IS A "CHAOS".
CHINESE   Mon Feb 06, 2006 8:26 am GMT
*CarloS*

<<<My list:

1. English (Very useful worldwide, Lingua Franca, but let's not overestimate it because A LOT of people don't speak it.)

2. Español (Second language with most native speakers and third "most learned". The language of the Americas and spoken worldwide as well in Africa, Asia, Europe and I've heard people in Australia are also starting to learn it... I think it ranks 4th or 5th "most learned" there...)

3. German (I consider this the second most important language of the EU... or "UE" after English... Probably this is because many big companies are German. BUT, IT DOESN'T LOOK EASY TO LEARN...)

4. Chinese* (A promise becoming reality... China has the fastest growing economy and cities like Shanghai, Hong Kong and Beijing make cities like New York and Los Angeles look so "yesterday". Also, Chinese products are everywhere and are leaving Peruvians jobless... Not to mention Chinese investments in Peru, Chinese people and Chinese food of course! I know China is still third world, I won't discuss that, but it's making traditional European economies go through a hard moment. It would be nice if other Asian countries would start learning Chinese as well and make it a "regional" language.)

5. French (This language has ranked low for some reason on the rest of the lists also. I know many Francophones say it's very useful... But, people in France don't earn as much money as people living in the US. It's probably useful in Africa, parts of Europe, Quebec and the Caribbean... But it has been very replaced by English and Spanish. Also, I know the number of Francophones has increased lately, but has the proportion, when compared to the total number of language learners increased as well? >>>



well, you're all right!





<<<-BRAZIL IS NOT LATIN AMERICA'S MOST IMPORTANT ECONOMY. IN FACT, IT DOESN'T EVEN PLAY A MAJOR ROLE IN SOUTH AMERICAN COUNTRIES!


please tell me which one should be the most imoprtant country!