Official languages and number of countries
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 210
Official languages and number of countries
I was curious to know what languages helps travelers the most. Got this info from Wikipedia.
English - official language in 68 countries
French - official language in 29 countries
Arabic - official language in 25 countries
Spanish - official language in 21 countries
Anyone know of a comprehensive list (or a top 10 or 20 list)? Searched google, couldn't find.
English - official language in 68 countries
French - official language in 29 countries
Arabic - official language in 25 countries
Spanish - official language in 21 countries
Anyone know of a comprehensive list (or a top 10 or 20 list)? Searched google, couldn't find.
#2
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Official languages and number of countries
Most Widely Spoken Languages in the World (from Google)
Chinese tops the list of most popular world languages, with over one billion speakers. English trails in third place, with 335 million speakers. This data represents first-language speakers.
Language1 Approx. number
of speakers
1. Chinese 1,197,000,000
2. Spanish 414,000,000
3. English 335,000,000
4. Hindi 260,000,000
5. Arabic. 237,000,000
6. Portuguese 203,000,000
7. Bengali 193,000,000
8. Russian 167,000,000
9. Japanese 122,000,000
10. Javanese 84,300,000
Chinese tops the list of most popular world languages, with over one billion speakers. English trails in third place, with 335 million speakers. This data represents first-language speakers.
Language1 Approx. number
of speakers
1. Chinese 1,197,000,000
2. Spanish 414,000,000
3. English 335,000,000
4. Hindi 260,000,000
5. Arabic. 237,000,000
6. Portuguese 203,000,000
7. Bengali 193,000,000
8. Russian 167,000,000
9. Japanese 122,000,000
10. Javanese 84,300,000
#3
Join Date: Jul 2008
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many ways to answer that question but imo English , French - for africa, Spanish - for the americas , passable in Italy and Portugal, etx, etc
big gap to the rest
as far as how many countries and languages there are....depends on whom you ask.
big gap to the rest
as far as how many countries and languages there are....depends on whom you ask.
#5
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#7
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How so? If a person knows only English, he/she can visit 60+ countries and do just fine. Compare that to a person who can speak only mandarin.
#10
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#11
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I'm not sure that "Chinese" is a very good description, if you're looking for a language that would serve you well in other countries. Mandarin, maybe.
#12
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Most Widely Spoken Languages in the World (from Google)
Chinese tops the list of most popular world languages, with over one billion speakers. English trails in third place, with 335 million speakers. This data represents first-language speakers.
Language1 Approx. number
of speakers
1. Chinese 1,197,000,000
2. Spanish 414,000,000
3. English 335,000,000
4. Hindi 260,000,000
5. Arabic. 237,000,000
6. Portuguese 203,000,000
7. Bengali 193,000,000
8. Russian 167,000,000
9. Japanese 122,000,000
10. Javanese 84,300,000
Chinese tops the list of most popular world languages, with over one billion speakers. English trails in third place, with 335 million speakers. This data represents first-language speakers.
Language1 Approx. number
of speakers
1. Chinese 1,197,000,000
2. Spanish 414,000,000
3. English 335,000,000
4. Hindi 260,000,000
5. Arabic. 237,000,000
6. Portuguese 203,000,000
7. Bengali 193,000,000
8. Russian 167,000,000
9. Japanese 122,000,000
10. Javanese 84,300,000
#13
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#14
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Probably right, a large subset of the US and UK population have languages other than English as their first language
#15
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I'm surprised that French isn't even in the top 10, given how many countries in Europe use it.