What languages do you speak?

[Galant]

Not bad Shoo! I'm impressed. Seems Spanish is everywhere these days. When I was taking it in class I believe they were expecting it to become the world's most widely spoken language by 2001 (I think). Anyone have any idea if that's the case?

[Azier the Swordsman]

Not bad Shoo! I'm impressed. Seems Spanish is everywhere these days. When I was taking it in class I believe they were expecting it to become the world's most widely spoken language by 2001 (I think). Anyone have any idea if that's the case?

Spanish?

Currently English is the only most widely spoken langauge in the world. I don't honestly ever see Spanish surpassing it.

Spanish is spoken frequently in fewer continents than English, which is spoken worldwide.

[LorentzForce]

I can only speak two, and that's English and Korean. You people who can read Latin and Spanish and French and all sorts of other European languages... At least if I can always argue programming languages count as languages too.

[shooraijin]

Yes, Azier is correct. English is the most widely spoken language as far as geographical distribution, and is second with number of speakers (last time I checked, almost 450 million). No other language even comes close.

A virtual pat on the back to whomever knows what the language with the most number of speakers is. (Be specific.)

[uc pseudonym]

I believe it is Chinese, Mandarin Chinese to be specific. A very tough language to learn, but it is based in China, which gives it a boost in number of speakers.

[CDLviking]

Yeah, it's mandarin.

[shooraijin]

Yup. *commences virtual pat on back*

[Galant]

Hmmm, I'll have to look it up because I'm pretty sure Spanish is more dominant than you suggest.

Shoo, it wouldn't be Esperanto would it?



EDIT: Ah! How's this then http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htm

Spanish ranks right up there in terms of native speakers.

Futher sources:
http://www.photius.com/rankings/languages2.html

!!! http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/toptens/ ... uages.html

[shooraijin]

Native speakers, yes. However, there are a very large number of ESL (English as a Second Language) speakers out there, and I think this speaks more to how widespread the language is than purely the number of native speakers (for example, Mandarin Chinese has the most native speakers, but comparatively few secondary speakers, which hints at relatively poor geographical spread). For that matter, I think assessing a language purely on its number of native-only speakers is actually too limited in determining its prevalence.

[uc pseudonym]

That has special relevance to Mandarin Chinese, in that its primary speaking base is extremely focused as well as extremely compact. Outside of China (even merely some parts of China) knowledge of the language is somewhat less useful.

This directly relates to my rationale for learning Spanish as well: I would like to know a language that will be useful in most of the Americas.

[kaze]

english! ^^ i took 2 1/2 years of Spanish in school, and I've been taking Japanese since I was like 8 or so...but i'm still pretty bad at it, even though it was the first language I spoke ^_x;;;

[Hephzibah]

English is the only language I speak fluently...
I did study French for 3 years, but have forgotten most of it, and likewise with Japanese. I only remember a few words from both of them, as well as a few German ones I picked up from watching Inspector Rex

[Hari]

I speak English first, then Greek (well, not spoken, but Koine - biblical), then Spanish, about two semesters' worth... The teeniest bits of many other languages, and... I hope to learn Classical Greek and Hebrew!

[Loche Achles]

I speak.. dundun dun ENGLISH!! WOOHOO! and, im in my 3rd year of Japanese at my HS. party on.
Loche Achles