I don’t know if this has ever happened to you, but it seems to me that what I will talk to you about is very common among human beings.
Sometimes we think that our lives are the standard to other lives.
We are so immersed in our day-to-day activities, or habits, our lifestyles, our way to communicate, that it can seem strange that there may be something different out there.
We tend to generalize.
That’s normal.
This is evident when someone tells us that people from a specific place are used to eat certain kind of food for breakfast.
Or that in certain country, certain gesture means a specific thing that is way different to what it commonly means to us.
This represents a small but amusing “wooow, can’t believe it!” kind of moment.
We are amazed at someone else doing things so differently to the way we are used to.
A clear way to see these differences is through languages.
There are over 7,000 languages in the world.
And behind all these languages there are thousands of people living their lives by communicating through said languages.
Despite this, if I would ask you right now to name the top-5 most spoken languages worldwide, I bet most of you would probably be aware of your own and maybe one, two or three more languages, tops.
So, now let me introduce you to the 5 languages with most native speakers.
Some of them probably made it to your list, some others may be unexpected (or are even unknown to many).
#1 MANDARIN CHINESE
This was probably guessed by many of you.
Its large size demographically speaking, and the fact that China is and will remain a worldwide powerhouse, make Chinese Mandarin the most spoken language in the world, with over 1,300 million native speakers, according to the website https://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size
#2 SPANISH
Secondly, Spanish.
This language is spoken by over 450 million people worldwide across 5 continents. Due to a consistent growth in Latin America business-wise, Spanish has become one of the most studied languages globally.
#3 ENGLISH
How many of you thought this would be #2?
As native language, English has around 370 million native speakers; however, it is spoken as second language in over 137 countries, based on its easy-to-learn nature and grammatical simplicity.
It might be said that English is the official language for business affairs, traveling and international relations.
#4 HINDI
Hindi reached the fourth spot, as it has an estimated 340 million native speakers. This language has become extremely important due to the large size of India’s population, as it is used basically throughout its territory, in addition to Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji and Guyana.
#5 ARABIC
Arabic, one of the oldest languages in the world, is spoken by approximately 320 million people from Egypt through many countries such as Jordan, Syria, Kuwait and Iraq.
It is the official language of 23 countries, co-official in other 6, and is also the sixth official working language of the United Nations Organization. Another highlight is that Arabic is the language in which the Coran is written, which is why millions of Muslims around the world know how to speak it.
If you would like to know what other languages are spoken by over 50 million native speakers, you may want to check this site https://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size
As a final thought, I find the many peculiarities of each of these languages amusing, as well as the lifestyle (probably very different to ours) of the millions of individuals that speak them. We live on the same planet, but without a question each language represents a specific culture and a unique way of seeing and understanding life.
ONE WORLD. MANY LIVES. MANY LANGUAGES
I don’t know if this has ever happened to you, but it seems to me that what I will talk to you about is very common among human beings.
Sometimes we think that our lives are the standard to other lives.
We are so immersed in our day-to-day activities, or habits, our lifestyles, our way to communicate, that it can seem strange that there may be something different out there.
We tend to generalize.
That’s normal.
This is evident when someone tells us that people from a specific place are used to eat certain kind of food for breakfast.
Or that in certain country, certain gesture means a specific thing that is way different to what it commonly means to us.
This represents a small but amusing “wooow, can’t believe it!” kind of moment.
We are amazed at someone else doing things so differently to the way we are used to.
A clear way to see these differences is through languages.
There are over 7,000 languages in the world.
And behind all these languages there are thousands of people living their lives by communicating through said languages.
Despite this, if I would ask you right now to name the top-5 most spoken languages worldwide, I bet most of you would probably be aware of your own and maybe one, two or three more languages, tops.
So, now let me introduce you to the 5 languages with most native speakers.
Some of them probably made it to your list, some others may be unexpected (or are even unknown to many).
#1 MANDARIN CHINESE
This was probably guessed by many of you.
Its large size demographically speaking, and the fact that China is and will remain a worldwide powerhouse, make Chinese Mandarin the most spoken language in the world, with over 1,300 million native speakers, according to the website https://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size
#2 SPANISH
Secondly, Spanish.
This language is spoken by over 450 million people worldwide across 5 continents. Due to a consistent growth in Latin America business-wise, Spanish has become one of the most studied languages globally.
#3 ENGLISH
How many of you thought this would be #2?
As native language, English has around 370 million native speakers; however, it is spoken as second language in over 137 countries, based on its easy-to-learn nature and grammatical simplicity.
It might be said that English is the official language for business affairs, traveling and international relations.
#4 HINDI
Hindi reached the fourth spot, as it has an estimated 340 million native speakers. This language has become extremely important due to the large size of India’s population, as it is used basically throughout its territory, in addition to Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji and Guyana.
#5 ARABIC
Arabic, one of the oldest languages in the world, is spoken by approximately 320 million people from Egypt through many countries such as Jordan, Syria, Kuwait and Iraq.
It is the official language of 23 countries, co-official in other 6, and is also the sixth official working language of the United Nations Organization. Another highlight is that Arabic is the language in which the Coran is written, which is why millions of Muslims around the world know how to speak it.
If you would like to know what other languages are spoken by over 50 million native speakers, you may want to check this site https://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size
As a final thought, I find the many peculiarities of each of these languages amusing, as well as the lifestyle (probably very different to ours) of the millions of individuals that speak them. We live on the same planet, but without a question each language represents a specific culture and a unique way of seeing and understanding life.
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