A Key Question
A key question people ask when thinking of embarking on the life-long quest that foreign language learning can ultimately become, is which foreign language should I try to learn? Certainly there’s no lack of choice. Reasons for wanting or needing to learn a foreign language can be almost as many and as varied as the number of people themselves. Family, ancestry, employment, business, education, travel, adventure, romance and other personal concerns all may have their respective roles in the decision to learn and continue learning a foreign language.
Some Interesting Language Statistics
According to Vistawide World Languages & Culture statistics online at: vistawide.com/
there are currently 6912 living languages in the world, but did you know that 516 of these are nearly extinct.
The Fabulous Five
Of the top five spoken world languages, Mandarin Chinese has the greatest number of speakers with a whopping 1.051 billion who manage one of the nearly one dozen forms or dialects.
English is a “distant” second with an approximate total of 510 million speakers in 64 different countries. It is also the world’s most widely published language and has the largest number of words – approx. 250,000* distinct words. (*Some linguists even contend that there are as many as one million or more words in the English language.) English also has the greatest number of people who speak it as a second language – with up to 350 million non-native speakers.
Hindi is in third position with 490 million.
Fourth place is occupied by Spanish with 420 million native and second language speakers.
Arabic comes in fifth with 255 million speakers when all of its varieties are combined according to a World Almanac estimate.
Additional Language Statistics
The language with the fewest number of words is Taki-Taki, also called Sranan, which is spoken in Surinam. It has a mere 340 words.
The country where the largest number of languages is spoken is Papua New Guinea with 820 different languages even though it has only around 5,545,268 people. (That’s one language for every 6762 people for all of you statistics freaks out there)
Number two Indonesia has 742 languages among its 241,973,879 people.
Nigeria, with 516 languages spread through its 128,771,988 people, steps in at third.
In India 1,080,264,388 people spread across the country’s vast reaches speak an astounding 427 languages among them.
These statistics are likely, one of the reasons English has been adopted as an official language in each one of these countries.
Summary
So whether your reasons for wanting or needing to learn a foreign language include family, ancestry, employment, business, education, travel, adventure, romance or other more personal ones, a wide variety of language choices are available.
By: Larry M. Lynch
Posts Tagged ‘Travel Adventure’
Of the Thousands of Foreign Languages You Can Learn Which One is Best for You?
January 29th, 20107 Reasons Why People Hate Learning a Foreign Language
January 23rd, 2010
Which Foreign Language?
It’s been said on other occasions that a key question people ask when thinking of learning a foreign language is “which foreign language should I try to learn?” Reasons for wanting or needing to learn a foreign language can be almost as many and as varied as the number of people themselves. Family, ancestry, employment, business, education, travel, adventure, romance and other personal concerns all may have their respective roles in the decision to learn and continue learning a foreign language.
With literally thousands of spoken languages in the world besides some of the major ones like English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Arabic, Italian, Japanese and German, obviously there’s no lack of choice. But many learners concede, “I hate trying to learn a foreign language”. Why? Here are the top seven of the most commonly given reasons.
The Seven Most Common Given Reasons
1. No way to practice regularly
“I know that learning a foreign language is a valuable skill, but no one I know speaks it and I have no way to practice”:
2. Long lists of vocabulary to memorize
“We get a 50-word plus long vocabulary list each week in class, and I just can’t keep up with memorizing them”.
3. Illogical Grammar Rules
“The grammar and rules of the foreign language just don’t make any sense to me” complain a number of foreign language learners.
4. Pronunciation Difficulties
“Whenever I try to speak in class everyone laughs at me because I pronounce my words badly, they say”.
5. Bad Foreign Language Teachers
Our foreign language teacher is absolutely horrible. She hardly seems to know the language herself. She really shouldn’t be trying to teach us”.
6. Not Enough Available Resources
“So what do we do with it (a foreign language)? We don’t have any good tapes, videos, songs, movies or games. For me, it seems like a waste.”
7. Foreign Travel is Too Expensive
“Hey, I’d love to visit a foreign country where the language is spoken, but I can’t get a visa”: “Even if I could get a visa, I’d never be able to afford the airfare and hotels.”
Lower Affective Filter
If an English as a foreign language teaching professional is going to do an effective job, these are but a few of the many possible difficulties and objections that may have to be overcome. Only then can the learners’ Affective Filter be lowered or compensated enough for both teacher and learner to get the most out of any language learning efforts.
By: Larry M. Lynch
Eco Travel Adventures – Are You Interested?
November 26th, 2009
If you want to experience an eco travel adventure and are looking at South America as a place of interest there are several factors you need to consider when selecting an appropriate tour or guide.
This part of the world has already been decimated in parts by the impact of explorers, exporters and businesses capitalising on the riches it holds. However there are still so many areas that are untouched and unharmed by these activities and selecting a tour that continues to protect the environment also supports an economy that does not harm this lush and beautiful collection of countries.
There are still incredibly untouched rainforests supporting a huge array of life, with an intricate ecosystem that you have to see to believe. The area also boasts tablelands, wetlands, huge rivers (including the Amazon), lakes, waterfalls and old villages you can walk through and feel the sense of history. Its remote locations add a sense of awe at the size and reach of the areas.
Many of the eco travel adventures on offer today have a volunteer component that, while good, can take the bulk of your holiday away from discovering the diversity of the area or provide five star accommodations that are so far removed from the lush real surrounds that you never feel you are connecting with it on a real level.
Look for a tour company that offers accommodation amidst the splendour of the great outdoors, without compromising your safety. It is a good idea to select a company that specialises in the area as they have closely connected tour guides that they have spent time building up a relationship with, whom have also developed a good relationship with the local people.
It’s good to enquire how often the tours go, to check they will fit into your travelling plans. A small group of travelers can be more fun, and helps you keep your own impact to the environment at a minimum.
If you want to come home with beautiful memories, a camera full of vibrant and diverse images and a sense you walked in a part of the world that has remained remarkably unchanged for centuries, then an eco travel adventure in South America may fit the bill completely.
By: Gary Tate