Languages are an important part of everyone. They are the means by which we can communicate with each other and share our opinion with others. Nowadays people tend to know or learn more than one language. What are the important languages in the 21st century?
Worldwide it is estimated that there are more than 7,000 languages. Each of those languages holds a unique importance for those who use them. Yet, there are only 23 languages used by around more than half of the world’s total population.
Most Important Languages to Learn
The list below discusses a few of the languages which are important for you to study. This list is based on the future which these languages have and how people pursue these languages based on their usage. It is important that we at least master one language to have effective communication.
- English: English is a widely used language with around 375 million native speakers worldwide. There are around 1.5 billion speakers who use the language to some extent. English is seen as quite influential and is the leader compared to its competitors. It is the most used language in technology and computers.
- Chinese/Mandarin: One can’t consider this as a single language as there are around 982 million people all around the world who are native speakers of this language. Though this language is normally spoken in China, it is also considered as being the most powerful language based on its acceptability worldwide.
- Spanish: This is also one of the most widespread languages in the world, with around 330 million native speakers. A further 420 million people speak Spanish as a second language. About 20 countries consider Spanish as their primary language, most of them in Latin America.
- Japanese: Japanese is considered an important language because of the country’s economic strength. In terms of native language, about 127 million people speak it as their first language with one million or more using it to some extent. Even though many of the characters of this language might appear difficult to comprehend it is a beautiful language. While not particularly popular outside Japan, it is a helpful language if you are dealing with the latest technologies.
- German: Germany has been the most dominant nation in Europe for several decades. German is widely spoken in Europe, with about 105 million native speakers, while around 80 million speak it as their second language. The spoken language sounds serious and authoritative, somewhat depicting the determination of the country.
- Russian: Some of the world’s best novelists have Russian as their native language. They include Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy. There are around 150 million native Russian speakers, with around 110 million people speaking Russian as their second language. Officially it is used in about 38 different territories.
- French: French has been used as the official language for international diplomacy for centuries. According to one survey, there are 79 million French-speaking people and this figure could be as high as 370 million overall, clearly signifying the importance which the language holds. France is the sixth biggest economy in the world. French is also considered as the language of love, which also makes it important.
- Arabic: Arabic is an official language of the Arabic League and is popular in over 22 different nations. There are around 205 million people who speak the language in this region and a further 100 million non-native speakers. Arabic is also the liturgical language of an entire civilization of 1.5 billion people.
- Hindi: Hindi is the standardized language of India and some of the surrounding countries. There are about 450 million primary users and also 200 million non-native speakers, which makes Hindi the fourth most spoken language on Earth. India is the seventh largest economy in the world and is expected to be the second largest by 2050.
- Portuguese: There are more than 215 million speakers of Portuguese worldwide, and this could be about 235 million speakers total. It is considered the primary language in Portugal, Brazil, and several other nations. It is considered to be the main language used in the southern hemisphere.
Discussion
Thus, we can say that there are a number of important languages among different nations of the world. You can decide which language to study depending on the popularity and the reasons for studying it.
