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Which Language Is International? | ||
Tags: Lingua franca | Language Importance | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Sim Diglot Groupie Canada thehelper.net/forums Joined 6296 days ago 45 posts - 48 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 17 of 37 29 September 2007 at 3:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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Mandarin is not an international language, at least I think.
It hasn't spread enough outside China even if it has a lot of people speaking it. I'd go with French and Spanish. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| joan.carles Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6339 days ago 332 posts - 342 votes  Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan*, French, EnglishC1, EnglishC2, Mandarin Studies: Hungarian, Russian, Georgian | Message 19 of 37 30 September 2007 at 12:06am | IP Logged | ||
Sorry, but in the true sense of the word, inter- and national, there's more than only English. Just count the number of languages that are spoken across different countries and there are some more than one. Besides, greatest number doesn't mean that everyone in every country will speak you in English because not everybody knows English. If we are looking number ones and all that stuff, ok, you got it. But if we speak of languages for which you can find a big audience to speak to, or which have a big production of audio-visual material to help you learn, listen and read, then you have the answer some posts above, on Ethnologue, Wikipedia... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6774 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 20 of 37 30 September 2007 at 3:27am | IP Logged | ||
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Mandarin has large, well-established populations in many Asian countries, not just China. There are Chinese-speaking enclaves (Chinatowns) in nearly every major city of the world, and Mandarin is increasingly used in those places. Chinese newspapers are published all over the world (there are three national papers in Canada, for example).
Anyone who says Mandarin isn't an international language subscribes to a rather narrow and unique definition of the word "international". Edited by Captain Haddock on 30 September 2007 at 7:18am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Asiafeverr Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 6348 days ago 346 posts - 431 votes 1 sounds Speaks: French*, English Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, German | Message 21 of 37 30 September 2007 at 4:52am | IP Logged | ||
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In most of the Chinatowns people speak Cantonese and there are Chinatowns in many big cities all around the world.
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| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7162 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 22 of 37 30 September 2007 at 9:32am | IP Logged | ||
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I think that if anyone wants to answer this question, he/she'd have to look at the word "international" and provide answers in matters of degrees. Strictly speaking many languages are international if they're spoken in more than one country as joan.carles posted.
In this case, I repeat that English is far and away the most international language because of its number of speakers and spread. After that, it's a free-for-all for the number 2,3,4,5 spots between French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Hindustani, Cantonese, Mandarin and maybe Russian. Edited by Chung on 30 September 2007 at 9:33am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lloydkirk Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6419 days ago 429 posts - 452 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Russian | Message 23 of 37 30 September 2007 at 12:08pm | IP Logged | ||
In my definition of an international language, there should be a large number of 2nd language speakers scattered throughout the globe. The number of 2nd language speakers of english and french outnumbers the number of native speakers for example. Chinatowns or little turkeys hardly makes a language international. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6556 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 24 of 37 30 September 2007 at 12:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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Easy. Mathematics.
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