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Which Language Is International? | ||
Tags: Lingua franca | Language Importance | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| manny Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6364 days ago 248 posts - 240 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Tagalog Studies: French, German | Message 33 of 37 07 October 2007 at 4:37pm | IP Logged | ||
I agree. If you define an international language as one that NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS USE TO COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER AROUND THE WORLD, then I would say English and French (a very distant second) and really no others. Edited by manny on 07 October 2007 at 4:40pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| crackpot Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6307 days ago 144 posts - 178 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 34 of 37 03 January 2009 at 6:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Mandarin, Portuguese and Hindi are the only possibilities. You can drop Mandarin and Hindi, which are only included due to a concentration of speakers in two countries, if you want to converse widely outside of China or India. Yes, there are quite a few Mandarin and Hindi speakers living abroad but the majority of those can also speak the native language as well. Hindi suffers the added disadvantage of English being very widely understood within India itself.
This leaves us with 5 languages. Portuguese won't get you far outside Brazil, Portugal, Angola and Mozambique. Russian is concentrated in Russia and adjacent states. Of the remaining three, English is by far the most widespread with French a distant second. Spanish comes third making up what it lacks in scope (in comparison to French) with it's unquestionable dominance in 15+ Latin American countries. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5844 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 35 of 37 03 January 2009 at 7:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yeah, I think Crackpot (previous poster) has got it nailed.
I.e. French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian, (+Mandarin, Hindi) ((+German)) Call me cynical but as far as I am concerned this means that I would NOT waste serious time learning any language other than the above mentioned unless I was planning to live in that country. Anybody in the civilised world is likely to at least be able to understand a simple question in English or one of the above languages wouldn't you think? Edited by cordelia0507 on 04 January 2009 at 5:04am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Pudú Newbie Chile Joined 5812 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Speaks: Spanish* Studies: English | Message 36 of 37 03 January 2009 at 9:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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In the civilized world yes but there are always exceptions so I would say after English comes Spanish (I sorry but we "los latinos" are everywhere)french or German and then maybe another languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| The Side Effect Newbie United States Joined 5824 days ago 11 posts - 11 votes Studies: Arabic (Written) | Message 37 of 37 05 January 2009 at 4:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you want an "easy" ticket to Europe, Africa, and the Americas, learn a Romance language. They're alike enough that learning one gives you a discount on the next.
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