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Second most important language

 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
Poll Question: What is the second most important language in the world after English?
Poll Choice Votes Poll Statistics
5 [4.13%]
35 [28.93%]
25 [20.66%]
9 [7.44%]
47 [38.84%]
You can not vote in this poll

68 messages over 9 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 1 ... 8 9 Next >>
lichtrausch
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5710 days ago

525 posts - 1072 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Japanese
Studies: Korean, Mandarin

 
 Message 1 of 68
12 October 2011 at 4:10am | IP Logged 
This isn't a scientific poll so you can interpret the question freely. It would be interesting to know the reason for your choice as well.
1 person has voted this message useful



mandalore
Newbie
United States
Joined 5210 days ago

4 posts - 6 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: German

 
 Message 2 of 68
12 October 2011 at 4:54am | IP Logged 
I voted for Chinese/Mandarin because of its use in what is both the most populated country in the world and the world's second largest economy.
1 person has voted this message useful



nway
Senior Member
United States
youtube.com/user/Vic
Joined 5165 days ago

574 posts - 1707 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean

 
 Message 3 of 68
12 October 2011 at 6:14am | IP Logged 
This is a strictly regional matter.

If you live in Albania, the second most important language is English, which of course follows Albanian.

Each of these five languages is useless outside of the geographic regions to which they're confined.

I know this wasn't what you meant, but this really is the truth of the matter. It's all regional.

But since you were of course referring to the "statistically" most "important" from a "universal" perspective, hours upon hours upon hours of personal research has suggested this:

1. Chinese
2/3. Spanish / French
4/5. Arabic/Russian

In the future, Russian and French will likely drop relative to their tied counterparts.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut...

Since I already did all the work, I may as well post some screenshots from my own personal archive:

2050 population:



Film industries by monetary value:



Projected GDP growth, per capita:



Global cities:



Life expectancy per GDP per capita (PPP):



^ This one measures the healthfulness of linguistic populations' lifestyles. I equalized the scale such that Hong Kong and Mainland China amount to the same, which intuitively makes sense, since they're the same culture, despite their differing levels of wealth.

Life expectancy per GDP per capita (PPP):



^ I simply illustrated the table above. You should be able to figure out the color scheme from the data...

Student achievement:



^ I believe the color scheme is relative to the US. Data from the OECD's 2009 PISA. Countries in grey aren't measured.

Nominal GDP:



Popularity:



^ "Popularity" derived from Google queries such as, "I wish I could speak ____".

Self-explanatory:







Composites of various variables:





Composite of Steinke and T-Index:



Top universities from 2010 rankings:



Languages of leading cities by various variables:



Demographic vitality:



^ Life expectancy divided by median age.

Business and wealth:



Wikipedias (intellectual stock):



Various raw data, some projected:



^ "Market" is current stock market capitalization. "IQ" is the composite of the OECD's 2009 PISA. "English" is the level of English fluency typical of the languages' speakers.

Well, that's it. Each of these is the result of hours upon hours of research, and of course this was a very brisk presentation of them all, with much left unsaid. If anyone has any questions regarding the data, sources, or methodologies used, feel free to ask.

Edited by nway on 12 October 2011 at 7:22am

18 persons have voted this message useful



leosmith
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6300 days ago

2365 posts - 3804 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Tagalog

 
 Message 4 of 68
12 October 2011 at 2:17pm | IP Logged 
nway wrote:

Each of these five languages is useless outside of the geographic regions to which they're confined.

Huh? Do you really believe that?
4 persons have voted this message useful



nway
Senior Member
United States
youtube.com/user/Vic
Joined 5165 days ago

574 posts - 1707 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean

 
 Message 5 of 68
12 October 2011 at 5:45pm | IP Logged 
leosmith wrote:
nway wrote:

Each of these five languages is useless outside of the geographic regions to which they're confined.

Huh? Do you really believe that?

When those "geographic regions" include diasporic populations and concentrated areas of secondary learners, yes, of course.

This is somewhat of a definitional fact.

(I'm of course referring to face-to-face communication—not the Internet, mass media, and other forms of telecommunication.)

Edited by nway on 12 October 2011 at 5:46pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Mad Max
Tetraglot
Groupie
Spain
Joined 4801 days ago

79 posts - 146 votes 
Speaks: Spanish*, French, English, Russian
Studies: Arabic (classical)

 
 Message 6 of 68
12 October 2011 at 7:13pm | IP Logged 
Well, we can consider two Hemispheres, and the 3 most important languages are:

- Western Hemisphere: Mother tongue, English and Spanish.

- Eastern Hemisphere: Mother tongue, English and Chinese.


In short, it is obvious that English is the global language. The second most important is
Spanish or Chinese depending on the Hemisphere where you live.


1 person has voted this message useful



Марк
Senior Member
Russian Federation
Joined 4806 days ago

2096 posts - 2972 votes 
Speaks: Russian*

 
 Message 7 of 68
12 October 2011 at 7:21pm | IP Logged 
Certainly Mandarin. It can even replace English.
5 persons have voted this message useful



MarcusOdim
Groupie
Brazil
Joined 4597 days ago

91 posts - 142 votes 

 
 Message 8 of 68
12 October 2011 at 8:07pm | IP Logged 
It can replace English, sure, in a billion years from now
1. English
2. Spanish
3. French
4. Mandarin
?. Something else, like German or Japanese, but not Russian nor Arabic




4 persons have voted this message useful



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