The 6 Most Influential Languages in the World, and How to Learn them Online for Free
If you’re interested in global travel, you’re probably also interested in learning a couple new languages. There’s no better where to really get involved in foreign cultures than to talk to the locals in their native tongue! But what language(s) should you learn? There are literally thousands of languages spoken in the world today. After all, language learning is tough. It makes the most sense to learn a one of the more influential modern languages, which you can use to communicate with a high number of people across a vast geographic area.
So, which are the most influential languages in the world? Inspired by Andy Hobotraveler’s recent post on The Six Languages to Learn, I decided to do a little research of my own and contribute to the debate of which are the most useful languages to the global traveler. I stumbled across a 1999 study by George Weber ( http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/reprints/weber/rep-weber.htm) that suggests that the 6 most influential languages in the world are:
- English
- French
- Spanish
- Russian
- Arabic
- Chinese
This study looks at the total number of world speakers, geographical influence, economic power of countries speaking the language, literary and scientific use of each language. These are the same 6 languages suggested by Andy in his post, and consequentially are also the 6 official languages of the United Nations.
Personally I found this information extremely interesting and helpful as a traveler. I unfortunately cannot spend my time learning thousands of different languages, so this study lets us know which languages will give us the biggest “bang for our buck”. All of the factors that Weber considered in his study are not necessarily pertinent to the traveler. However, two big factors he considered, that I think are extremely useful to the traveling community are: Total number of speakers (both primary and secondary), and number of countries that speak each language.
| Country | Total number of Speakers (primary & secondary) | Countries in which Language is Spoken |
| English | 480 million | 115 |
| French | 265 million | 35 |
| Spanish | 320 million | 20 |
| Russian | 285 million | 16 |
| Arabic | 221 million | 24 |
| Mandarin Chinese | 1.12 billion | 5 |
The following map illustrates just how global each of these languages is. Highlighted countries either claim the language as their official dialect, or have a significant percentage of population that speaks that language.
Now I don’t want to discredit local languages here, and certainly would not say that local languages are not worth learning. Languages do a lot more than just communicate, they express feelings, sentiments, and emotions, each in its own unique way. To forget that demonstrates an extreme insensitivity to those populations and humankind for not listening to each native population through its own medium of expression. However, I do think it’s very interesting to visualize, just how far-reaching each of these languages is. It seems that one really could travel the globe, and COMMUNICATE, with just 6 languages!
Learn the other 5 languages online for free:
After putting together the map above and visualizing each language’s global influence, I felt pretty motivated to start learning some new languages. However, 5 new languages is a daunting task, where to start!? I’ve been interested in linguistics for some time now, and have recently done a lot of research on the many online resources available for language learning, so I put together a list of resources for learning each of these global languages (other than English as I assume my readers already have a good grasp on that one). The following links will take you to a list and short review of some of the better free resources available on the web for starting your study of each language.
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This is a well written post but you have not only to conside the number of speakers etc but how useful one language might be in relation to others. For example. I know Polish and I can get by in Ukraine and Russia and anywhere in Eastern Europe with a little brush up of the target language as the slavic languages are closely related more than other groups. So for a language that only has about 50 million speakers Polish is useful. So I think the equation is more complex than presented. But generally the above is a good overview.
Mark
http://www.mp3languagelearning.com/
Hi Mark,
You are very correct that a lot depends on the particular area you are in, as to which language to learn. I think India is also a good example, sure you can get around with English, but your experience would be much more rewarding if you could also communicate in Hindi, Bangali, Urdu, Kashmiri, etc.
I think the equation is definitely a complex one, however, if you are solely interested in “world travel”, I still think you would get the most “mileage” from these 6 languages.
Very nice post. I think you should better add Turkish to your list as an alternative language. There are 70+ million native people all around the world.
I worked as a director in a big travel agency of Turkey and according to my experience, “the six language to learn” list may be rewritten be in that order :
* Spanish
* French
* Russian
* Arabic
* Mandarin Chinese
And the third biggest germanic language: Dutch! 30+ million speakers, and a lot of influenced countrie languages; like South Africa, Suriname and Indonesia.
and btw the Netherlands - is The country with the official language nearest to English - they speak Germanic languages and have a good education in second language (which is English)
I really appreciate the information provided in this website. However, I would like to say that in my opinion German should be added as the seventh most influential language. After Russian, it is the most spoken language in Europe (if we consider just native speakers) and it is spoken in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, and to a lesser extent in Belgium. Most educated people in Central Europe will also speak it as a second language.
Hi, I could not keep myself from returning to this website. In reference to German, the other day I failed to specify in which countries of Central Europe is German learned as a second or third foriegn language. Most people in Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Rumana and Bulgaria would probably have some fluent of semi-fluent command of German. Even going eastward, as far as Kazahkstan, you may find people who have learned German, even if this language is not official in the places I just mentioned.
Your map is wrong in SE Asia. You will not find any Mandarin spoken in Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia or Burma. What Chinese is spoken is not Mandarin (Which is the dialect of northern china around Beijing).
Malaysia especially, being a former British colony, speaks English extensively.
Really, Mandarin outside of China and Taiwan, isn’t really common anywhere. Even Hong Kong and Macau. Singapore has encouraged learning Mandarin, when the Chinese dialect spoken has traditionally been Hokkien, but English is used for most official and business functions.
Hi, i think English is the most influential and where it was geographical pleased is not correct. Just make an amendment on it. Thank you
Hello,
I am glad to see that you agree this is important. I do not understand why I should ever expect everyone to speak English in a non English-speaking country! That is just ridiculous and insensitive.
I speak French, Russian and Spanish (and, of course, English). I can proudly say that I will be able to go to most places and be taken more seriously than most tourists from my country.
For those interested in learning a language on the road, check out www.30words.com for a great new language tool.
Saw a recent interview with 30 WORDS’ founder. The company’s unique language guides are light weight and incredibly durable and you can customize them with free online content provided on 30 WORDS’ website (http://www.30words.com/my30.html).
I hate to say this, but according to your map, Vietnam is considered as a country that speaks French…unfortunately those days are long gone. The country speaks predominantly Vietnamese with a growing number of young people speaking/learning English…
To Cihan,
Maybe you travelled more often in Spanish speaking countries. But worldwide, French is way ahead of Spanish so if the order has to be rewritten, it shoukd have been like this
* English
* French
* Russian
* Arabic
* Spanish
* Mandarin Chinese
where is the german-turkish? have 100.000.000 german language user and 120.000.000 turkish user? wtf french
Please learn the Turkish History.Turks came from Central Asia is a community. 200.000.000 million turks live in middle asia to bosna