Languages

yeah i've always been interested in learning new languages, but don't have the time...

A long way back during my wee schooling days, i was forced to take French lessons.

i did. for three whole years, an hour once a week. the first year wasn't bad...then the teacher left and a new lady came, an egyptian who spoke french as her second language....so you've got the egyptian french accent going on...

trust me, with this particular lady, it may be considered noise pollution.

well after those three years i took a 3 week course at a language summer camp. I fell in love with Spanish. I learnt more spanish in 3 weeks than i did french in 3 years.

My current interests are to :

1. Continue learning spanish - get a certificate
2. Continue my arabic sign language lessons and get my certificate.
3. Learn Swahili...I love the language! its adorable lol...no but seriously i think its unique. i've already started through internet sites, practising with colleagues, borrowed a dictionary swahili-english-arabic...its great, written by an Omani.
4. no, there is no third yet... unless... as i discovered with a close friend, jebali is also an interesting language

if i could afford it, i'd take 6 months off work and learn all four languages...mmm ok maybe replace jebali with a language i would use more in work, u know another common language used in the world...whats the 2nd most used? after english comes...french? AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...

No actually its NOT!!!

i just did a quick search and the most commonly spoken languages in the world are as follows:

SOURCE: Top 5 Languages of the World - Source TIME Almanac 2001

1. Mandarin Chinese: 885 million
2. Spanish: 332 million
3. English: 322 million
4. Bengali: 189 million
5. Hindi: 182 million

OMG...so i've done English (which came THIRD!), I'm trying to do Spanish...and next i guess should be...mandarin chinese?!

You ask where are the frenchies? good question...here is a list i found:

SOURCE: The Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL) Ethnologue Survey (1999)lists the following as the top languages by population:(number of native speakers in parentheses)

1. Chinese* (937,132,000)
2. Spanish (332,000,000)
3. English (322,000,000)
4. Bengali (189,000,000)
5. Hindi/Urdu (182,000,000)
6. Arabic (174,950,000)
7. Portuguese (170,000,000)
8. Russian (170,000,000)
9. Japanese (125,000,000)
10. German (98,000,000)
11. French (79,572,000) <-----------------HELLO?? or should i say...ALO!!!

This was an interesting find though...according to this guy Weber, “Top Languages: The World’s 10 Most Influential Languages” in Language Today (Vol. 2, Dec 1997): ok its TEN years back mind u...

1. Mandarin Chinese (1.1 billion)
2. English (330 million)
3. Spanish (300 million)
4. Hindi/Urdu (250 million)
5. Arabic (200 million)
6. Bengali (185 million)
7. Portuguese (160 million)
8. Russian (160 million)
9. Japanese (125 million)
10. German (100 million)
11. Punjabi (90 million)
12. Javanese (80 million)
13. French (75 million)
    

However, in terms of secondary speakers, Weber submits the following list:(number of speakers in parentheses)

1. French (190 million)
2. English (150 million)
3. Russian (125 million)
4. Portuguese (28 million)
5. Arabic (21 million)
6. Spanish (20 million)
7. Chinese (20 million)
8. German (9 million)
9. Japanese (8 million)
   

Thus, if you add the secondary speaker populations to the primary speaker populations, you get the following (and I believe more accurate) list:(number of speakers in parentheses)

1. Mandarin Chinese (1.12 billion)
2. English (480 million)
3. Spanish (320 million)
4. Russian (285 million)
5. French (265 million)
6. Hindi/Urdu (250 million)
7. Arabic (221 million)
8. Portuguese (188 million)
9. Bengali (185 million)
10. Japanese (133 million)
11. German (109 million)

So i guess i'm gonna have to go for russian next, then french, then hindi. Good i've got english and arabic done.

i've got a lot of work to do hahaha...and i was thinking Jebali!