There isn’t doubt anywhere that language is a major identifier of a people, even in different fields of studies there are usually some languages(semantics or terminologies) associated with these disciplines to show you how important languages are.
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Furthermore, there are languages considered to be more or even most important than the others and in this article, we have selected just 8 most important languages to learn, and we would as well give brief descriptions of all of the selected languages, so in the end, you would know exactly the ones to go for.
Below are the 8 most important languages to learn, and the ranges at which people speak them.
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1. English Language
The English language is a West Germanic language and is of the Indo-European language family. The earliest forms of English were spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England, the language was named after the Angles, who were among the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the island of Great Britain.
The English language exists on a dialect chain alongside Scots and then most closely related to the Low German and Frisian languages, it is genealogically Germanic, and most of its vocabulary has major influences from French around; 28% of Modern English words, and Latin also around 28%.
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This language is the official language of the Americans and Britains and it is well spoken by some European countries and as well some commonwealth countries, people who are fluent in speaking and writing the English language are highly sought after throughout the world.
The English Language is one of the easiest languages to learn, it will take an average person 3 to 4 months to be able to speak and write English.
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2. Spanish
The Spanish language is a romance language and belongs to the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula. In the present day, Spanish is a global language spoken by over 487 million natives, mainly in the Americas and Spain.
Spanish is the official language of 20 countries and is the second most commonly spoken language after Mandarin. People who speak and write Spanish are highly revered and sought after throughout the world which is why its usually at the top of the list of most important
languages to learn.
Spain and Latin American countries such as Mexico, Peru, Paraguay, Ecuador, and even the US, where an estimated 37.6 million people speak Spanish as their first language. Language experts from across the world rank Spanish among the easiest languages to learn for people who speak English.
3. German
German is also a West Germanic language majorly spoken in Central Europe. This language is the most widely spoken and official/co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and as well the Italian province of South Tyrol.
The German language is among the three official languages of the European Union and an expected beneficiary of Brexit alongside French. It is the fourth most used language online and is the third most significant contributor to research and development in the world.
As a result of the various research German has contributed to, learning German is very important for one to succeed in those fields globally. Even in English-speaking countries like the United States, German companies account for a total of 700,000 jobs and even more, which offers great chances for those looking for opportunities in America.
Talking about learning difficulty, the German language is a different language, with endings tacked on to words to give them specific meanings making it a bit difficult to learn. However, German is also an easy language to learn but not as easy as a few other languages.
4. Arabic
The Arabic language is a Semitic language spoken majorly across the Arab world. This language emerged in the 1st century and was named after the Arab people, the term “Arab” was from inception used to describe people living in the Arabian Peninsula, as perceived by geographers from ancient Greece.
Arabic is the official language of several countries, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world. Arabic countries hold more than $600 billion in the gross domestic product (GDP), and the Middle Eastern economy has increased by more than 120 % in the past five years.
In the aspect of learning difficulty, the Arabic language is known to be one of the most difficult and challenging languages to learn especially for people who speak English.
5. Mandarin
Mandarin is comprised of a group of Chinese dialects that are spoken natively across a majority of northern and southwestern China. This group is made up of the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of China.
Mandarin is spoken by over a billion people all over the world and is often on the list of the most important languages to learn. Most Mandarin speakers are located in China which is emerging as a global power, making it increasingly essential for businesses from across the world to have teams whose members speak this language.
Furthermore, this language is the second most popular language among Internet users or netizens, and with a yearly increase in online sales, it is suspected that Mandarin will supplant English as the most widely used Internet language in no distant time.
Mandarin is quite a difficult language for English speakers to learn, however, it will take an English speaker at most a couple of years to write and speak Mandarin very well.
6. Portuguese
Portuguese is a western romance language of the Indo-European language family whose origin can be traced to the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. This language is globally spoken and is the official language of countries in Europe, South America, Asia, and some African Countries.
Portuguese is the sixth most widely spoken language in the world. Talking about the learning difficulty, Portuguese is really not a hard language to learn for a native English speaker. Yes, it is different from English, however, the grammar and sentence structure is simple, and its accent is more in common with American English than Spanish, and it isn’t difficult to pick up new sounds like nasal vowels.
7. Russian
The Russian language is an East Slavic language majorly spoken in Russia. This language is the native language of the Russians and is of the Indo-European language family. It is also among the four living East Slavic languages and a part of the larger Balto-Slavic languages.
The Russian language is spoken throughout central/Eastern Europe and Russia and it is the eighth most common language in the world, it is the second most used in website content, after English, and as well the leading percentage of internet content in Europe.
The English Proficiency Index rates Russia as a country with low proficiency in English, therefore, translating your content into the Russian language could be a vital step for meeting international business goals.
Belonging to the BRIC countries, Russia has been identified as one of the four major world powers whose influence is growing fast, as a matter of fact, Russia is already the sixth-largest economy in the world, therefore, making the Russian language one of the most important languages to learn.
Interestingly, the Russian language is also one of the official languages of the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which makes it very vital to international relations, diplomacy, and as well trade.
Furthermore, Russia is best notable for its engineering talent and IT community and its language is among the popular languages of scientific and technical literature in the hard sciences like physics and engineering.
In the aspect of learning difficulty, Russian is one of the most difficult and challenging languages to learn especially for English speakers. Russian grammar rules are complex and have several exceptions.
8. French
French is a Romance language and belongs to the Indo-European family. French descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire just like all other Romance languages, and it evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul.
French stands out as the second-most widely spoken language in Europe and emerging markets, it is often considered one of the most important languages to learn. The colonial history of France played a key role in making French the second-most widely spoken language in Europe.
More people speak French outside France because of its colonial history. Following Forbes records, there’s an expected number of 750 million French speakers globally by 2050, and online, it is estimated that French will have about 102 million Internet surfers.
The french-speaking parts of the world outside France include some African countries like Algeria, Morocco, Vietnam, and Cambodia, where french is their official language and English proficiency is low.
In the aforementioned African countries, learning French will increase one’s chance of gaining employment in the global tourism industry, fashion, visual arts, and theatre world, because French is the most spoken language in these sectors.
The difficulty in learning French is quite low, especially for English speakers. It will interest you to know that English and French share a standard alphabet and a large portion of vocabulary so it is more like a minor switch from English to French.
Conclusion
No matter how intelligent and smart anyone is, he or she would certainly be rendered incapacitated at places where he or she does not understand their language.
Life generally is all about communication and interactions which entails the ability of one to speak and the person he or she is speaking to understands, and vice versa. Anything outside understanding and being understood is no communication and that is why understanding multiple languages is an essential part of life.
As a matter of fact, in the present day, several companies across the world look forward to employing staff who can speak a minimum of two globally recognized languages to help them communicate with foreign clients and business partners.
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