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The most studied languages
<< Russia is falling into another 1998-esque disaster. >>
That seems to be an unfair observation. Apparently the hispanic countries' economy have been hit harder than they want to admit. I was considering Spanish as another language to learn, but I have doubts about it's future. Spain or Mexico will never become powerful or it will remain a inutile countries baby constantly demanding respect. Aznar and Fox tightening their political grip and the current demographic trends of Russia don't help either. >>
<< http://vivirlatino.com/2007/04/27/spanish-second-most-studied-language-worldwide.php
http://ourlatinamerica.blogspot.com/2007/04/expert-spanish-second-most-studied.html
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/espanol/segundo/idioma/estudia/mundo/Instituto/Cervantes/elpepucul/20070426elpepucul_8/Tes
http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2008/10/21/cultura/1224553747.html
http://209.85.129.104/search?q=cache:9JcIaaOZjcYJ:www.diariometro.es/es/article/efe/2008/10/03/691122/index.xml+instituto+cervantes+millones+estudiantes+espa%C3%B1ol&hl=es&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=es >>
These websites are made by lyiong hispanics again. French is the second most studied according to websiteby English, Russian, German, Italian, Japanese, Indian, and Chinese speakers and according to those sites, Spanish has to compete with Russian, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese for the next spot.
Spanish is clearly beaten by German and Italian in the world.
LAND AREA COVERAGE (WHERE LANGUAGE OFFICIAL):
English: 40 360 479 = 27.1% xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
French: 20 388 619 = 13.7% xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Russian: 20 231 093 = 13.6% xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Spanish: 11 983 684 = 8.0% xxxxxxxx
Portuguese: 10 711 253 = 7.2 % xxxxxxx
There IS ONE true world languages of diplomacy: English.
Your opinions, mi amigo, and your data are from 1500, when Spanish WAS never an important language.
Officially, there ARE 6 World languages in UNO: Chinese, English, Spanish, Arabic, Russian and French.
All of them are the most spoken language in an important area, but Castilian Spanish: French in Europe, Africa, and Oceania, English in North America, European Union and Oceania, Chinese in Asia, Arabic in Africa and Middle East and finally, Russian in Eastern Europe and CIS.
Castilian Spanish is the predominant language NOWHERE, but Castilia or Antiquia, Colombia. It is the less spoken of the international languages and according to several experts, Spanish is the international language that will suffer the most important fall this century BECAUSE IT'S RAPIDLY DISINTEGRATING INTO NUMEROUS NEO-SPANISH LIKE LATIN.
All your data, and I speak to everybody, should add a serious webpage to confirm your opinions.
Secondly, the second most studied language, after English, according to several webs is French, Spanish has to compete with German, Italian, and Russian for the next spot, and always beaten except in the US:
French as a foreign language is the second most frequently taught language in the world after English. In China has also become the second most demanded foreign language.
French is considered to be the language of diplomacy and culture due to its glorious past and its rich culture.
http://www.nelanguage.com/french.html
While any language will be useful for some jobs or for some regions, French is the only foreign language that can be useful throughout the world as well as in the United States. French as a foreign language is the second most frequently taught language in the world after English. The International Organization of Francophonie has 51 member states and governments. Of these, 28 countries have French as an official language. French is the only language other than English spoken on five continents. French and English are the only two global languages.
http://www.fll.vt.edu/French/whyfrench.html
BTW, you alweays post crappy links or website made by hispanics. Most of them were blogs made by hispanic fanatics whose heads are full of lice.
WORLD: French Africa's population is forecasted to reach 733 million in 2050 + the native speakers of French in France, Canada, Belgium, and Switzerland will be 100 million + 500 foreign language speakers of French. A total of 1,333 billion.
To: Spanish reality check and Maine. I know that I and others have made our points and that you can't make a real argument because you choose to simply copy posts and change the words which shows you are out of ideas.
Instead of arguing the point about French being a minority language in African countries where it is officials, you ignored it and said some crap about Spanish breaking up. Well, answer me this question - If Spanish in Latin America would break up, what the hell would stop African French from doing the same? Actually it already had diverged to different extents I hear because of the numerous NATIVE languages that exist. In Latin America, Spanish is the offical and dominate languages in most countries.
Anyway, Latin America is much more connected and cohesive then your destitute and illiterate "French Africa" - lowest GDP, education, development, and stability in the world. FACT! Don't even try to argue that. Gee, what a great contribution the French bestowed upon these people. What a joke.
And then you presume to put English and French as equally important in international communication. Again you are suffering from dillusions of graneur my friend.
<< French is considered to be the language of diplomacy and culture due to its glorious past and its rich culture. >>
Again you are repeating yourself...and are obviously stuck in the PAST. Also you say "is considered" (passive voice) ok, considered that by who??? Francophiles like yourself?
<< WORLD: French Africa's population is forecasted to reach 733 million in 2050 + the native speakers of French in France, Canada, Belgium, and Switzerland will be 100 million + 500 foreign language speakers of French. A total of 1,333 billion. >>
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Funny. Just because the population will increase (as it does unfortunately in almost every poverty stricken country) many of those people will first speak their NATIVE AFRICAN LANGUAGE! To say "French Africa" is generalization that assumes all people speak French...when they don't.
Plus you "500 million" number for foreign speakers seem very general and contrived. This sounds more like a wild guess from francos like you. If there are 500 then the majority must be in shit poor Africa, cuz the only other place where French is a 1st foreign language is in some Euro countries, but even there English is more studied overall.
That 500 number comes from French sources, so if you can use that, then the pro-Spanish people can use Spanish sources for figures.
And if you reply with a copy of my post, then you proved you can't argue and nobody should pay you any attention.
Interesting site. Thanks. I have an article about the decline of France but it's in Spanish. May you translate it?
Maybe French will have a chance if someone finds a way to cure AIDS...
<<French: 20 388 619 = 13.7% xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
Nice try, mon ami!!! This info is very tricky. The land area of French is 20 million of kilometers, but half of them is the surface of all Canada, where there are only 7 million of French speakers, almost all in Quebec.
For instance, Spanish can include USA because there are 45 million of Hispanics. And voila! Spanish has 21 million of Kilometers...
<<French in Europe, Africa, and Oceania>>
False. French is predominant language NOWHERE, but France. In Europe is fourth, in Africa fourth, and in Oceania, second and spoken by less than half a million. Sorry, mon ami.
<<French as a foreign language is the second most frequently taught language in the world after English>>
False. Spanish is now the second, thanks to the students of USA, Brazil, and European Union, and in a lesser degree the rest of the World. Please, tell us a webpage of 2007 or 2008 where it is written this info.
Philippines, a country of 90 million people will have Spanish as compulsory subject in 2009, like Brazil, another country of 190 million. USA, over 300 million people, has Spanish as the most studied language. Only these 3 countries have almost 600 million at this moment. Do you think that your "French Africa" is more important?
<<French is considered to be the language of diplomacy and culture due to its glorious past and its rich culture.>>
False. The diplomatic language in XXI century is English.
<<French is the only language other than English spoken on five continents. French and English are the only two global languages.>>
False. French is NOT official in Asia. Please tell us an Asian country where French is official. English is the only global language of the XXI century. After these languages there are 4 regional languages that are predominant in a big area (Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, Russian).
<<WORLD: French Africa's population is forecasted to reach 733 million in 2050 + the native speakers of French in France, Canada, Belgium, and Switzerland will be 100 million + 500 foreign language speakers of French. A total of 1,333 billion.>>
Obviously false. Please tell us a webpage where it is that info. According to the same Francophonie, French is spoken by 200 million people worldwide.
Perhaps, the population of "French Africa" will be important in the future, but you must remember that they speak their native African languages. So, when some African languages will be spoken by over 100 million people, they will have the feeling of using only African languages. Some languages like Hausa or Wolof will be more important.
Even if you have a webpage that is French or of the Francophonie it will be good. Thank you.
<<BTW, you alweays post crappy links or website made by hispanics. Most of them were blogs made by hispanic fanatics whose heads are full of lice.>>
Hmmm....I didn't know that the most important newspapers from Madrid (El Pais, El mundo, etc), were crappy links and the most important jounalists of Spain were Hispanic fanatics.... If they read this, perhaps, their lawyers will be very annoying.
PD. I don't know if you have a big mental problem, mon ami, but if you are not too much retarded, DON'T COPY THIS POST!
Damn right Arizona!
I hate this franco claim the most -
<<French is the only language other than English spoken on five continents. French and English are the only two global languages.>>
Ha! This is BS! First off, if you say a language "is spoken" somewhere, that can mean almost every language, as almost all are spoken by some people to some degree. My point is that French is only significant on 3 continents - Europe, Africa and I will say North America (although it is a small minority). The French territory in South America has not even half a million people. And I'm not sure but French may be official in Lebanon, but Arabic is more spoken and the country in very very small, so you can't claim "Asia" with this nor with the tiny French territory islands in Oceania.
If francos want to claim these places for SA and Asia, then pro-Spanish people can say that Spanish is spoken in Africa because of Equatorial New Guinea, even though it is very small. So to be fair, I don't count Spanish in Africa or English in SA either.
This is the reality of the continents that languages cover (only with significance):
English - 4 - North America, Europe Africa, Asia (India, Philippines, most studied overall)
French - 3 - North America (mostly Quebec), Europe, Africa
Spanish - 3 - North America, South America, Europe
Russian - 2 - Europe, Asia
Arabic - 2 - Africa, SW Asia
Chinese - 1 - Asia
Hindi - 1 - Asia
*Technically Portugese can claim 3 continents, but in reality is only significant in South America and "maybe" in Africa. The reason is that it's a minority in Europe when compared to other languages and is less spoken in Africa than English, French, Arabic and Swahili, so it is not so significant there.
Also, to add to my point about the insignificance of French in Asia - French is not an official language in the former SE Asian colonies and its overall use there has severely declined due to English.
Just checked and saw that French is also not official in Lebanon. So it is not offical anywhere in Asia. Only tiny territories in the ocean.
THE DECLINE OF SPANISH IN HISPANIC AMERICA
Language policy in Spanish-speaking Latin America deals with challenges to the status of Spanish as the official language, a status inherited from the colonial administration of the New World. These challenges come from several sources: the assertion of the rights of indigenous groups, the ‘danger’ of fragmentation of Spanish into a multitude of local dialects, the growing prestige of English and influence of the United States, and along the southern border of Brazil, contact with Portuguese.
In the initial phase of colonization, the Catholic Monarchs and later Charles V required all of their new subjects to learn Spanish, just as their predecessors had imposed the learning of Castilian on the conquered Arab territories in order to bind them more closely together in the nation governed by Castile. However, it soon became clear that the linguistic diversity of the New World was too great to allow for the immediate implantation of Spanish, and some allowance had to be made for the usage of indigenous languages in teaching and evangelization. In 1570 Phillip II reluctantly authorized a policy of bilingualism in which instruction could be imparted in ‘the’ language of each Viceroyalty: Nahautl and in New Spain and Quechua in Peru, with the consequent extension of these two languages into territories where they were not spoken natively. Even this measure was not enough, however, and in 1596 Phillip II recognized the existent multilingualism: Spanish for administration and access to the elite, and a local indigenous language for evangelization and daily communication in indigenous communities. This policy lead to a separation of colonial society into a minority of Spanish/creole Spanish-speakers governing an indigenous majority speaking one of many indigenous languages. The separation became so great that it all but halted the Hispanization of rural areas and created local indigenous elites with considerable autonomy from the central adminstration. A reassertion of central authority commenced in 1770 when Carlos III declared Spanish to be the only language of the Empire and ordered the administrative, judicial and ecclesiastic authorities to extinguish all others. After Independence, the new nations and their successors maintained the offical status of Spanish as a means of strengthening national unity and pursuing modernization through education. This tendency was reinforced at the turn of the century through the 1940’s with notions of Social Darwinism, in which the vigorous hybrid groups of Latin America would eventually overcome the ‘weaker’ indigenous groups. It is only since World War II that this policy has suffered any substantial change.
Several processes converged in the post-War period to shake the linguistic status quo. One is the growth of industrialization, which requires an educated workforce and thus lends urgency to effective education. Another is agrarian reform, which raises the social status of the farmer while increasing his need for vocational training. These two processes create a growing pressure to learn the language of technology and mechanization, Spanish. As a counterpoint to this pressure, there was an understanding among policy makers of the failure of the pre-War incorporationist policies to acheive their goal of Hispanization. The confluence of these tendencies was a shift towards the usage of indigenous languages in primary schools to ease the transition to Spanish. Moreover, the dynamic of questioning the entire model of development grew, a dynamic that was reinforced by the emergence of indigenous activists educated in the new national schools. These contradictions came to a head during the labor and peasant movements of the 1950’s and 60’s, where calls for the preservation of indigenous languages served as a vehicle for the preservation of entire indigenous societies. The subsequent official response to these movements had diverse outcomes throughout Latin America. In Mexico, the new indigenous consciousness continued to grow unabated, as it did among the Bolivian Aymara and Ecuadorian Quechua, and to a lesser extent among the other Quechua speakers of Bolivia and Peru. Elsewhere, many organizations were driven into marginality or outright armed resistence, with the paradoxical result that often the only officially-tolerated supporters of indigenous languages were foreigners: scholars pursuing linguistic or anthropological fieldwork, linguists trained by the Summer Institute of Linguistics for the translation and dissemination of Christian texts, or members of other non-governmental organizations engaged in aid or relief work.
Only recently have indigenous defensors of indigenous languages found any standing on the national stage. This new tolerance has been said to reflect the neo-liberal reforms required as conditions for loans from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund since the early 1990’s, with the threat of Communist takeover having receeded. There are now a multitude of protective measures that go from bilingual primary education (Honduras), to constitutional protection (Columbia), to the establishment of indigenous languages as co-official with Spanish (Guatemala).
With respect to the status of Spanish among native speakers, Independence lead to the creation of national educational institutions and a desire to reform Spanish orthography so as to facilitate its learning by American speakers, as well as to foster a literary tradition independent of Spain. Such reforms come to little in the face of the turbulence created by Independence, but a second round of standardization began as part of the modernization process initiated around 1870. Increasing immigration to Latin America and the strengthening of trends towards democratization lead to the fear among the intellectual elite that the linguistic unity of Latin America would collapse into a cacophomy of local variants, much as the Latin of the Roman Empire fragmented into the variety of Romance languages.
The final threat to the official status of Spanish is the growing contact with other European languages: with English throughout Latin America, and with Portuguese along the southern border of Brazil. Contact with English arises through migration to the United States for economic or political reasons or sojourns for business or education. This contact is particularily acute in the case of Puerto Rico, where its adminstrative dependency on the United States has led to an extensive diffusion of English, as well as the threatened imposition of English as the official language should Puerto Rico ever gain statehood. This threat has sparked intellectual debates that echo the Spanish-vs.-indigenous-language debates heard on the mainland: language is an expression of identity, perhaps the fundmental expression of identity, and it should not be given up lightly.
Selected references
Angel Rama (1996) The Lettered City. Duke University Press.
[spelling reform after independence, p. 43ff; foundation of Spanish American Academies, Cuervo, Caro & Bello p. 59ff]
Julio Ramos (1989) Desenceuntros de la modernidad en América Latina. Literatura y política en el siglo XIX. Tierra Firme, México.
[Ch. II sobre Bello]
Julio Ramos (1996) Paradojas de la letra. Ediciones eXcultura, Caracas, Miami, Quito.
[Ch. 1 sobre Bello]
http://www.tulane.edu/~howard/Pubs/LALangPol.html
Damn right Maine!
I hate this hispano claim the most -
<< Obviously false. Please tell us a webpage where it is that info. According to the same Francophonie, French is spoken by 200 million people worldwide.
Perhaps, the population of "French Africa" will be important in the future, but you must remember that they speak their native African languages. So, when some African languages will be spoken by over 100 million people, they will have the feeling of using only African languages. Some languages like Hausa or Wolof will be more important.
Even if you have a webpage that is French or of the Francophonie it will be good. Thank you. >>
just go to African French in Wikipedia and you'll find out that Frenchis becoming the 1st language there.
in hispanic America, the Ameridians are beginning to turn to their heritage that's why Quechua, Aymara, Guarani, and Quiche speakers now outnumbered the Spanish speakers. Spanish is great danger there from Ameridians and Fragmentation.
"Spanish can include USA because there are 45 million of Hispanics. "
How many universities and R&D centres use Spanish in USA?
Latino immigrants count for zilch in the USA.
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