Languages are fascinating. They reveal so much about the culture of its speakers and are one of the key differences of people all around the world. The bible suggests that different languages were created to confuse people and stop them from working together. Today that is no longer an issue as people have created tools to allow people of many different languages to converse. In the future language may not be an obstacle at all as technology will likely create a way for languages to be translated automatically before a person hears them. For now, though, different languages do exist. Traveling the world you immediately learn the issues of only speaking one language. If you were to learn another language, what would you choose? Let’s look at the three most spoken languages in the world to help you decide.
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin tops the list with 900 million native speakers and 190 nonnative speakers. While the most spoken language in the world, it is largely concentrated in one country. China continues to grow as a superpower and being able to speak Chinese can make you very employable internationally.
English
English is second on the list. With only 371 million native speakers it has for more non-native speakers at 611 million speakers. This often makes English the chosen language of two people who both speak other languages. English can be a common ground across the world and it is increasingly the dominant international language.
Hindustani
Hindu and Urdu are the two dialects of Hindustani. The language is spoken by 329 million native speakers and 215 million non-native speakers. The language is again concentrated in India and descendants from India around the world. As the population of India continues to grow so too will the importance of this language to the rest of the world.
