English Archives - Foreign policy

4 Most Powerful Languages in the World

Published on June 6, 2020March 5, 2021

Since the dawn of time, humans have had some form of communication between each other. In those times, humans didn’t use a language with logical sentences and letters, but they still did have some form of understanding through certain sounds and gestures. Several thousands of years needed to pass until we finally made some kind of advancement in our communication. People started forming letters and words that had a lot more meaning to them. Basic wording for things such as water or food started to be a common thing.

Many millennia later, we finally reached a level where we can easily communicate with each other. Just the idea of how advanced we have become in forming reasonable sentences is simply amazing. There are no other species on this planet that have developed such a way of communication. It is even crazier to think about this once you find out that we might be one of the youngest species on this planet.

Once tribes started to develop in much more complicated social groups, the way of communicating started to develop and split into other categories too. The people up north would start speaking in one type of language while those south in some completely different.

Sometimes, it sounds some languages are so unlike each other, it is like they’ve come from two different planets.

The fact that there are more than 6,000 languages that are used on a daily basis around the world, is a crazy idea on its own. If you want to know which ones are the most used and the most powerful, make sure you keep reading.

English

I think it is safe to say that English is the most known language on the entire planet. Sure, it doesn’t have the largest amount of native speakers, but wherever you go, you will find someone that knows how to speak English. They may not be fluent in it, but they would still be able to understand most of the basic stuff.

Studies have shown that there are more than 350 million native speakers of English. Combine these 350 million with the other 1.2 billion second-language speakers and you get a total of 1.5 billion. This number tells you just how popular English is around the planet.

Many people think that Mandarin should hold that first place of languages in the world because it has almost a billion native speakers, but the population that understands Mandarin is concentrated only in China. You won’t find people understanding Mandarin in Europe or America. This is exactly why English is believed to be such a powerful language.

Mandarin

Like we already said, Mandarin has natively spoken by almost a billion people around the planet or more accurately, in China. There are also around 200 to 300 million second-language speakers which are a pretty big number too.

What is interesting about Mandarin is the fact that it is actually a group of Chinese languages that are spoken all across China. Think of it like this. The accents of English used around the world sound different, but it is still the same thing. You hear the same thing but pronounced in a different way. It may be a bit more difficult to understand someone with an accent, but with enough effort, your mind will be able to decipher the accent. Well, the dialects used in Mandarin completely change the way some words are said and the way some sentences are formed.

A lot of students nowadays are considering taking Chinese language courses. AP Chinese course is among the popular language courses yet one of the most challenging of all. Luckily, sites like ExamGenius guide students on the best study materials for the AP Chinese examination.

A person that originates from southern China won’t be able to understand Mandarin used by someone that originates from northern China. Both of them live in China, both of them use Mandarin, but they have will have a difficult time understanding each other.

Swahili

Swahili is the official language in five different countries including Kenya, Tanzania, DR Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda. However, it is used in a lot more countries located in Africa. It is recognized by millions of people on this continent. The exact number of Swahili speakers is not known, but experts estimate that it is somewhere between 120 or 150 million.

Many people would argue that Swahili shouldn’t be on this list, but I believe that it is interesting enough which is why it deserves a place on this list. The idea that you can use Swahili to get through every single country of Africa is something that you cannot do with any other language. Sure, you could move across the entire United States of America with the use of English, but that’s just one country. With Swahili, you can move through 30 different countries and people will still understand you.

These days, a lot of people have started to learn Swahili because they’ve understood just how powerful it is. If you are one of those people that understands just how important Swahili is, you can find additional information about it at KL Translations that may help you delve deeper into the science behind the language.

Spanish

Another very interesting contender on this list is Spanish. Experts believe that Spanish is spoken by almost 500 million people around the planet. It is in fact, the second most spoken native language right after Mandarin. Just 600 years ago, the only Spanish-speaking language was Spain, so the total amount of native speakers in that time was only about 8 to 9 million. But, once the Americas were starting to be explored and developed, Spanish speakers started to spread.

Today, in South America, Spanish is the official language of 20 different countries including Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Spain, and many more. Because it is so easy to learn and it is such a fluent speaking language, it easily spread around the entire South American continent. This is why it deserves to be put on the same level as Mandarin or even English.

So, if you’re interested in becoming bilingual or even trilingual, you can choose any of these contenders we mentioned above. Whichever you pick, you will definitely find yourself in a situation in the future when you will have to use it.

Don’t Just Read About Learning English, Actually Do It

Published on March 7, 2019March 7, 2019

Education

There is more than one way to learn English, anyone can do it, regardless of time, monetary or talent concerns. Indeed, there are conventional and unconventional methods to learn any foreign language, methods that can help anyone, regardless of their strong suits or not so strong suits. The most important part, however, is to actually apply what you learn, to use these methods, regardless of which one you decide to go with.

Start learning, Stop postponing

Some students might make the mistake of over-researching study methods without doing any real studying. Yes, there are innovative ways of learning English, easier than the classic course or learning tape, and yes, there are blogs, and websites that cover language learning, from the very basics to practical day to day tips. However, don’t get stuck in the innovative renaissance of language learning that is going on these days and actually tries to learn something.

The first step is always the most difficult one to take, but also the most important. Don’t waste too much time over thinking about what learning method to choose, as it will just slow you down in the long run. There is no perfect method to start your learning with, it is more a matter of experimenting as you go along.

Once you start learning, you can try other methods to help you progress faster, from getting a tutor, to learning while you watch TV or listening to music, everything can work, it only depends how you want your learning process to go. The most important part is to stop delaying, even if you think it’s smartly invested time and start learning.

Another important part that gets left out by many students during their English learning process is to actually use what you learn. Create the opportunity if its not readily available and use whatever you learn. For example, you could talk to native speakers, if you don’t have the opportunity to meet them create it by going online on specially designed websites.

Use what you learn in any way you can

Try to test yourself by writing a letter in your newly learned language. You could also try to watch an English movie without dubbing or subtitles and see what you can make of it. Another way you could actually try to use what you learn is to read a book in English. This can be a great way to establish a real relationship with a writer as you will read his words, without losing any of the feel and emotion through translation.

In conclusion, don’t over think the English learning process before you start it. It’s not that big of a decision to make, and it’s something you can always modify in the future into a form that best suits you. Also remember, there are several ways to learn English, the best way in terms of both time, as well as personal experience, is to mix classical methods of learning like taking a course or learning from specially designed textbooks with a modern approach like learning from native speakers or improving your language by watching movies or listening to music.