Which Language Would You Like to Learn with InnovativeLanguage.com?
34 Entries • 12 Comments
Arabic is a multi-faceted language that boasts around 340 million native speakers. It is closely related to Aramaic, Hebrew, and Phoenician. Modern Standard Arabic, the standard accepted written form of the language, is developed from the language of the religious text of Islam, the Koran.
Bulgarian is spoken by around 12 million people worldwide, with the majority of speakers living in Bulgaria. While Bulgarian is part of the Slavic language family, it has many unique and interesting characteristics that set it apart from the rest.
The Cantonese language is the lingua franca of the Guangdong Province of China, as well as the primary language of Hong Kong and Macau. Though Mandarin is spoken by more people worldwide, Cantonese is more widespread and is commonly used in Chinese communities across the globe.
Chinese is categorized as part of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is spoken as a primary language by over one billion people, or one fifth of the world’s total population! Chinese is famed for its tens of thousands of characters, with some dictionaries containing more than 50,000 words as entries.
As the official language of the Czech Republic, Czech is spoken by over 10 million people worldwide. With Slavic roots, Czech is mutually intelligible with Slovak, which adds to its value.
Danish, the native language of Denmark, is spoken by over 5 million people around the world. Danish uses an alphabet that is very similar to that of English, with only 3 additional letters. Because of this, English speakers will feel comfortable reading and writing Danish words and sentences.
With origins dating back to 450 AD, the Dutch language is the primary language of the Netherlands. It is the primary language spoken by around 23 million people in Europe, as well as a secondary language for another 5 million. Dutch is most closely related to the English and German languages.
Spoken originally in England, the English language has become the most widely used language on the planet. It is the official language of many nations, including the U.S., United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and others. As the most commonly learned second language in the world, it is used for communication in many global organizations.
Built upon the blending of up to eight different languages, Filipino is a truly diverse and exciting language to learn. Filipino, along with English, is the official language of the Philippines. The greatest concentration of Filipino speakers live near Manila, but it is widely spoken throughout the entire nation.
Part of the Finno-Ugric language group, Finnish is primarily spoken in Finland. There are nearly 5 million native Finnish speakers in the world. Modern Finnish uses plenty of loanwords from other languages, giving many learners a head start when studying it.
French is a Romance language with wide appeal, second only to English as the most commonly studied foreign language in the world. Surprisingly, it is Africa that boasts the largest number of French speakers in the world. Today, French is regarded as an extremely important language for global diplomatic purposes.
With over 98 million native speakers worldwide, German is one of the world’s major languages. The German language has close linguistic ties to English and Dutch. German is spoken in many different countries throughout Europe.
The Greek language is one of the oldest living documented languages, and in its modern form, it is the basis for many western words and root words. Today, Modern Greek is spoken by over 13 million people worldwide including emigrants throughout Europe and the Americas.
Hebrew, along with Arabic, is one of the official languages of Israel. In addition, it is spoken by Jewish immigrants in many other parts of the world. Hebrew is generally considered easy to learn and many people who study Hebrew are amazed at how quickly they are able to pick it up once they begin.
The Hindi language has over 480 million speakers worldwide and is understood or spoken in India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and even Fiji. Learning Hindi can be a challenge to people who grew up speaking western languages, but just like learning any other language, it can also be a lot of fun!
The Hungarian language, or Magyar as it is known in Hungary, is the official language of Hungary. Part of the Finno-Ugric language group, it is also spoken in parts of Austria, Romania, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Ukraine. Over 15 million people speak the language, including the approximately 10 million people who speak it throughout Hungary.
Though Indonesia has over 700 different languages and dialects that are spoken throughout the country, Indonesian is the national language that brings the country together. Almost everyone in Indonesia speaks Indonesian and the language is used for all government, educational, and media material.
Italian is a Romance language that is spoken today by 70 to 80 million people as their first or maternal language, and is used by up to 150 million people as a second or cultural language. As the official language of Italy, Italian boasts a rich cultural heritage and modern usage around the world.
Japanese is used extensively around the world, with nearly 130 million people speaking the language. Drawn to the simple pronunciation scheme, many people choose to learn Japanese as their second language, or to learn a few Japanese phrases in order to simplify travel in Japan.
Korean is the official language of North Korea and South Korea, and is also spoken in Japan, China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and by many people in the United States. Worldwide, about 78 million people speak the Korean language.
The Norwegian language is of the North Germanic classification and is mainly spoken in the country of Norway. Two official versions of the written Norwegian language have been established in Norway and they translate literally as “book tongue” (Bokmål) and “new Norwegian” (Nynorsk).
The Persian language is spoken in several Middle Eastern countries, most notably in Iran. Persian is based on the Arabic alphabet and has over 57 million speakers around the world. Though Persian is difficult to master, it is an extremely rewarding language to learn.
Polish is the official language in Poland, where over 36 million people speak the language. However, there are plenty of other places where Polish is spoken. For example, over 2 million people in the U.S., one million people in Ukraine, and over 100,000 people in the former Czechoslovakia use the Polish language.
While the language developed in Europe, today more people speak Portuguese in Brazil than in Portugal. If you speak English, you’ll find that learning Brazilian Portuguese is not overwhelmingly challenging. The Portuguese alphabet uses the same 26 letters that English speakers are familiar with, although several of the letters may have a pronunciation that feels quite foreign.
Today, between 160 and 180 million people speak Russian, making it one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. The majority of these speakers live in Russia, but the Russian language is being taught in an increasing number of schools worldwide.
One of the six official languages of the United Nations, it is estimated that there are currently around 500 million people in the world who can speak Spanish. Coming only behind Mandarin Chinese, Spanish is the largest native language in the world. Mexico has the largest population of native speakers of the language.
Swahili is largely spoken in East Africa and it is considered a national language in Tanzania, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and at one time in Uganda. Over 120 million people speak Swahili including immigrant populations in other countries in Europe and the U.S.
Swedish is a member of the Nordic family of languages. It is the official language of Sweden, of course, but also the second official language of Finland. By learning how to speak Swedish, it becomes much easier to learn other Nordic languages.
Thai is the official language of Thailand. In Thailand, approximately fifty million people speak Thai as their primary language. If you have any interest in becoming more knowledgeable about Eastern cultures and their languages, learning how to speak Thai is an excellent first step!
The first written records of the Turkish language date back about 1,300 years, and originate from Central Asia. Today, the language is spoken by more than 83 million people around the world. In fact, out of all of the Turkic languages, Turkish is the most commonly spoken worldwide.
Vietnamese is spoken by approximately 81 million people worldwide, with the majority of speakers residing in Vietnam. Over one million fluent Vietnamese speakers live in the U.S., where it is seventh in line of the most-spoken languages in the country.
Afrikaans is one of the official languages of South Africa. If you’re an English speaker, you’re in luck! Afrikaans is widely recognized as one of the easiest languages for an English speaker to learn. As a West Germanic language, Afrikaans shares many characteristics with German, Dutch and English.
With over 24 million native speakers, Romanian is definitely a language worth checking out. Learners are usually surprised by how incredibly widespread the language is, with a notable amount of speakers in the USA, Australia and all throughout Europe. A romance language, Romanian is the official language of Romania and the Republic of Moldova.
Not only is Urdu an official language of India, but it is also the lingua franca of Pakistan. The language boasts over 60 million native speakers around the world and shares many traits with Hindi. And studying Urdu script presents an exciting challenge for any language learner!
Which language would you like to learn with InnovativeLanguage.com?
Thank you, Tina.
The opinions of your experts on my question would be very useful to me as I try to decide whether I am just fooling myself by trying this many languages at once at my age.
Thanks,
Walt
Hi Walt,
thank you very much for your comment. I am absolutely impressed by your language learning capabilities although languages are just a hobby for you. I passed your question to our linguistic team for a more sound feedback.
As for my personal opinion, the learning languages capabilities depend very much on the personal motivation and natural limitations. Speaking about myself, I struggled with Japanese for 2 years and at the end gave up learning it, as I was not making any feasible progress. Therefore, I admire your current efforts.I guess that Bulgarian and Dutch are your easier choices now, as you already mastered the basic logic of the languages and need to build upon your knowledge of Russian and German.
Best regards,
Tina
BulgarianPod101.com
David hi,
thank you for the suggestion. We will keep Welch in mind when we consider adding new learning content to our language portfolio.
Best regards,
Tina
BulgarianPod101.com
Hi Joanna,
thank you very much for the feedback. You can start learning Turkish right away with TurkishClass101.com, where the content is created by native speakers. You might appreciate it as I know from personal friends that the Turkish spoken in Bulgaria differece in pronunciation from the way it is spoken in Turkey.
We will keep Georigan in our pipeline of new languages. Stay tune and you might find it in our list of languages soon. However, creating and promoting the content of a new language takes time and efforts.
We hope to see you browsing or practicing new languages you might be interested in learning with us. Anyway, just leave us a note if you need any help in the process. We are here to make studying fun for you😄
Best regards,
Tina
BulgarianPod101.com Team
My Russian and German used to be quite good, even for every day use in the USSR and Germany respectively (and for three days of “discussions” with the Bulgarian Secret Police back in the 70s). Romanian was next on my fluency list, followed by Norwegian and French. But more recently my focus has changed, so that I am now studying Japanese, Bulgarian and Hebrew (with a bit of Dutch when time permits). Note: I am not and have never been a linguist — languages have just been a hobby.
The point of this note is not to boast — I know people far more skilled in foreign languages than I am. My point is to ask a serious question for both linguists and psychologists: how many new languages can a person in his/her 70s expect to learn simultaneously? Please take this question seriously, because I would like to know the theoretical limits.
A long time ago I lived in Wales for 3 years. I would love to learn Welsh.
The Welsh are very proud of their language and their long cultural history. Wales is also a very beautiful and interesting country.
I would love to learn Turkish as I live in an area of Bulgaria with lots of Turkish speakers, and it would be great to visit Turkey frequently too and be able to speak and understand.
I would also be very interested to learn Georgian - I love the way it sounds and what a fabulous alphabet!
Languages that you already offer that interest me are Russian, Arabic and Persian.
Hi Tony,
thank you for your note. You are quite correct, it required quite an investment to create the content about a new language and to promote it. Stay tuned, and I think that there might be nice surprises for you😄
The Balkan region is a rather interesting place with diverse ethnic and religious groups and dynamic history. There was a Bulgarian movie some time ago, After the End of the World (1998), which was quite insightful about the situation in Bulgaria in the 1940s. If you can find it, you might like it, as you indicate you are interested in understanding the local cultures.
Best regards,
Tina
BulgarianPod101.com Team
Hi Marit,
thank you for your note. Arabic is a real challenge in terms of pronunciation, as least for me.
I was quite surprised by your choice of Armenian. It made me think for a bit. There have been Armenian people in Bulgaria for quite some time. They are such a ingrained part of the society, i.e. there are a lot of famous Armenian artists, but I have never really thought about their language. Probably because I personally do not have a close Armenian friend. Although, it is quite important to be aware of the ethnic diversity here and to know something about the different cultures.
All the best,
Tina,
BulgarianPod101.com Team
I agree with Marit, Armenian would be nice. And also Georgian. Also languages of the Baltic and Balkan states. Languages like Lithuanian, Estonian, Serbian, Albanian may not be good economic investments for you, but would be appreciated by many who need to know more about the post-Soviet states and the potential “frozen conflict” areas, e.g. Ukraine. And these languages have much to offer culturally, too.