Today, it is easier than ever to learn a new language. And while AI translators and dubbed shows are more common, many people understand the true beauty of immersing oneself in a different tongue. However, which language people wish they could speak varies around the world, as it is dictated by a ton of circumstances. To answer this question, WordTips set out to map which language each country wants to learn the most—and their findings are quite revealing.
“Language is more than a tool—it’s an art, it’s culture, it’s human. Whether reading or conversing, using a foreign language is fun and rewarding,” writes WordTips. To produce this map, the team created a list of the 50 most common languages worldwide. Then, they calculated each country’s monthly Google search volume for queries related to learning each language.
The world seems to have changed since the last time they mapped this, in 2021. Three years ago, they found that 98 countries wanted to learn English more than any other language, while now that figure has fallen to 63. Looking for an explanation, WordTips quotes The EF English Proficiency Index, which attributes this to “likely symptomatic of broader political and demographic shifts as well as growing confidence questioning Western cultural hegemony in education.”
In the United States, the language people most want to learn is Spanish, which is now the world’s fifth-largest Spanish-speaking country. Yet it seems that a good chunk of the Latino population speaks little to no Spanish—something that leads to a lack of Spanish-speaking doctors, an issue that has hurt the Hispanic community. Spanish took the crown from Japanese, which is now the second most popular language that people want to learn in the U.S.
Another highlight is the trend in migration that can be noticed in the map. English is the language most people want to learn in the UK, while Spanish is the language most people want to study in Spain—which very possibly relates to the presence of new arrivals from other countries.
Meanwhile, Korean culture and entertainment seems to have made the Asian nation’s language the most sought-after in countries across Asia, including India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and Nepal. It’s also the second most popular in the Philippines and Japan. In turn, South Korea is mostly interested in learning Japanese.
Curious about which language different countries want to learn? Explore all the regional maps below and make sure to pay a visit to WordTips' report.
WordTips set out to map which language each country wants to learn the most—and their findings are quite revealing.
WordTips: Website
h/T: [Mental Floss]
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