What are the top 10 popular languages being studied worldwide?

English: 1 Billion+ Spanish: 200 Million+ French: 60 Million+ Chinese: 30 Million+ German: 16 Million+ That's the best I can do. Numbers for people learning Italian and Arabic were all over the place and I couldn't find a reliable source.

Here you will find the country wise stats for English, French and German learners in Europe :

For Chinese, the number of learners is 40 million as per this source : news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/13/co... I am still looking for the other languages and will update this information. This is a map from Modern Language Association that gives a complete breakdown for all languages in respective state, county, city and town. mla.org/map_data Alternatively, you can click a language here to get the breakdown : mla.org/map_data_langlist&mode=lang_tops.

Because they will be important in the future: Chinese Japanese Arabic Bahasa or Malay Russian Spanish Korean Portuguese ndi Bengali.

You should take into account the US Department state notice for super critical needs languages to become Foreign Service Officer: Arabic (Modern Standard, Egyptian, and Iraqi), Chinese (Mandarin), Dari, Farsi, and Urdu The following are Critical Needs Language (Arabic (forms other than Modern Standard, Egyptian, and Iraqi), Azerbaijani, Bengali, Chinese (Cantonese), Kazakh, Korean, Kurdish, Kyrgyz, Nepali, Pashto, Punjabi, Russian, Tajik, Turkish, Turkmen, and Uzbek This offer appeared in newspapers several months ago http://careers.state.gov/officer/considerations.html.

These are the most popular languages in the world according to about.com and they use various sources to come up with this list but their primary source is CIA World Factbook. ---quote-- 1. Mandarin Chinese - 882 million 2. Spanish - 325 million 3.

English - 312-380 million 4. Arabic - 206-422 million 5. Portuguese - 178 million 7.

Bengali - 173 million 8. Russian - 146 million 9. Japanese - 128 million 10.

German - 96 million.

Pimsleur is one of the best-selling language-learning programs for English speakers, and for those learning English as a second language. I have provided a link both to their man site, and to the list of language programs they offer. Unfortunately Pimsleur only posts the top 5 selling language programs, and we can assume that these ranks are specific to native English speakers learning a new language: 1.

Spanish 2. French 3. Italian 4.

German 5. Arabic (Eastern).

1. Spanish. Category One.

The straightforward grammar is familiar and regular. It is also ubiquitous in the Americas, the only foreign language with a major presence in the insular linguistic environment of the U.S. Chances to speak and hear it abound. It is the overwhelming favorite, accounting for more than fifty percent of language study enrollment in the MLA study.2.French.

Category One. Grammatically complex but not difficult to learn because so many of it's words have entered English. For this vocabulary affinity, it is easy to attain an advanced level, especially in reading.It is a world language, and a motivated learner will find this language on the internet, in films and music.3.

German. Category One Plus. The syntax and grammar rules are complex with noun declensions a major problem.

It is the easiest language to begin speaking, with a basic vocabulary akin to English. Abstract, advanced language differs markedly, though, where English opts for Latin terms.It values clear enunciation, so listening comprehension is not difficult. 4.Italian.

Category One.It has the same simple grammar rules as Spanish, a familiar vocabulary and the clearest enunciation among Latin languages (along with Romanian). Italian skills are easily transferable to French or Spanish. You might need to go to Italy to practice it, but there are worse things that could happen to you.It is also encountered in the world of opera and classical music.5.Russian.

Category Two. This highly inflected language, with declensions, is fairly difficult to learn. The Cyrillic alphabet is not particularly difficult, however, and once you can read the language, the numerous borrowings from French and other western languages are a pleasant surprise.

It is increasingly accessible. 6.Arabic. Category Three.

Arabic is spoken in dozens of countries, but the many national dialects can be mutually incomprehensible. It has only three vowels, but includes some consonants that don't exist in English. The alphabet is a formidable obstacle, and good calligraphy is highly valued and difficult to perfect.

Vowels are not normally written (except in children's books) and this can be an obstacle for reading. It is ubiquitous in the Muslim world and opportunities exist to practice it at every level of formality.7.Portuguese. Category One.

One of the most widely spoken languages in the world is often overlooked.It has a familiar Latin grammar and vocabulary, though the phonetics may take some getting used to.8. Swahili. Category Two Minus.It includes many borrowings from Arabic, Persian, English and French.

It is a Bantu language of Central Africa, but has lost the difficult Bantu "tones". The sound system is familiar, and it is written using the Latin alphabet. One major grammatical consideration is the division of nouns into sixteen classes, each with a different prefix.

However, the classes are not arbitrary, and are predictable.9. Category Two. The an Indo-European language, includes both It has an enormous number of consonants and vowels, making distinctions between phonemes that an English speaker will have difficulty hearing.

Words often have clipped endings, further complicating comprehension. Ndi uses many Sanskrit loans and Urdu uses many Persian/Arabic loans, meaning that a large vocabulary must be mastered. Ndi uses the phonetically precise Devanagari script, created specifically for the language.

Predictably, Urdu's use of a borrowed Persian/Arabic script leads to some approximation in the writing system.10. Modern Hebrew. Category Two.

Revived as a living language during the nineteenth century, it has taken on characteristics of many languages of the Jewish diaspora. The resultant language has become regularized in grammar and syntax, and the vocabulary has absorbed many loan words, especially from Yiddish, English and Arabic. The alphabet has both print and script forms, with five vowels, not normally marked.

Vowel marking, or pointing, is quite complex when it does occur. Sounds can be difficult to reproduce in their subtleties and a certain amount of liaison makes listening comprehension problematic.It is not very accessible outside of a religious or Israeli context.

English has 25 genera, many of which are still divided into different subgenera. Here you will find a list of English dialects: AAve (Black English) American English Australian English British English Canadian English Caribbean English Commonwealth English English English Hawaiian English berno-English ghland English Hong Kong English Indian English International English Jamaican English Liberian English Malaysian English Newfoundland English New Zealand English Philippine English Scottish English Singapore English South African English Standard English English Welsh Most widely spoken languages in the world 1000 million Mandarin speakers English 450 million speakers Almost 400 million ndi speakers Spanish 370 million speakers Nearly 300 million Russian speakers More than 200 million Arabic speakers Nearly 200 million Bengali speakers Almost 200 million Portuguese speakers 150 million Malay-Indonesian speakers Japanese 130 million speakers 120 million German speaker http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/languages/index.html (the second best source) http://www.language-learning.net/ (look here, check the material of the providers and make it better! ) (additional) http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_to_Learn_a_Language (the best for creating your own courses) http://www.word2word.com/coursead.html.

First, Wikipedia states that globally, French is spoken by about 77 to 85 million people. This range of numbers falls below the "Top Ten. " That said, the following numbers were supplied by infoplease.com regarding the ten most popular languages spoken, by population, but came with the caveat that the numbers were speakers of languages not just native lanuage.

However, the caveat should not affect your focus because it appears you are concerned with the need for educating people in a language to facilitate communication with large numbers of potential customers or clients. Mandarin Chinese over 1 billion Spanish 329 million English 328 million Arabic 221 million ndi 182 million Bengali 181 million Portuguese 178 million Russian 144 million Japanese 122 million German 90 million GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR BUSINESS VENTURE!

1. Mandarin 2. English 3. Spanish 5.

Russian 6. Arabic 7. Bengali 8.

Portuguese 9. Malay-Indonesian 10. French listverse.com/2008/06/26/top-10-most-spo....

Andrew, Many answers reflect the current number who speak each language. This does not indicate the number of people who are learning languages. I think it would be quite difficult to provide a good estimate given the number of independent language schools and university language departments in world plus the vast number of individuals who study languages on their own.

One of the most useful methods to determine interest in a particular subject is to do keyword research. There are literally thousands of keyword and keyword phrases related to language learning. However, the list below should provide you with a basis for determining which languages have the most people interested in studying them.

All searches were done with Google's free keyword research tool. Note, the numbers provide beside each keyword phrase represent monthly global searches with a broad phrase setting. An exact match would yield fewer numbers.At the same time, Google only represents a part of the total number of people who searched for the phrases below.

If you were to add the totals for the thousands of keyword phrases used plus the totals from results at Yahoo and Bing, you would have some pretty significant numbers. By analyzing the keyword phrases below, it becomes pretty clear which are the top languages that people are interested in learning. KEYWORD PHRASE: "learn + specific language" learn english - 823,000 learn spanish - 550,000 learn french - 368,000 learn japanese - 246,000 learn chinese - 201,000 learn german - 165,000 learn arabic - 135,000 learn italian - 135,000 learn korean - 74,000 learn russian - 74,000 learn greek - 49,500 learn hindi - 49,500 learn portuguese - 49,500 learn hebrew - 40,500 learn dutch - 33,100 learn polish - 27,100 learn swedish - 27,100 learn tamil - 22,200 learn turkish - 22,200 learn urdu - 18,100 learn farsi - 14,800 learn norwegian - 14,800 learn tagalog - 14,800 learn vietnamese - 14,800 learn romanian - 9,900 KEYWORD PHRASE: "learn to speak + specific language" learn to speak spanish - 74,000 learn to speak english - 49,500 learn to speak french - 33,100 learn to speak japanese - 18,100 learn to speak german - 14,800 learn to speak italian - 14,800 learn to speak chinese - 9,900 learn to speak arabic - 8,100 learn to speak korean - 6,600 learn to speak russian - 6,600 learn to speak portuguese - 4,400 learn to speak greek - 3,600 learn to speak hindi - 3,600 learn to speak hebrew - 2,900 learn to speak tagalog - 2,900 learn to speak dutch - 2,400 learn to speak polish - 2,400 learn to speak romanian - 1,600 learn to speak czech - 1,300 learn to speak farsi - 1,300 learn to speak swedish - 1,300 learn to speak tamil - 1,300 learn to speak turkish - 1,300 learn to speak urdu - 1,300 learn to speak welsh - 1,000 KEYWORD PHRASE: "learn + specific language + language" learn english language - 27,100 learn spanish language - 27.100 learn german language - 12,100 learn japanese language - 12,000 learn french language - 9,900 learn arabic language - 8,100 learn chinese language - 8,100 learn italian language - 8,100 learn korean language - 6,600 learn russian language - 4,400 learn greek language - 2,400 learn hindi language - 2,400 learn turkish language - 1,900 learn hebrew language - 1,600 learn polish language - 1,600 learn dutch language - 1,300 learn portuguese language - 1,300 learn swedish language - 1,300 learn norwegian language - 1,000 learn tamil language - 1,000 learn urdu language - 1,000 learn vietnamese language - 1,000 learn finnish language - 880 learn romanian language - 880 Well, hope this helps.

This is mu opinion after consulting with linguist. In Europe it's 1. English 2.

German 3. French 4. Spanish 5.

Italian In the US: 1. Spanish 2. French 3.

German 4. Italian In the former Soviet Union: 1. English 2.

German 3. French But you should take in consideration that Chinese is one of the most studied languages if you take in account Cantonese speakers and other people that speak Chinese of Shanghai or Tibetan. More than 100 million of Chinese people study Mandarin.

Top 10 Languages Studied Worldwide 1. Chinese (Mandarin)-1,213,000,000 2. Spanish-329,000,000 3.

English-328,000,000 4. Arabic-221,000,000 5. 000,000 6.

Bengali-181,000,000 7. Portuguese-178,000,000 8. Russian-144,000,000 9.

Japanese-122,000,000 10. German-90,000,000.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.