We all share a few similar notions about language training. Say, the importance of English. But what does our linguistic future hold? What languages will we be using? Let’s look at the top 10 languages studied by young people around the world today – along with a little bit of context.
Most Spoken Languages in the World
Before we delve in, let’s look at the two most spoken languages in the world: English and Mandarin.
> English is the most spoken language in the world, with 1.13 billion speakers.
> Mandarin is first runner-up, with 1.11 billion.
Although English is in the lead, only about a third of English speakers speak English natively – less than 390 million people. For context, the USA has a population of around 330 million. The remaining two thirds of English speakers in the world speak English as a secondary language.
As you might be able to imagine, this is an unconventional linguistic phenomenon. For comparison, when it comes to Mandarin speakers worldwide, 82% speak Mandarin natively. After all, that’s what we would normally expect – that any given language would be mostly made up of native speakers.
School vs. Self-Study
The most popular languages studied by young people can be divided by what they are prescribed to study at school and what they choose to learn on their own time. That division mostly reflects as a difference in the languages that have a lower student volume.
Languages with lower student volume depend on world region and hobby-like interests. In Malaysia, where there are 137 languages, groups may find they can’t do business or be a part of the community unless they speak the local language, in addition to Standard Malay.
In such situations, regular schooling tends to acknowledge and address that gap. But many interested young people learn languages on their own. And with every year, technology allows for greater exposure to foreign languages.
This exposure is represented by new and improved lessons for, say, “school” languages. But, also, languages that weren’t previously accessible. In a linguistic turnaround, Irish is one of the ten most popular languages on web apps. And 53% of those learners are based in the U.S.
Top 10 Languages in the World Studied by Young People
We’ve talked about the fact that two thirds of English speakers on Earth don’t have English as a first language. So, you probably put it together right away that English was going to be at the top of the list!
Let’s look at the current top 10 languages learned in the world by young people, through schools and self-study:
| Language | Number of learners worldwide | Growth | |
| 1 | English | 1.5 B | Positive |
| 2 | French | 120 M | Negative |
| 3 | Mandarin | 40 M | Positive |
| 4 | Russian | 38.2 M | Negative |
| 5 | Portuguese | 35 M | Positive |
| 6 | Spanish | 21 M | Negative |
| 7 | German | 15.4 M | Negative |
| 8 | Japanese | 4 M | Positive |
| 9 | Italian | 2 M | Positive |
| 10 | Korean | 57,000 | Positive |
Some of the items on this list may seem unexpected! Since the list addresses the whole world, we may learn new things. Like, how French and Portuguese are spoken on various continents, making their numbers are greater. What was something unexpected you noticed?
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