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Comment by ptaipale | Hacker News Reader

From article: "So, really, there are only five global languages: English, Mandarin, Hindi, Spanish, and Arabic."

I would call all these "big" languages, but I would not call Mandarin, Hindi or Arabic "global" languages. There may be over 700M speakers of Hindi/Urdu, but they live mostly on the Indian subcontinent and Hindi is not really a language of global business or education.

Spanish, and outside the above list, French, are more "global" languages in the sense that the language is a majority-dominant and/or significant language of business on several continents.

(FWIW I do know English as second language and understand a few words of French and Spanish, and can get along with everyday things in Mandarin, though I am more fluent in a couple of other small languages (Swedish and German). I am certainly not belittling the mentioned big languages, I just do not think they are truly "global".)

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I don't know man?

Having worked with Halliburton a while back it certainly seemed like Arabic was a global language to me. Many nations where you just have to speak it when interacting with people below the C level. There's also a lot of business you have to do in Arabic, and a lot of times when the expertise you may need is really only available from Arabic speakers. Like if you want a half way accurate estimate of how much oil Cuba likely has in the North Cuba Basin for instance. They have tools and techniques that others just haven't developed. (Or hadn't at the time.)

But I do think that when we are not so dependent on fossil fuels, Arabic will become a VERY unimportant language. I'm just not sure when that will be?

Oh, also, I'd imagine Mandarin is important too. A lot people who dealt with the Chinese on the "gotta get shit done" level used it all the time there. Also a lot of traders downtown were using that all the time when I lived in Houston. You kind of just had to when you were dealing with things in China because for many people in those sorts of positions, a lot of stuff is just moving way too fast to not be able to find the chase and cut to it faster than the next guy.

Or it was anyway? I don't know if business with China from the US is slowing because of the Trade War? Been out of that game for a while now.

can sympathize here. not sure where outside of France + former colonies French is used for "business", but we were throwing around $400-$600/hr for two native English + North African Arabic speakers (who also had expertise in other Arabic dialects) for logistics work in MENA years ago. was basically impossible to get anything done without those 2 guys.

Arabic also suffers from serious fragmentation: we would need help even between people Morroco, Tunisia, and Algeria even though they're basically neighbors. i think they are the same "language" in name only.

At some point it just seems like semantics, appropriately enough. There are some significant regional languages like Arabic - or Portuguese, which hasn't been brought up yet - that a lot of people speak and potentially can be relevant depending on the industry or field. It's just that not all of those people are as widely distributed as the other languages.

I think "language X is needed in country Z" does not indicate that X is a global language. It just means that because of national/cultural pride, overall ignorance, or many other reasons, language X is needed there (because nothing else will be listened or understood).

Yes, this.

A "global language" is by definition a language learned by significant numbers of people as a second language [1].

By most people's accounting, only English, French, and Spanish are global languages. "Minor" global languages on the rise include Mandarin, Arabic, and Hindi, but these do not have nearly the geographical distribution nor the populations of second language learners that the main global languages have.

That said, unless you have a partner or other significant connections to your target language community, consume a large amount of target language media, or are living in a country that speaks your target language, speaking to other people is not the main motivation to learn a language. You learn a foreign language because it's fun and because there are numerous studies indicating knowing a foreign language benefits your mental abilities and health.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_language

As a Hindi speaker, it really irks me when people refer to the language as "Hindu". For someone talking about languages, it comes across as not having done even the most basic due diligence into the subject at hand. Not saying that's you, but that's how it comes across.

I once had a colleague -- a reasonably educated colleague -- refer to Arabic as "Islamic"...

Depending on your area of expertise you may need different languages. Like, Greek if you go into medicine.

Umm, there's a lot more Latin in medicine, though?

My litmus test for a global language is: do a non-trivial amount of places cater to people who only speak that language? english is obviously a Yes.

Mandarin and every other language is a no, even in the USA unless you live near a Chinatown. The only possible exception is Spanish. So there are just 2 global languages in my eyes.

Then Mandarin should be because countries that get a lot of Chinese tourists will do non-trivial work to cater to them.

That is a very recent and not yet a very strong phenomenon, but yes, we're heading that way.

This is the only practical definition there is of a global language. The others are purely theoretical and intellectual. Practicality trumps all.

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