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The Washington Post has an article asking the question "Which languages will dominate the future?" The answer depends on your interests: making money in growth markets; speaking with as many people as possible; speaking only one language while traveling; or learning about culture. As you might imagine, the article concludes
There is no one single language of the future. Instead, language learners will increasingly have to ask themselves about their goals and own motivations before making a decision.
[...] In a recent U.K.-focused report, the British Council, a think tank, identified more than 20 growth markets and their main languages. The report features languages spoken in the so-called BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China — that are usually perceived as the world's biggest emerging economies, as well as more niche growth markets that are included in lists produced by investment bank Goldman Sachs and services firm Ernst & Young.
"Spanish and Arabic score particularly highly on this indicator," the British Council report concluded for the U.K. However, when taking into account demographic trends until 2050 as laid out by the United Nations, the result is very different.
Hindi, Bengali, Urdu and Indonesian will dominate much of the business world by 2050, followed by Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Russian. If you want to get the most money out of your language course, studying one of the languages listed above is probably a safe bet.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday September 25 2015, @04:49AM
Leaving aside the Universal Translator ("Shaka, and the walls fell!) or the Babel Fish (so massively unlikely that, well, yes?), I was impressed with Joss Whedon's Firefly series on the Television. In the future, new colonized solar system, and the lingua franca? Chinese. Also the language that everyone knows how to curse in. Makes sense, when you do the numbers. England? Nasty, irrational off-shoot of German with the added complications of underlying Celtic languages, superimposed Norman French, erudite Latin, and even Greek for educated purposes? How did such a tiny country with such a bizarre language become the dominant language of the world? Oh, that's right, military conquest, and associated economic dominance. Most widely spoken language in India? English. I think everyone should read my language, just to be able to read Homer and Plato in the originals. They are divine writers. But if not that, Sanskrit. It is the most grammatically complete language. There are tenses that no one will ever use. You got to admire that in a language. Of course, not a lot of money in Sanskrit. You have to admire that in a language as well. Last thing we need is either a mercenary language, or a prostitute language. Amazing how often those two go together.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday September 25 2015, @06:54PM
That's the thing about English, it's made up of many other languages.
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron