So in my IBUS 330 course (International Business) at SFSU, this one book1 lists the top languages as of 2000: Chinese, Mandarin (874 mil), Hindi (365 mil), English (341 mil), Spanish (322 mil), Bengali (207 mil), Arabic (198 mil), Portuguese (176 mil), Russian (167 mil), Japanese (125 mil), and German (100 mil).
I went ahead and check the source2, and found the following: Chinese, Mandarin (845 mil), Spanish (329 mil), English (328 mil), Arabic Languages (16 different languages) (221 mil), Hindi (182 mil), Bengali (181 mil), Portuguese (178 mil), Russian (144 mil), Japanese (122 mil), and German (90 mil).
Interesting thing how many in the USA, including the authors of the text book1, treat Arabic as one standard spoken language, when in reality there are various indigenous languages that are related to Arabic. I heard through other students, that standard Arabic is learned as a second language. This seems similar to how Latin is related to Romance languages of French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and many others languages spoken in Europe.
References
- Cavusgil, Tamer, Gary Knight, and John Risenberger. “The Cultural Environment of International Business”. International Business: Strategy, Management, and the New Realities. Prentice Hall, 2007
- Etnologue: Languages of the World by SIL INternational: http://www.ethnologue.com
No comments:
Post a Comment