# 6: What Language Would You Love To Learn

Language. We all use it, or how else would we ever be able to communicate with people. Roughly 7,000 languages, including dialects are spoken around the world today. Each and every one of them make the world a diverse and beautiful place. Sadly, some of these languages are less widely spoken than others.

But her are the 12 most widely used languages:

English:

Language family: Germanic, a sub-family of Indo-European

Related to: German, Dutch, Frisian

Mandarin:

Language family: Sino-Tibetan

Related to: Cantonese, Tibetan, Burmese

Hindi:

Language family: Indo-Aryan, a sub-family of Indo-European

Related to: Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, Kashmiri, Nepali

Spanish:

Language family: Romance, a sub-family of Indo-European

Related to: French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian

French:

Language family: Romance

Related to: Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian

Arabic:

Language family: Semitic, a sub-family of Afro-Asiatic

Related to: Hebrew, Amharic, Aramaic

Bengal:

Language family: Indo-Aryan, a sub-family of Indo-European

Related to: Hindu, Punjabi, Marathi, Kashmiri, Nepali

Russian

Language family: East Slavic, a sub-family of Indo-European

Related to: Ukrainian, Belarusian

Portuguese:

Language family: Romance, a sub-branch of Indo-European

Related to: Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian

Indonesian:

Language family: Austronesian

Related to: Malay, Javanese, Sundranese, Madurese etc.

Urdu:

Language family: Indo-Aryan

Related to: Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Kashmiri, Nepali

German:

Language family: West Germanic, a sub-family of Indo-European

Related to: English, Frisian, Dutch

Surprisingly, Italian did not make this list, although it is related to Spanish, French, and Portuguese.

Regarding the English language, not only is Shakespeare widely considered as one of the greatest dramatists of all time, but over his lifespan he added an incredible amount of about 1,700 words to the English language by changing nouns into verbs, verbs into nouns, connecting some words with each other and adding prefixes or suffixes to others.

Regarding Mandarin. The language has over 50,000 characters, making it the hardest language in the world to master.

The Bengali alphabet is particularly interesting. Every consonant has a vowel sound built in, which is quite unusual for Westerners.

You probably know that Portuguese is the official language of Brazil, but it also has the sole official status in: Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Macau, Cape Verde, and São Tomé and Príncipe.

The first modern novel and the second most translated book after the Bible was written in Spanish. Which novel? It’s Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes.

Then there is one you will probably not be aware of—Busuu, named after a language, spoken by only eight people. What makes Busuu more interesting, it is also the name of an App that is used as a learning tool to master different languages.

There is a vast amount of online resources where you can learn at least the basics of almost any language other than your own. If interested, start using Google.

And there is one other language that is universal around the globe. The language of love.