except English .
2007-10-20 03:13:41 · 8 answers · asked by Washington 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Mandarin Chinese, Arabic and Spanish
2007-10-20 03:50:43 · answer #1 · answered by Jassy 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Frankly and personally: In my eyes it would be a mistake to believe that English is the right solution for an universal language.
Firstly, it's discriminating people who doesn't speak it as mother tongue.
Secondly, the English language is involved in political ideologies which are not compatible with the opinion of every person in this world.
Thirdly, the English language is involved in a certain culture which is not compatible with the cultures of every people (e.g. religion)
Fourthly, it dirties other languages with its vocabulary
Fifthly, the culture of English speaking countries would replace the native one of other countries.
Sixthly, English will loose and ignore its historical and cultural development by bad knowledges of new speakers and internationalization; the consequence is the reducing of the language's quality.
Seventhly, many people have problems to learn or speak it in an acceptable way. Look at me!
The best choice would be a neutral, international auxiliary language. Maybe Esperanto? I know, it sounds laughable, but it would already be the solution to the above-mentioned problems, which English is bringing forth.
2007-10-20 03:15:05 · answer #2 · answered by Heights! 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
For me, I think is Cantonese or Mandarin because nowadays more and more people learn Chinese. For me, I'm a Chinese educated so Chinese is my mother-tough and of course i speak a lot Cantonese and Mandarin among my friends.
To support my point, Chinese (especially Mandarin) is widely spoken because of China. Many people will think that China is their prospect and in future China will be a very strong country.
2007-10-20 03:37:49 · answer #3 · answered by PeN.CoM 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Chinese just because of the cheer number of Chinese people but like Arabic, there are many different versions of the language.
So if we want a language that is basically the same wherever it is spoken, I would pick Spanish.
2007-10-20 03:58:54 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Arabic, Spanish, French
2007-10-20 03:20:26 · answer #5 · answered by Goddess of Grammar 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Mandarin
2007-10-20 04:17:06 · answer #6 · answered by Somewhere in Time 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
in terms of number of native speaker (I read in some linguistics books):
1. Mandarin
2. English
3. Spanish
4. Russian
5. Arabic
6. Portugues
In terms of learners, I guess:
1. English
2. Spanish
3. French
4. Russian
5. German
2007-10-20 05:43:28 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I wish it was welsh but sadly its not although welsh is widely spoken in argentina and wales and even western England
2007-10-20 04:13:02 · answer #8 · answered by Cymro i'r Carn 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋