Thursday, May 10, 2018

There are 7000 languages around the world, How language shapes the way we think

We are losing languages around the world at the rate of one lost language a week. The lady in the video believes this is a bad thing and I do not understand why. It makes sense to me that there should be less languages needed and used over time as technology continues to make the world a smaller place.
Then I wonder if we will have less countries over time, however I think this question is very different then how many languages we need. Because people need and want to communicate, however for political and economic reasons there is less motivation to have fewer countries in the world. Also I think the Netherlands is a good example of the future, where people may speak a native more obscure language (Dutch) and also speak English as their international language of choice. I have seen people from different countries that all have different native languages e.g. Spanish, Chinese, Russian, etc. all communicate just fine using English.  
Mandarin is the most widely spoken language in the world, because China has the most people. Over a billion people speak Mandarin, yet only 1% of Chinese people speak English.
Only 13% of the people in the world are fluent at 3 languages and the term for this is trilingual. However if you can speak 5 or more languages fluently you are not only most likely a genius you are known as a Polyglot. Only 1% of the world's population is fluent and can communicate in 5 languages, I have only ever met one person who could do this and he was definitely a genius. He was a medical professor that made a lot of money investing in the stock market and he lived in Monaco. He was also famous for his medical inventions.
Please click on "Read more" to see the video.