Language is a vital part of human connection. Although all species have their ways of communicating, humans are the only ones that have mastered cognitive language communication. Language allows us to share our ideas, thoughts, and feelings with others. It has the power to build societies, but also tear them down. Knowing multiple languages is impressive, and worth showing off. However, there is more to being multilingual than just boasting your fluency in more than 2 languages.
The more languages you know, the more exposure you can have. While knowing every single language out there is impossible, but having a few up your sleeve may take you a long way. Knowing different languages can bring you academic and professional opportunities, help you develop interpersonal skills, help you gain a perspective by learning about the many different cultures there are in the world, and aid in making contacts all across the globe.
Perhaps learning a new language is one of the best ways to open up new opportunities for yourself for career, education and business. Amid the tech advancements, it has become easier than ever to learn a new language. You can also use internet services to learn new languages via tutorials or by interacting with people who speak different languages.
Here are the top 20 most spoken languages in the world.
| Rank | Language | No. of speakers |
| 1. | English | 1.35 billion |
| 2. | Mandarin Chinese | 1.12 billion |
| 3. | Hindi | 600 million |
| 4. | Spanish | 543 million |
| 5. | Arabic | 274 million |
| 6. | Bengali | 268 million |
| 7. | French | 267 million |
| 8. | Russian | 258 million |
| 9. | Portuguese | 258 million |
| 10. | Urdu | 230 million |
| 11. | Indonesian | 199 million |
| 12. | German | 135 million |
| 13. | Japanese | 126 million |
| 14. | Marathi | 99 million |
| 15. | Telugu | 96 million |
| 16. | Turkish | 88 million |
| 17. | Tamil | 85 million |
| 18. | Yue Chinese | 85 million |
| 19. | Wu Chinese | 82 million |
| 20. | Korean | 82 million |
