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Mojo · Post by **Mojo** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 9:28 am

Grymligast wrote:French ppl normally ignore ppl if they dont speak near perfect french. Atleast when you are in France

Usually I just drive trough the entire country without stopping omw to Spain.

I do that, I did stop for a crap once tho

Post by **Lairiodd** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 9:47 am

[quote="Xest"]Just to add some figures to that, the top 3 most spoken languages are:
1) Mandarin
2) Spanish
3) English

So I guess Spanish would probably be the best bet ]

However, my understanding is that English is the one most people can speak even if it isn't their main language (unless you are in China

). Also, even when looking at just main speakers English is pretty close to Spanish.

English has the advantage over Chinese that it is spoken in countries with a wide geographical spread. If you are standing in a random city world wide and want to talk to a passer by, English is the one that with the most likelyhood of working.

Post by **Xest** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 10:07 am

Aye, a lot of Spanish speakers are from the central America region and you'll find nearly all of them that speak Spanish primarily also speak English. With regards to Mandarin I agree, as said already although it has a lot of speakers they're localised almost entirely to China, Malaysia and Taiwan. That said, Mandarin is still the most widely spoken when looking at number of people speaking it even factoring in secondary languages - there are more primary speakers of Mandarin than there are primary and secondary speakers of English put together afaik. English does come second overall, overtaking Spanish when factoring in primary and secondary speakers however.

Ankh Morpork · Post by **Ankh Morpork** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 11:09 am

Lairiodd wrote:I was refering to Altavista's translation system.

I know, thats why i said i'd rather have a PROPER babel fish

/Ankh

Briannon · Post by **Briannon** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 12:58 pm

[quote="Mojo"]I do that, I did stop for a crap once tho ]

I know I'm gonna regret this, but, where?

Post by **Xest** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 1:02 pm

French prime ministers doorstep?

Ankh Morpork · Post by **Ankh Morpork** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 2:16 pm

Xest wrote:French prime ministers doorstep?

Yeah, let him find Le Shit on his doorstep when he wakes up

v.good idea!

/Ankh

Post by **Xest** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 2:23 pm

le merde?

Adianna · Post by **Adianna** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 3:27 pm

Xest wrote:Kindly quote where I stated that Mandarin is spoken in europe? The fact I said Spanish would be the best bet kinda hints at my realisation that Mandarin isn't spoken in europe, because otherwise I'd have said Mandarin would be the best bet. It's really not that hard to comprehend.

You answered with Mandarin when I said something about European languages. And yes, I'd advise French (as a European) before Spanish. Most spanish (Btw. a large part of South America speaks Portugese) speaking people do understand English or French, sadly not the other way round.

And the most spoken languages in Europe are:

Russian (and yes, Russia is in Europe

)
German
French
English
Italian
Spanish
Polish (do you say Polish? Language from Poland even

)
...

Ankh Morpork · Post by **Ankh Morpork** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 3:32 pm

[quote="Adianna"]
Russian (and yes, Russia is in Europe ]

Not sure if these numbers are correct. Cos if im not all wrong your just counting how many people the countries got. Im pretty sure there are more people speaking German/French/Spanish/English than Italian/Russian tbh since these languages are quite common as secondary language in most european countries unlike Russian/Italian.

Edit: Then again, I think i misunderstod your post. I thought it was a specific order you wrote down the languages but you proberbly just listed the ones you think are 6 most spoken in no particular order.

/Ankh