Most common language

[BIG BWACULL]

me tin ting em language blo me ya, youpla harim me or nogat, em now lookim youpla narapla time.

 

[2020hindsight]

lol - now me go shav-em grass belong face

 

[BIG BWACULL]

lol - now me go shav-em grass belong face

Em now you save' tok tok blo me, lookim you heh heh lol

 

[2020hindsight]

Em now you save' tok tok blo me, lookim you heh heh lol

lik lik tasol - - rous-im gummint ?- eme cost you three pella South Pacific

 

[Lert]

Not to mention those two famous fairy tales,
Lik lik three pella pig and Lik lik red pella hat..

 

[Stan 101]

May ask your children what their dreams are. Introduce them to geography at a young age and let them choose. Studies have shown the earlier one becomes bilingual, the easier it is for them to learn other languages later in life.
There is a lot of german spoken throughout the world, along with french and spanish / portugese.

 

[disarray]

I think its a bit of a fallacy that you should learn the language of the 'big country' of the time. We shouldn't all learn Chinese languages for example...like Japanese was a waste, like French is a waste, like Indonesian is a waste.

i don't think learning any foreign language could be considered "a waste". languages are more than just methods of making noise, they are also closely tied to how we perceive and describe the world, it develops neural pathways in your brain which would otherwise lay dormant and it makes the acquisition of further languages much much easier. people who "wasted" their time learning japanese / indonesian / french have vastly improved their skillset making them more attractive to potential employers and giving them opportunities to live and work in those countries.

numbers according to some random site -

1. Mandarin Chinese - 882 million
2. Spanish - 325 million
3. English - 312-380 million
4. Arabic - 206-422 million
5. Hindi - 181 million
6. Portuguese - 178 million
7. Bengali - 173 million
8. Russian - 146 million
9. Japanese - 128 million
10. German - 96 million

 

[Stan 101]

well put, Disarray..

 

[BlingBling]

I agree disarray.
Now I like to look at the list you put up then break it down even furthur.
Use Japan for example, 128 million people speak it but how many countries is it the main language? Not a hard question! I think Japanese is a great language to learn and hopefully being pretty good at it will land me a better than average job when I return home soon.
But I really think that Spanish & Portuguese are great languages just because of the amount of countries they can be of use to you.