A Traveler's Guide to Language

Language Scholars

A formal language is a set of words, finite strings of letters, symbols, or tokens. Human languages are sometimes referred to as natural languages. The study of languages is known as linguistics. Most languages start by being spoken, then are written and finally proper grammar is developed over time. Over the course of history, thousands of languages have lived and died. Over time, languages morph and move around the world. In today’s tiny world it is important to be able to communicate with people who do not speak your language. Languages that are growing, developing and still being used are sometimes referred to living languages.

For generations, it has been seen as impressive to be able to communicate with people in multiple languages. Language Scholars offers people the opportunity to begin to learn important phrases in a language other than their own.

Language Number of Speakers Areas that Speak Language
Chinese 1.2 billion China
French 265 million France, Canada, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Hebrew 10 million Israel
Hindi 500 million India
Italian 200 million Italy
Spanish 350 million Spain, Mexico, Cuba, most of South America
Turkish 80 million Turkey, Cyprus