Misc

This is the Language Each Country Wants to Learn the Most

Published

2 years ago

August 27, 2021

Carmen Ang

The Languages People Want to Learn the Most Worldwide

This is the Language Each Country Wants to Learn the Most

When it came to choosing a new hobby during COVID-19 lockdowns, learning a new language was a popular choice—in March 2020, the language app Duolingo saw a 300% boost in new users.

But which languages were the most popular to learn in each country? This graphic by Wordtips maps the most popular language learning choices around the globe.

To find out which countries wanted to learn which languages, Wordtips used Google’s Keyword Planner, and tallied the number of searches for ‘learn x language’ (translated into different languages) in every country from May 2020 to May 2021.

Most Desired Languages to Learn in North America

Interestingly, Japanese is the most popular language that Americans and Canadians want to learn.

While this may sound surprising, North Americans have consumed and adored Japanese pop culture since the early 1990s. And recently, Westerners’ interest in anime has grown even more prominent, with the demand for anime programs in the U.S., for Q1 of 2021, up 33% compared to a year prior.

Languages North Americans Want to Learn the Most

Another country’s top pick that may come as a surprise is Belize, where the most popular language to learn is Chinese.

According to the 2000 Census, almost 1% of the country’s population identifies as Chinese. Chinese immigration to Belize began in the mid-1800s, when Chinese immigrants were brought into the country (then known as British Honduras) as laborers.

More recently, a wave of Taiwanese migrants have immigrated and set up businesses in Belize, as part of Taiwan’s international development efforts.

Meanwhile in South America, both Peru and Chile showed a strong desire to learn Korean. The popularity of K-Pop in South America demonstrates how media and art can help spread languages far beyond their original borders, and sometimes in unexpected places.

Most Desired Languages to Learn in Europe

English is the most popular language across Europe, as it’s the top searched language in 34 European countries.

Languages Europeans Want to Learn the Most

But a few countries differ from the norm—for instance, German is the most popular language to learn in Denmark. In a small Southern region of Denmark, German is the official minority language. And according to World Atlas, up to 20,000 ethnic Germans live in the area, with about 8,000 speaking standard German as their native tongue.

In the UK, Spanish takes the top spot. But more interestingly, Spanish is also Spain’s most popular language to learn, which seems counterintuitive. However, it could be because of Spain’s high concentration of British expats. According to BBC News, there are more than 300,000 British expats currently living in Spain.

Top Languages Spoken Worldwide

While English is the most popular language to learn in various countries, it’s also the most spoken language worldwide, with approximately 1.1 billion total speakers—that’s roughly 15% of the global population.

Rank	Language	Total Speakers
1	English	1,132 million
2	Mandarin Chinese	1,117 million
3	Hindi	615 million
4	Spanish	534 million
5	French	280 million
6	Standard Arabic	274 million
7	Bengali	265 million
8	Russian	258 million
9	Portuguese	234 million
10	Indonesian	199 million

And with more people interested in learning English, it looks like it could remain the world’s lingua franca (a common language among people who don’t speak the same native language) for years to come.

Related Topics:europe english spanish north america Top Languages Most Spoken Languages Japanese

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Public Opinion

How Much Do Americans Trust the Media?

Media trust among Americans has reached its lowest point since Trump won the 2016 presidential election.

Published

3 days ago

December 2, 2023

Bruno Venditti

How Much Do Americans Trust the Media?

Media trust among Americans has reached its lowest point in six years.

Gallup began its survey on media trust in 1972, repeating it in 1974 and 1976. After a long period, the public opinion firm restarted the polls in 1997 and has asked Americans about their confidence level in the mass media—newspapers, TV, and radio—almost every year since then.

The above graphic illustrates Gallup’s latest poll results, conducted in September 2023.

Americans’ Trust in Mass Media, 1972-2023

Americans’ confidence in the mass media has sharply declined over the last few decades.

Trust in the mass media	% Great deal/Fair amount	% Not very much	% None at all
1972	68	24	6
1974	69	21	8
1976	72	22	4
1997	53	31	15
1998	55	35	9
1999	55	34	11
2000	51	37	12
2001	53	33	14
2002	54	35	11
2003	54	35	11
2004	44	39	16
2005	50	37	12
2007	47	35	17
2008	43	35	21
2009	45	37	18
2010	43	36	21
2011	44	36	19
2012	40	39	21
2013	44	33	22
2014	40	36	24
2015	40	36	24
2016	32	41	27
2017	41	29	29
2018	45	30	24
2019	41	30	28
2020	40	27	33
2021	36	29	34
2022	34	28	38
2023	32	29	39

In 2016, the number of respondents trusting media outlets fell below the tally of those who didn’t trust the media at all. This is the first time that has happened in the poll’s history.

That year was marked by sharp criticism of the media from then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.

In 2017, the use of the term ‘fake news’ rose by 365% on social media, and the term was named the word of the year by dictionary publisher Collins.

The Lack of Faith in Institutions and Social Media

Although there’s no single reason to explain the decline of trust in the traditional media, some studies point to potential drivers.

According to Michael Schudson, a sociologist and historian of the news media and a professor at the Columbia Journalism School, in the 1970s, faith in institutions like the White House or Congress began to decline, consequently impacting confidence in the media.

“That may have been a necessary corrective to a sense of complacency that had been creeping in—among the public and the news media—that allowed perhaps too much trust: we accepted President Eisenhower’s lies about the U-2 spy plane, President Kennedy’s lies about the ‘missile gap,’ President Johnson’s lies about the war in Vietnam, President Nixon’s lies about Watergate,”
Michael Schudson – Columbia Journalism School

More recently, the internet and social media have significantly changed how people consume media. The rise of platforms such as X/Twitter and Facebook have also disrupted the traditional media status quo.

Partisans’ Trust in Mass Media

Historically, Democrats have expressed more confidence in the media than Republicans.

Democrats’ trust, however, has fallen 12 points over the past year to 58%, compared with 11% among Republicans and 29% among independents.

How-Much-Do-Americans-Trust-the-Media

According to Gallup, Republicans’ low confidence in the media has little room to worsen, but Democrat confidence could still deteriorate and bring the overall national reading down further.

The poll also shows that young Democrats have less confidence in the media than older Democrats, while Republicans are less varied in their views by age group.