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The Most Spoken Languages Online and Offline
517 sats \ 9 comments \ @0xbitcoiner 18 Feb charts_and_maps
ebruary 21 marks International Mother Language Day, a date proclaimed by UNESCO and adopted by the UN to promote linguistic diversity around the world and underscore the role of languages in promoting inclusion. On this occasion, we took a look at the most widely spoken languages on the internet, i.e. those most represented on websites, and the most widely spoken languages in real life around the globe.

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59 sats \ 6 replies \ @siggy47 18 Feb

Yesterday a tour guide asked us to guess the 5 languages spoken in Costa Rica. Spanish and English were easy. French and German took longer to figure out. Everyone was surprised that the fifth language was Mandarin Chinese.

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37 sats \ 5 replies \ @0xbitcoiner OP 18 Feb
Everyone was surprised that the fifth language was Mandarin Chinese.

That's a surprise to me too, I guess there's a big Chinese immigrant community there.

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33 sats \ 4 replies \ @siggy47 18 Feb

There are many Chinese businesses near the port of Limon. There is a colony built especially for Chinese workers.

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37 sats \ 3 replies \ @0xbitcoiner OP 18 Feb

Facts:

Languages and DialectsLanguages and Dialects

With all these immigrants comes a vast variety of languages spoken. The primary and official language of Costa Rica is Spanish. That said you will hear some different dialects of Spanish, including Spanish from Nicaragua, Panama, Columbia, Spain, and Mexico. Spanish in Costa Rica is unique to the area. It has unique sayings and phrases. For example Pura Vida (Pure Life) and Tuanis (Cool or laidback). The spirit of Pura vida can be best experienced in the Guanacaste region, specifically Nicoya, or the Caribbean sea. Many black people, especially on the Caribbean coast, speak a traditional Jamaican dialect of English. About 10 percent of the population speak English as a second language so feel free to try out English with locals. They will more than likely be happy to test their communication skills. Other languages you might hear are German, Chinese, French, Italian or Portuguese.

https://costarica.org/facts/population/
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33 sats \ 2 replies \ @siggy47 18 Feb

This is the first time I have been to the Caribbean coast of Coast Rica. I did experience black people speaking a Jamaican dialect.

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37 sats \ 1 reply \ @0xbitcoiner OP 18 Feb

If you had tried to buy weed, you’d have experienced it! ahaha

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33 sats \ 0 replies \ @siggy47 18 Feb

I definitely was not going to do that.

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61 sats \ 1 reply \ @freetx 18 Feb

I know its a bit a greyarea but I wonder what they define as "a speaker"? What type of fluency does that actually infer?

I ask because I noticed when travelling to Hong Kong (this surprised me initially, but in retrospect not so much), how much english is spoken in trans-asian communication. If you are a Korean biz traveller in Hong Kong you probably don't speak Chinese so you speak English. Now the english is really basic (like my spanish), enough to check into hotel and ask where the taxi stand is...sort of "travelers english".

I asked a Korean friend about this and he said yes there are actually companies that specifically offer courses in that kind of "traveler english" - it ignores many verb tenses and drops lots of articles and just focuses on minimal-viable language approach....so you can say "I need go store...which way?" - I realized that in my own way thats exactly the type of spanish I speak, minimally functional but serviceable

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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @0xbitcoiner OP 18 Feb

Good question. I took a quick look and it’s not mentioned, but I guess they’re counting in the basic speakers.

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