THE FRENCH LANGUAGE

French (français) is today spoken in 54 countries by 76 million people as a native language, and by about 280 million people as a second or third language. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language originated, Canada, Belgium and Switzerland. French is an official language in 31 countries and is the official language of all United Nations agencies and a large number of international organisations.

THE GERMAN LANGUAGE

The German language (Deutsch) is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. German is closely related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 100 million native speakers and by about 80 million non-native speakers, and Standard German is widely taught in schools and universities worldwide.

THE GREEK LANGUAGE

Greek (ελληνική γλώσσα) is one of the earliest attested Indo-European languages (with fragmentary records in Mycenaean dating back to the 15th or 14th century BC), spoken today by 15-22 million people, mainly in Greece and Cyprus but also by minority and emigrant communities in numerous other countries.

THE HEBREW LANGUAGE

Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world. In Israel, it is the de facto language of the state and the people, as well as being one of the two official languages (together with Arabic), and it is spoken by the majority of the population. As a foreign language it is studied mostly by Jews and students of Judaism and Israel, archeologists and linguists specializing in the Middle East and its civilisations and by theologians.

THE HUNGARIAN LANGUAGE

Hungarian (magyar nyelv) is a Uralic language unrelated to most other languages in Europe. It is commonly considered to be one of the most difficult languages for speakers of English to learn well.

Hungarian is spoken in Hungary and by the Hungarian minorities in seven neighbouring countries. There are about 14.5 million native speakers, of whom 9.5-10 million live in modern-day Hungary.

Some interesting language facts

• Researchers at the MIT in America have concluded after lengthy study that in actual fact shouting louder does enhance the understanding process which obviously explains why we raise our voices when we wish "a foreigner" to understand us when we speak, or rather, shout at them in English.

• There are more than 5000 languages today however it is said that there will only be 2000 by the next decade. A recent survey showed that currently at least one language dies every two weeks.

• At present over 80% of the population speak under 8% of the world's languages.

• English is the most widely used official language with 1,750 million speakers worldwide. Chinese, Hindi and Spanish are second, third and fourth respectively. The debate as to the world's rarest language is highly contentious. However, as a contender Cornish must be in the reckoning with little more than 10 known fluent speakers.

• In an historic meeting in the USA, in the eighteenth century the senators of the then existent states of America gathered to vote on whether English or German be the national language of the country. The resolution to go for English was carried by one vote!
Spanish is now the foremost language in parts of Florida, and many public notices including road signs are printed in both English and Spanish. Recently the people of Florida were asked to vote on whether Spanish should be adopted as the language of the state. English won, being carried by a comfortable majority.