Map reveals two top languages Americans want to learn — revealing the US to be a true cultural melting pot

Many people love to learn a foreign language to understand a culture, communicate with native speakers, and more. However, the language they choose to learn may depend on various factors, including convenience, personal preferences, professional benefits, and more. Wordtips, an online platform, created a map detailing which language each country wants to learn the most, which is quite insightful. They compiled a list of the 50 most spoken languages and found the "monthly Google search volume" of people trying to learn those languages to create the map.

Through their findings, the outlet ranked the first and second languages each country wants to learn the most. According to the data, the language that the United States wants to learn the most is Spanish, and the second is Japanese. People in Asian countries, including India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal, want to learn Korean. This can be attributed to the growing popularity of K-pop, K-dramas, and Korean culture in the region. Spanish turned out to be the most sought-after language in Spain, while people in the UK wanted to learn English the most. This also highlights how immigrants and new residents in these countries might be trying to learn the language to assimilate better.

People in Canada want to learn French the most, followed by Japanese. People in Australia want to learn Japanese and Spanish the most. There was another fascinating finding about the English language: in the same survey conducted in 2021, 98 countries wanted to learn English. However, that number has fallen significantly to 63 in the past few years. The EF English Proficiency Index attributed the change to broader political and demographic shifts. It also noted that the increased confidence in challenging Western cultural hegemony in education might be a reason for this decline. They pointed out that English proficiency is increasing in the workforce but falling among young people and in East Asia.

Arabic is the top language in 15 countries, an 8-point increase compared to past records. The countries include all of Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. German was the most popular language in 16 countries, while Spanish was the most popular in 12 countries. Seven out of 14 countries in North America wanted to learn English the most, followed by five countries that wanted to learn Spanish the most. The United States is the fifth-largest Spanish-speaking country in the world, according to the data, but there are significant disparities in the population that might have helped Spanish become the most sought-after language, surpassing Japanese. A lack of Spanish-speaking doctors and teachers is a major problem in the Hispanic community.

Chinese has become a prominent language in South America, second only to English. People in the region believe that China can be a good source of job opportunities, explaining the language's popularity. In Europe, the most sought-after language is English, followed by German. Korean has become the sixth most popular language on Duolingo, surpassing Italian, mainly due to a 75% increase in Korean language learners in India. Korea has even introduced a "Hallyu Visa" so foreigners can come and join local talent schools. Asian languages have been on the rise in general, according to the report. Zulu continues to be the most sought-after language in African countries. Curiosity about new languages continues to increase even with the availability of AI translation models.