As our population demographics evolve, we lose about 25 languages each year.
About 1.2 billion people speak Mandarin or Cantonese Chinese. But for about two thousand languages, there are fewer than a thousand speakers each. Those languages are under threat. Forty-six languages are down to a single remaining speaker. Twenty-five languages are lost every year. That rate is likely to accelerate, thanks to urbanization and globalization. A century from now, the world could be down to six hundred core languages, dominated by Mandarin, Spanish, and English, the new global tongue. Something precious is lost when a language is lost, for every language is unique, and the syntax and grammar of a language influence the worldview of the speaker. If humanity is enriched by diversity, then the disappearance of languages and cultures impoverishes the human inheritance.
Bricker, Darrell; Ibbitson, John. Empty Planet (pp. 205-206). Crown. Kindle Edition.
I have more data points on international language use over on my Travel blog: U.S. ranks extremely poorly in foreign language instruction in public schools – Coldstreams Travel and Global Thinking
When you learn another language, you learn more than speaking in that language – you also learn about the culture, geography and history of those communities. You develop respect for their practices. You may find that other languages have different words and ways of thinking about issues. Learning another language opens your mind.
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