A Countdown of the Top Ten Countries Where This EFL Teaching and Learning Blog is Read

Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico

While this English Language teaching and learning blog has actually been online for more than three years now, its popularity has dramatically risen within the past year or so. Although I originally intended to have a possible readership of a few hundred EFL teachers, mostly in Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico, the readership has now expanded to more than 120 countries and more than 2000 readers per month according to Google Analytics and data tracking software installations. It all started with articles posted online at www.ezinearticles.com when a reader e-mailed me with an article-based question. Then another came, then another and another until it became prudent for me to answer questions via detailed posts which led to the creation of this blog. And so it continues …

Here is a Countdown of the Top Ten Countries by Number of Readers

10. Mexico
As a former contributing writer for the “Teach English in Mexico” newsletter, I traveled the length and breadth of Mexico from Mexico City, Taxco, Tlaxcala and Acapulco to Hermosillo and Monterrey to Cancun, Merida, and San Cristobal de las Casas to Oaxaca, among many others. No I haven’t seen all of the country by far, but enough over several years to be well familiar with its language, culture and customs. In much of the country, English is held in very high regard. Indeed, there are English as a foreign language and/or computer technology “schools” on practically every corner in some towns. Readers come from 26 cities and towns in Mexico.

9. Indonesia
I simply had no idea of the contingent of readers from Indonesia. Principal cities of Indonesian readers include Jakarta, Malang, Surabaya, Tegal, Palembang, Yogyakarta, Gresik, Bogor, Cikarang, Pekanbaru, Bandung and seven others. Comments, opinions and input from readers in Indonesia are sincerely requested.

8. India
With English having “official language” status, it did come as a bit of a surprise that there is a contingent of readers from there. The more, the merrier, I say. Principal cities of readers from the 27 cities reported from India include New Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Ghaziabad, Mahape, Calcutta, Chandigarh, Erode, Ahmedabad and 14 others. China is recruiting EFL teachers from India in increasing numbers.

7. Canada
From “North of the border” come a large cache of readers. Canada has long encouraged immigration of young professionals from around the globe, so the presence of ESL programs comes as no surprise. A whopping 34 cities reported in from RCMP country with Vancouver and Calgary leading the way.

* RCMP = Royal Canadian Mounted Police (I knew you’d ask!)

Questions and Comments from Readers Always Welcome

Your questions and comments are always welcome, so please feel free to post comment or e-mil me with a question or topic of interest. The blog is now moderated to block spam, malicious and obscene content, but all constructive comments which reflect reader viewpoints and opinions are posted and made available for all. Suggestions for relevant websites, blogs and ELT products are also welcomed from all readers.

In the next post we'll continue the countdown to include a country which may soon boast its first ever black President. See you then.

Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an EFL Teacher Trainer, Intellectual Development Specialist, author and speaker. He has written ESP, foreign language learning, English language teaching texts and hundreds of articles used in more than 100 countries. Get your FREE E-book,"If you Want to Teach English Abroad, Here's What You Need to Know" by requesting the title at: lynchlarrym@gmail.com Need a blogger or copywriter to promote your school, institution, service or business or an experienced writer and vibrant SEO content for your website, blog or newsletter? Then E-mail me for further information.

Of the Thousands of Foreign Languages You Can Learn Which One is Best for You?

A Key Question

A key question people ask when thinking of embarking on the life-long quest that foreign language learning can ultimately become, is “which foreign language should I try to learn?” Certainly there’s no lack of choice. Reasons for wanting or needing to learn a foreign language can be almost as many and as varied as the number of people themselves. Family, ancestry, employment, business, education, travel, adventure, romance and other personal concerns all may have their respective roles in the decision to learn and continue learning a foreign language.

Some Interesting Language Statistics

According to Vistawide World Languages & Culture statistics online at: http://www.vistawide.com/languages/language_statistics.htm
there are currently 6912 living languages in the world, but did you know that 516 of these are nearly extinct.

The Fabulous Five

Of the top five spoken world languages, Mandarin Chinese has the greatest number of speakers with a whopping 1.051 billion who manage one of the nearly one dozen forms or dialects.

Photo: one of my Mandarin teachers, Shutzng Zhang, is on the right in the photo

English is a “distant” second with an approximate total of 510 million speakers in 64 different countries. It is also the world’s most widely published language and has the largest number of words - approx. 250,000* distinct words. (*Some linguists even contend that there are as many as one million or more words in the English language.) English also has the greatest number of people who speak it as a second language – with up to 350 million non-native speakers.

Hindi is in third position with 490 million.

Fourth place is occupied by Spanish with 420 million native and second language speakers.

Arabic comes in fifth with 255 million speakers when all of its varieties are combined according to a World Almanac estimate.

Additional Language Statistics

The language with the fewest number of words is Taki-Taki, also called Sranan, which is spoken in Surinam. It has a mere 340 words.

The country where the largest number of languages is spoken is Papua New Guinea with 820 different languages even though it has only around 5,545,268 people. (That’s one language for every 6762 people for all of you statistics freaks out there)

Number two Indonesia has 742 languages among its 241,973,879 people.

Nigeria, with 516 languages spread through its 128,771,988 people, steps in at third.

In India 1,080,264,388 people spread across the country’s vast reaches speak an astounding 427 languages among them.

These statistics are likely, one of the reasons English has been adopted as an official language in each one of these countries.

Summary

So whether your reasons for wanting or needing to learn a foreign language include family, ancestry, employment, business, education, travel, adventure, romance or other more personal ones, a wide variety of language choices are available.

Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an English language teaching and learning expert author and university professor in Cali, Colombia. Now YOU too can live your dreams in paradise, find romance, high adventure and get paid while travelling for free. For more information on entering or advancing in the fascinating field of teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language send for his no-cost pdf Ebook, “If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here’s What You Need to Know”, by sending an e-mail with "free ELT Ebook" in the subject line. For comments, questions, requests, to receive more information or to be added to his free TESOL articles and teaching materials mailing list, e-mail: lynchlarrym@gmail.com