French as an official language
French is a minor international language, and it's time its international status reflected that. It's not even in the top 10 most widely spoken, and yet French is one of the official languages of the United Nations, UNESCO, Nato [now that's a real joke], the OECD and a host of other international organizations. Either we should simply recognize the fact that English is the official world language, or else international organizations should bring in languages such as Portuguese, so that France realizes it's a mid-sized European power with a culture that doesn't export.
Chinese (937,132,000)
Spanish (332,000,000)
English (322,000,000)
Bengali (189,000,000)
Hindi/Urdu (182,000,000)
Arabic (174,950,000)
Portuguese (170,000,000)
Russian (170,000,000)
Japanese (125,000,000)
German (98,000,000)
French (79,572,000)
[source Summer Institute for Linguistics]
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