Language

• Japanese speakers speak faster as compared to any other language while mandarin speakers speak slower.
• People who speak Chinese use both sides of the brain, whereas English only uses the left side.
• "Rhythm" is the longest English word without a vowel.
• Multiple studies have shown that learning a second language can improve the memory and slow the process of aging. This is one of our favorite language facts!
• The United States has no "official language." Most people just assume it's English.
• The top 5 countries with the most English language speakers are the United States, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Nigeria.
• Basque is the only language in the world that has no correlation to any other language.
• Chinese is over 3,000 years old and one of the oldest written languages in the world.
• Almost all languages in the world have been influenced by another language.
• Afrikaans is also known as "the Dutch daughter" of the Germanic languages, as it evolved from Dutch and 90% of its vocabulary comes from Dutch.
• "Go." is the shortest sentence in the English language.
• Other than English, French is the only language taught in every country.
• Twenty-one countries have Spanish as their official language, making it a great choice for travelers.
• The Japanese language doesn’t have plurals the way English does. Plural words are not individual words, but a combination of the word plus a number and/or counter before it.
• The non-European languages most widely spoken in Europe are Arabic, Chinese, and Hindi.
• In the English language, more words start with "s" than any other letter.
• The so-called "Southern accent" in the United States today only began to form after the Civil War.
• The word "goodbye" is a combination or contraction of "God be with you."
• 2,400 of the world's languages are in danger of becoming extinct and about one language becomes extinct every two weeks.
• The United States has 24 different English dialects.