Did you know that Finnish is actually more related to Japanese than to other European languages? Or that Rumanian is indeed a Roman language and not a Slavic one? And did you ever realize that in India over 380 languages are spoken? Or that the Zulu language has  39 words for the color green?

Language is a key carrier of culture and connector between people. Its goes without saying that people around the world do not speak the same language, meaning that we hold different ideas and values.

English may have become the ultimate Lingua Franca but every non-native speaker still translates from his mother tongue into English, giving rise to many interpretations and thus as many potential misunderstandings.  In the Netherlands around 90% of the people are capable of holding a conversation in English, in comparison to only 56% of Germans and  22% of Spanish people.

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Luckily the Dutch also top the ranking of people who speak most languages in the EU with an average of 3 per person, the third language oftentimes being German, French or Spanish.

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In his site you can find a nice selection of language maps that shed more light onto who speaks what and where in this world; check it out!