Ok, I'll bite :) - but just for the sake of argument.
Not to be too picky, but you could also parse that as "a lot more people in the world"
The reference that anonymonk cited, places english (as first language) in 341 millions and spanish (again, as first language) in 322 to 358 millions. Here, I take this as a "could", although I tend to believe the real total is closer to the second number. (I may be biased since spanish is my first tongue). This would place me in agreement with the quoted opinion.
Also, with ~50 million of school-going USA citizens (source), many of them getting spanish classes because of this, the difference in the second language category seems blurrier.
Because of this, I'll keep my parser as it is, because with the current conditions, I'll most definitely be right within 2 to 3 years (assuming I'm not right today). OTOH, we should all be learning chinese :)
Best regards
-lem, but some call me fokat
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Hmm. You seem to have overlooked the second column labeled "Including second language speakers". The breakdown?
- English: 503E6
- Spanish: 417E6
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Hmm. You seem to have overlooked the second column labeled "Including second language speakers". The breakdown
No, I did not.
In my second paragraph, I mention 50E6 current students. Many of them will take spanish lessons. All of them reside in the US. Let's say only 50% does that, we'll be talking 25E6 with english as 2nd language. I also mention a reference to some 41E6 hispanic US residents. Those add up to 66E6 (or a total of 483E6 vs 503E6, a difference of 20E6 or ~4%.
But according to the same source, that is precisely the fastest growing minority in the US.
I would say that a difference on less than 4% is dubiously decisive with this kind of sources / metrics. That is why I granted the point for a few years :)
Let's reopen the debate in a few years, if this is so important a question. :)
Best regards
-lem, but some call me fokat
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