Languages

Out of the 7.5 billion inhabitants of the world, an estimated 1.5 billion of them speak English. However, only 360 million of those speak English natively, meaning that it is by far the most commonly studied foreign language in the world. English is the official language of a huge amount of important international business, communications, media and the internet: 52% of the world’s most visited websites are displayed in English.

Having materials in English would allow access to countries and continents across the globe, with North, Central and South America covering around 250 million speakers alone. 38% of the 450 million people in the EU know enough English to hold a conversation, the Indian subcontinent holds 220 million speakers, and around 700 million people in Africa speak it. It is also the official government language throughout many countries across the Caribbean and Oceania, including Jamaica, Australia, Fiji, and Barbados, to pick out a few.

With 270 million people speaking French worldwide, it is the official language of countries scattered across five continents, and is the second most studied language in the world. In fact, approximately 50% of native French speakers live in Africa, where it continues to be the fastest growing language due to its expanding population.

Across the ocean, French is the other language that contributes to Canada’s bilingualism, with Quebec birthing its own unique dialects and individual styles of the languages and its grammar. 

French is also the fourth most spoken language in the US and is also prevalent in Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland to name a few more examples.

So, if you are looking to establish yourself in an ever growing global francophone market, or just to appeal to some of those 270 million speakers already, our French expertise will prove valuable to forming long-term customer relations between you and the world.

With Italian being one of the most spoken languages in the European Union, for those looking at connecting with this population the use of our Italian services is hugely beneficial. Although almost 58 million out of the 63 million Italian speakers worldwide live in Italy, Italian is actually spoken across even more countries than one would think, such as Switzerland, Croatia, Slovenia, and Albania. It is also spoken natively by a large number of people who immigrated to the US from the 19th century onwards.

Interestingly, Italian is also spoken across South America; it is the second most spoken language in Argentina, with 1.5 million people citing it as their mother tongue, and the second most spoken language in Venezuela, with some 200,000 speakers.

Italy maintains a strong presence in areas such as luxury goods, fashion and the arts, and so with Roots helping you to get this romance language under your belt, you can be confident in your cultural expansion.

Japanese is one of the most used languages online. Perhaps one of the most highly geographically concentrated of languages, almost the entirety of the 128 million native Japanese speakers live in Japan. There are also some 7 million Japanese speakers that reside outside the language’s motherland, those being mainly in the US, the UK, Australia, Canada and Brazil.

Japan is a country that works in many diverse fields with its native language, and its economy is the third largest in the world: its GDP crossed the $5 trillion mark in 2019.

Japanese giants such as the automobiles, electronics, technology and pharmaceutical industries are the companies that are continuing to grow rapidly, which means that all communications will benefit in being available in the language of this huge global market.

Japan shows certain cultural differences through the use of non-verbal communication and the special meanings associated with its written characters. These nuances are crucial to working with Japanese and so Roots are the perfect partner with our first-hand experience of this unique nation.

The Spanish language qualifies within the top three most spoken languages worldwide: there are an impressive 450 million speakers of Spanish across the globe. If you are looking for a language that can open up multiple continents to you, Spanish could be your best bet.

As well as Spain and Central and South America; other pockets of Europe, the Philippines and some territories in Africa are all also home to Spanish speakers.

Understanding the nuances of each region’s Spanish is the key to reflecting their cultural intricacies in our work. Working with these Spanish variants calls for a localised approach, and we can deliver that with certainty.

The Spanish language is still seeing an incredible development in its number of speakers due to its growing cultural influence, so offering a Spanish service to your audience is hugely advantageous in maintaining a professional image that is sensitive to modern language diversity.

Swahili, also known as Kiswahili, is East Africa’s most widely used language and has now evolved into the most recognised African language internationally. It has over 200 million users worldwide and is one of the top ten most broadly spoken languages in the world.

Swahili is the official language in Tanzania, Kenya (alongside English) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Swahili is spoken in over 14 countries with it also being spoken in Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique, Burundi, Rwanda, North Zambia and some Middle Eastern countries.

Swahili is a mixture of local Bantu language and Arabic. It also has influence from the English language, German, Persian, Portuguese and French due to trade connections along the East African coast.