• ilmagico@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      True only if including when spoken as a second language. Chinese and Spanish are spoken by more people as a first language than English.

      • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        Why would that matter? English has 300 million more speakers than Mandarin. India is the largest country in the world and they speak English.

        So it’s just “true” period.

        • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          But why would people on Mastodon for example use English instead of their first language? That’s the point. Mastodon works different from Lemmy. When I am simply writing a sort of online diary about my research project, local politics or whatever, why would it be in English?!

        • Rambi@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Only ~15% of Indians speak English, although it is a very large country so that is enough to mean it has the second most overall (behind the USA)

    • kattenluik@feddit.nl
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Doesn’t mean most of those people want to speak English.

      Ik heb zelf liever dat ik nooit Engels hoefte te spreken, but most people from the US don’t seem to understand that.