Favourite Languages

The first one I should put here, I guess, is my own native language: Portuguese. It's just a pleasure to hear it.

In numbers: 220 million native speakers. 20 million second language speakers.

Largest country: Brazil

Prefered variant: Belo Horizonte

It might sound weird for some people, especially native speakers, but my second favourite language is English.

I like the way it sounds and the history behind it. The English language is a mix of Anglo-Saxon, Latin, Danish and French and that to me makes it all the more appealing for it being so deep and rich.

In numbers: 360 million native speakers. 500 million second language speakers.

Largest country: United States of America

Prefered variant: London

My third favourite language is Japanese. I was exposed to it through anime and videogames, like most people in the West, but I really like the way it sounds, especially when people say it slowly and deliberatly, as in story telling. It has to do with its phonology.

Japan has such a huge cultural expression and it's a very charismatic country with its rich history and mythology, so there's no shortage of ways to get in touch with its language.

In numbers: 130 million native speakers. 11,5 thousand second language speakers.

Largest country: Japan

Prefered variant: Tokyo

The fourth favourite language is Italian and again it's about phonology. Italian is very similar to Portuguese, my native language, and that makes it very amusing to listen to and speak.

Sadly, Italy doesn't have a very big cultural expression so I wouldn't have much exposure to Italian if I didn't actively looked for it.

In numbers: 65 million native speakers. 20 million second language speakers.

Largest country: Italy

Prefered variant: Milan

German is my fifth favourite language. A lot of people don't like it or even hate the sound of it, but I do like to listen to people speaking German. It sounds to me very elaborate. I also don't like French that much so I know I'm in a minority when it comes to opinion about what languages sound better.

German is also a very important language in Europe. But even then, as Italy, Germany doesn't have much cultural expression, so I wouldn't be exposed to it if I didn't look for it.

In numbers: 95 million native speakers. 115 million second language speakers.

Largest country: Germany

Prefered variant: Hanover

In sixth place comes Norwegian. I thought about it a lot and could invert the order to put Norwegian in fourth, just so you know how much I like this language.

It's also about phonology. I just like the way it sounds, especially the intonation native speakers use. Norwegian is also the perfect starting language to learn for anyone interested in the North Germanic branch because it sounds like Swedish but it's written like Danish.

In numbers: 5 million native speakers. Insignificant amount of second language speakers.

Largest country: Norway

Prefered variant: Oslo

Russian is the seventh language. Again, I like how it sounds, the phonology, but not so much how it's written as I prefer the use of the Roman alphabet.

It can sound very serious whenever someone uses it, but I think it's also a very energetic and those two characteristics makes it very appealing and attractive.

In numbers: 145 million native speakers. 110 million second language speakers.

Largest country: Russia

Prefered variant: Moscow

Korean is my eighth favourite language. I was exposed to it because of K-Pop and I like how it sounds very much. It sounds very phonetically complex, certainly more complex than Japanese.

I also admire the very ingenious and unique written system. It's in fact in my opinion the most ingenious writing system in the world by far.

In numbers: 77 million native speakers. Number of second-language speakers is unknown.

Largest country: South Korea

Prefered variant: Seoul