Have you thought about living or traveling to Canada? If so, most likely one of your first questions is what languages are spoken in Canada and how to prepare yourself to face the linguistic challenges that this great destination presents.
In recent years, the Canadian immigration system has been recognized as one of the friendliest with students, professionals, and expatriates from different parts of the world, who come to Canada to meet their goals, start a new life and even learn a new language.
However, one of the commonly requested requirements to enter the country successfully, for reasons beyond tourism, is to know at least one of the languages spoken in Canada, so that you can guarantee a smooth social and cultural integration.
What languages are officially spoken in Canada? Are there minority languages? How do they differ from other languages we already know? Are there other countries where they are useful? All these doubts will be answered below.
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Official languages spoken in Canada
Canada is known around the world for being an officially bilingual country, made up of two official languages:
English
The Anglo-Saxon language is one of the two main languages of the Canadian territory, being the mother tongue of more than 77% of the population and the language that around 86% of the inhabitants speak fluently.
A very common question is whether the English spoken in Canada is different from English of British or American origin; However, its spelling is sometimes described as a mixture of both, the vocabulary is more similar to that of United States English, and the variations of the single-use lexicon in Canada are very specific depending on the context.
French
The next official language of Canada is, of course, French, established by statutory decree in July 1969.
Today, French is the mother tongue of approximately 9 million Canadians, that is, 23% of the population of this country. Most of the Francophones live in the province of Quebec.
Minority languages of Canada
In addition to the official languages that coexist in the country, there are a series of minority languages that are spoken in the country thanks to the constant migratory movement that the nation has experienced for years.
The minority languages that are not officially recognized in Canada, but are still spoken daily by thousands of inhabitants of the Canadian territory are Spanish, Italian, German, Cantonese, Punjabi, Arabic, Dutch, and Tagalog.
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In what other countries are the official languages of Canada spoken?
Due to the colonizing past of countries such as France and the United Kingdom, those who master the two official languages of Canada can communicate fluently in the official language of many countries on different continents.
On the one hand, English, in addition to being a language spoken by more than 1.13 billion people in the world, has been called the official language in more than 70 countries around the world. Among these countries, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Singapore, the Philippines, among many others, always stand out (the list is very long!).
On the French side, things are not far behind. The “language of love”, in addition to being the main language of France and Canada, maintains its official status in more than twenty nations and overseas territories.
Some territories where we can find French as an official language are: Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Monaco, Luxembourg, Republic of the Congo, Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Niger, Togo, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Senegal, Benin, Gabon, Chad, Haiti, Rwanda, Comoros, Burundi, Republic of Djibouti, Vanuatu, French Polynesia, and French Guyana.