Throughout time there have been many native tongues through which language has been spoken (no shit, eh). Communication, connectivity, and outsourcing have never been as easy or cheap as they are now.

Certainly those who understand multiple languages will be able to make good money translating through those inefficiencies, but longterm will the number of languages dwindle to only a few? The language barriers are market inefficiencies, which may benefit the local merchants, but commerce drives everything, and you have to imagine that learning a second more frequently used language is going to become easier and easier as technology spreads.

Due to cultural considerations I think many people will want to hold on to their root languages, but many people will take up English as a second language.

Learning a second language and effectively communicating with it is like viewing life through a second lense. I wonder how greatly those of us who really only rely on one language are missing out of some of life’s most interesting situations due to laziness or forced market efficiency, and what might be lost if language eventually consolidates worldwide to where people only use one or two.