In Morocco, the two official languages are Arabic and Berber. Berbers are an ethnic group that predate the arrival of Arabs to the Maghreb region of North Africa. And today, about a quarter of Moroccans still speak it according to Wikipedia.

French colonial rule in Morocco (which lasted from 1912 to 1956) also means that a large percentage of the population speaks French. The "official" number was above 60% in 2012, but our experience in Marrakech has been that it's virtually everyone.

This has also been our experience with English. Though, interestingly enough, some of the locals have told us that this was not the case as recent as 10 years. English is a new phenomenon in Marrakech. Anecdotally, it means that many of the locals seem to speak a minimum of 4 languages.

This is, of course, par for the course in this part of the world. But as a Canadian who is working diligently to try and master only two languages -- I take a weekly French class at Alliance Française in Toronto -- it's an easy way to feel linguistically inadequate.

Languages are difficult. They're relatively easy to learn when you're young, but if you don't use them consistently and if you're not immersed, they're also easy to lose. Which is why some estimate that by the end of this century, at least 50% of the languages currently spoken will become critically endangered or completely extinct.

Here is how UNESCO classifies endangered languages:

The simple takeaway is that it starts with children. A "vulnerable" language, for instance, means that kids still speak the language, but that it may be restricted to only certain domains, such as at home with relatives. A "definitely endangered" language means that kids are no longer learning and speaking it. This is a kiss of death.

So to get a sense of where things are headed, it's a good idea to ask people, "what languages do kids learn in school and/or at home today?" And the answer to that question in Marrakech seems to suggest that English has overtaken French as the preferred second language after Arabic.

As we all become more globally connected, it only heightens the need for a lingua franca -- a common language that we can all use to communicate with each other. And today that global language is English. That certainly makes things easier and more efficient, but it also comes with negative consequences.

It is going to mean sacrificing the local languages and dialects that emerged at a time when the world wasn't so small.

In Morocco, the two official languages are Arabic and Berber. Berbers are an ethnic group that predate the arrival of Arabs to the Maghreb region of North Africa. And today, about a quarter of Moroccans still speak it according to Wikipedia.

French colonial rule in Morocco (which lasted from 1912 to 1956) also means that a large percentage of the population speaks French. The "official" number was above 60% in 2012, but our experience in Marrakech has been that it's virtually everyone.

This has also been our experience with English. Though, interestingly enough, some of the locals have told us that this was not the case as recent as 10 years. English is a new phenomenon in Marrakech. Anecdotally, it means that many of the locals seem to speak a minimum of 4 languages.

This is, of course, par for the course in this part of the world. But as a Canadian who is working diligently to try and master only two languages -- I take a weekly French class at Alliance Française in Toronto -- it's an easy way to feel linguistically inadequate.

Languages are difficult. They're relatively easy to learn when you're young, but if you don't use them consistently and if you're not immersed, they're also easy to lose. Which is why some estimate that by the end of this century, at least 50% of the languages currently spoken will become critically endangered or completely extinct.

Here is how UNESCO classifies endangered languages:

The simple takeaway is that it starts with children. A "vulnerable" language, for instance, means that kids still speak the language, but that it may be restricted to only certain domains, such as at home with relatives. A "definitely endangered" language means that kids are no longer learning and speaking it. This is a kiss of death.

So to get a sense of where things are headed, it's a good idea to ask people, "what languages do kids learn in school and/or at home today?" And the answer to that question in Marrakech seems to suggest that English has overtaken French as the preferred second language after Arabic.

As we all become more globally connected, it only heightens the need for a lingua franca -- a common language that we can all use to communicate with each other. And today that global language is English. That certainly makes things easier and more efficient, but it also comes with negative consequences.

It is going to mean sacrificing the local languages and dialects that emerged at a time when the world wasn't so small.

The top languages are also listed on the right of the map, with the exception of the gray areas. These areas indicate census tracts where English > 90%. I don’t know why French shows up as #13, since this map is supposed to be non-official languages.

In any event, green represents Chinese (includes Cantonese, Mandarin, and so on). Sky blue is Tagalog. And yellow is Tamil. I’ll let you play around with the map to explore the others. There shouldn’t be many surprises if you know Toronto well, but it’s still interesting to explore the clustering and the percentages. Some of the census tracts have a single non-official language representing 90%+ of the responses.

The biggest gains over the last decade – following the same methodology as the above mapping – were Tagalog, Farsi, Bengali, Arabic, and Pashto. And the biggest declines over this same time period were Italian, Tamil, Urdu, Punjabi, and Polish. But this data is only for the City of Toronto and so I suppose that a decline could also be because of people relocating to other parts of the region.

A big part of Toronto’s strength comes from exactly what you see in this map: the world in a city.

The top languages are also listed on the right of the map, with the exception of the gray areas. These areas indicate census tracts where English > 90%. I don’t know why French shows up as #13, since this map is supposed to be non-official languages.

In any event, green represents Chinese (includes Cantonese, Mandarin, and so on). Sky blue is Tagalog. And yellow is Tamil. I’ll let you play around with the map to explore the others. There shouldn’t be many surprises if you know Toronto well, but it’s still interesting to explore the clustering and the percentages. Some of the census tracts have a single non-official language representing 90%+ of the responses.

The biggest gains over the last decade – following the same methodology as the above mapping – were Tagalog, Farsi, Bengali, Arabic, and Pashto. And the biggest declines over this same time period were Italian, Tamil, Urdu, Punjabi, and Polish. But this data is only for the City of Toronto and so I suppose that a decline could also be because of people relocating to other parts of the region.

A big part of Toronto’s strength comes from exactly what you see in this map: the world in a city.

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