Multilingualism, in simple words, refers to a person who can speak different languages. Many people worldwide can speak, read, and write various languages, two or more two, making them multilingual. As per the estimates, around 43% of the world’s population can speak two different languages, whereas another 17% can speak more than three. It means that monolingual people or individuals who can only speak, read, and write one language come under the global minority. English is the most common second language used worldwide, as more than 66% of English speakers learned it as their second or third language. Moreover, the individual’s first language, also known as the mother tongue, is spoken in the home country. Mostly, people are comfortable with speaking their mother tongue, and at the same time, it is quite uncommon for multilingual people to speak other languages comfortably. Some might feel comfortable, while some not. For instance, when someone uses a second language in an academic context but their native language differs, it eventually becomes more comfortable.
