Which languages do Praguers want to learn the most?

If you polled the international community living in Prague about the language they’d most like to speak, the answer would likely be Czech. Acquiring the language is notoriously tricky, particularly for those who hail from non-Slavic countries. For many, it is one of the primary challenges of making a life in Czechia.

A recent survey from the language-learning platform Wordtips revealed that English is the top language choice of learners in almost every capital city in the world, including Prague. Czechs are just as anxious to learn the lingua franca of the country's expat inhabitants.

Wordtips analysts gathered data from over 280,000 profiles on the language-learning platform Conversation Exchange. They noted the language currently being learned by the highest proportion of learners in every available national capital.

English emerged as the top language, asserting its dominance as the most widely spoken language in the world. It was the primary choice in 52 of the world’s capital cities, including Prague and neighboring cities Berlin, Vienna, Budapest, Warsaw, and Bratislava.

A recent English proficiency ranking shows that the Czech Republic’s English skills declined compared to last year, with neighboring countries, particularly Slovakia, outranking Czechs in their ability to speak the English language. The same index showed that Brno, Czechia's second largest city, outranked Prague in English proficiency.

The second-most sought-after language in Prague is German; the same holds for Bratislava and Budapest, whereas in Berlin and Vienna, where German is already spoken, French and Spanish were the second-most desired languages, respectively.

According to Insider Monkey, German is among the second most profitable languages in the world to learn, outranked only by Dutch number one, with French and Italian claiming the third and fourth spots, respectively; Japanese rounded out the top five.

As one of the world's largest economies and the Czech Republic's biggest trading partner, proficiency in German can create job opportunities in both Germany and in Czech companies that do business with German-speaking countries. This includes higher-paying positions in multinational corporations, trade, and tourism sectors.