Multilingual

The term multilingualism can refer to rather different phenomena. Sociolinguists distinguish:

A few examples of multilingual regions/settings

There is a distinction between social and personal bilinguism. Many countries, such as Belgium, which are officially multilingual, may have many monolinguals in their population. Offically monolingual countries, on the other hand, such as France, can have sizable multilingual populations.

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• a majority of the population in sub-Saharan Africa is multilingual. Under its 1996 Constitution, South Africa has 11 official languages including Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans and English
• Brussels, the bilingual capital of Belgium (15% Dutch-speaking)
• Canada is officially bilingual under the Official Languages Act and the Constitution of Canada that require the federal government to deliver services in both official languages. As well, minority language rights are guaranteed where numbers warrant. Approximately 25% of Canadians speak French. See Bilingualism in Canada
• the Canadian province of Quebec, (10% English-speaking) Note: Although there is a relatively sizable English-speaking population in Quebec, French is the only official language.
• the province of New Brunswick, Canada (35% French-speaking) New Brunswick is the only province in Canada with two official languages.
• there are also significant French language minorities in the provinces of Ontario and Manitoba. Though those provinces are not officially bilingual they do provide a number of services in French.
• Nunavut is a Canadian territory with a population that is 85% Inuit. Its official languages are the Inuit dialects of Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun as well as English and French.
• most regions of China: usually a local regional dialect such as Cantonese Chinese or Shanghai dialect (native) and Mandarin Chinese (learned, official)
• In Hong Kong, both Chinese and English are official languages, and for Chinese both Mandarin and Cantonese are used. All the three spoken and two written languages are taught in schools, and are mandatory subjects.
• In Macau, both Chinese and Portuguese are official languages, and for Chinese both Mandarin and Cantonese are used, but with predominance of Cantonese, as in Hong Kong.
• Finland (6% Finland-Swedish, Åland unilingually Swedish)
• India: Twenty-two official languages. The largest, Hindi, is spoken natively by only 18% of the population
• Most people in Indonesia are bilingual at an early age. They speak a local native language with their families whereas the official language Indonesian which is used to communicate with people from other regions and is taught in schools as a compulsory subject. Indonesia has over two hundred native languages.
• Almost all people in Malaysia are at least bilingual (many Chinese and Indian citizens are trilingual). They speak Malay, the official language of the country (which is a compulsory subject learnt in all public schools, and the language by which all subjects taught in school is instructed, except for Science and Math), English (brought by the British rule over Malaya until 1957, and is still a compulsory subject in public schools), and various Chinese dialects (mainly Cantonese, Hokkien, Hakka as well as Mandarin), and Tamil. The indegenious peoples of Sabah and Sarawak speak their ancestral languages (Dayak etc).
• Ireland, where three languages have some form of official status. In the Republic of Ireland, Irish (one of the Goidelic languages) is the first official language while English is the second. Approximately 1.5 million Irish citizens are either fluent or semi-fluent in Irish, making it by far the most commonly spoken Goidelic language. However English is far more commonly used as less than 3% speak Irish as their 1st language and they are all located in the remote Gaeltacht regions. Ulster Scots, a variety of Lowland Scots, is spoken by some in northern regions, but again English is far more commonly used and Ulster Scots is less actively used in media. Irish and Ulster Scots now both have official status in the Northern Ireland as part of the 1998 Belfast Agreement.
• many Koreans living in Japan speak both Korean and Japanese
• in Mauritius, where children are taught Mauritian Creole, French, and English
• Philippines: Filipino and English are official languages in the constitution. People in native Tagalog areas are usually bilingual, while in non-Tagalog speaking areas it's common to be trilingual in the native language, Filipino and English.
• ex-Soviet republics and Warsaw Pact countries: many people fluently speak Russian, especially in Slavic countries within the area of the former USSR (typically in Poland, Slovakia. However few Czech people speak Russian, despite huge expenditure in the past)
• Republics of Russia. The language of titular nation is also official in those republics. Chuvash, Bashkir and Mari residents of Tatarstan also use to speak 3 language: own, Russian and Tatar.
• Abkhazia. Elder generation of Abkhaz spoke Georgian, Russian and Abkhaz language
• Parts of Lower Silesia vovoidship of Poland, where live many people for which German is mother tongue
• certain cantons of Switzerland
• Spain, where many regions have more than one official language (especially in Catalonia, where Spanish and Catalan both enjoy great social esteem and are both used in almost every social situation)
• Sweden in Stockholm area and North Bothnia, Finnish speaking
• USA. Three US states are officially bilingual: Louisiana (English and French), New Mexico (English and Spanish), and Hawai'i (English and Hawaiian). Three US territories are also bilingual: American Samoa (Samoan and English), Guam (English and Chamorro), and Puerto Rico (Spanish and English). One US territory is trilingual: Northern Marianas Islands (English, Chamorro, and Carolinian)
• Wales, and to a lesser extent other Celtic-speaking regions of the UK, and London
• In New Zealand, approximately 10% of the population speaks English and Maori.

Personal multilingualism develops:

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• among immigrants and their descendants.
• among children of ambassadors and expatriates.
• in border areas between two countries of mixed languages.
• among children whose parents each speak a different language.