Which language would you add/remove to/from the United Nations?

[rdearman]

Turkish and Japanese. Potentially Swahili or Indonesian as well.

Remove them? Or add them?

[Dylan95]

Turkish and Japanese. Potentially Swahili or Indonesian as well.

Remove them? Or add them?

Add them.

[Dragon27]

Can't remove what isn't there

[DaveAgain]

They don't really say how they come to choose them. I'm assuming it was based off of first the Allies main languages of WWII (English, French, Russian), then they chose the others to account for how many countries each was spoken in and by how many people.

"How were the official languages chosen?
Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish have been official languages since the founding of the United Nations in 1945 (General Assembly Resolution 2 (1) of 1 February 1946, Annex, paragraph 1). English and French have been the United Nations’ working languages since the same time. Arabic was added as an official language by a decision of the General Assembly in its resolution 3190 (XXVIII) of 18 December 1973."

The UN replaced the the League of Nations. The official languages of the League of Nations were English and French, the additional languages of the UN may have been a response to the experience acquired during the operation of that organisation.

[Querneus]

I think people are not after the UN languages, as the UN is simply less attractive as something to identify with. I am definitely not gonna enter any discussion on what is the purpose or agenda of the UN on this forum, neither for it or against it. But it is obvious the UN doesn't bring the "I am a unitednationer" sentiment, which would attract language learners to learn the six languages. "I am european" is an identity bringing people to learn the EU languages, at least a few of them. There are other examples but this is the best one.There are also people identifying with or passioned about the middle east, the mediteranean, scandinavia, southeast asia, the former A-U empire, and so on. The UN is simply too distant from the individual people to evoke such an emotion.

What is "the former A-U empire"? The Austro-hUngarian Empire? The Abbasid & Umayyad Caliphates? I looked at Wikipedia's List of empires and I couldn't find something matching well.

A decade ago, in a now-defunct language forum I was a regular in, there was this guy from Toronto who had gotten very much into world politics when he was a teenager and was studying the other five languages. He got tired of it all while studying Political Science at university, and now he's in an MD program to become a doctor (specifically a psychiatrist, I think?). He actually influenced me into learning them as well at the time, but I never found the will to get into Russian...

[aquarius]

I think people are not after the UN languages, as the UN is simply less attractive as something to identify with. I am definitely not gonna enter any discussion on what is the purpose or agenda of the UN on this forum, neither for it or against it. But it is obvious the UN doesn't bring the "I am a unitednationer" sentiment, which would attract language learners to learn the six languages. "I am european" is an identity bringing people to learn the EU languages, at least a few of them. There are other examples but this is the best one.There are also people identifying with or passioned about the middle east, the mediteranean, scandinavia, southeast asia, the former A-U empire, and so on. The UN is simply too distant from the individual people to evoke such an emotion.

What is "the former A-U empire"? The Austro-hUngarian Empire? The Abbasid & Umayyad Caliphates? I looked at Wikipedia's List of empires and I couldn't find something matching well.
...

May I try to help?

https://sh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austro-Ugarska

Austro-Ugarska (na nemačkom Österreich-Ungarn, na mađarskom Osztrák-Magyar Monarchia) bila je centralnoevropska država od 1867. do 1918. godine...

So the Austro-Hungarian Empire might be the right answer, you just have to look in wikipedia in all the languages that were spoken in the respective empire .

[badger]

if English is to be kept, it should be spoken in an amusing/incomprehensible local accent/dialect - West Country, Brummie, Geordie, Glaswegian, etc. - on a weekly-rotating basis.

[Jean-Luc]

Reminder:
Arabic (Modern Standard Arabic)
Chinese[1] (Written character: Simplified Chinese)
English (British English with Oxford spelling)[2]
French
Russian
Spanish

The official language of United Nations will be the translation... With new translation technologies coming, the need of a choice of languages will shrink and disappear. Umberto Eco told us about the language of Europe, the translation, but we have to replace "Europe" by "world"!

[Cavesa]

if English is to be kept, it should be spoken in an amusing/incomprehensible local accent/dialect - West Country, Brummie, Geordie, Glaswegian, etc. - on a weekly-rotating basis.

And don't forget the International Broken English. That's the version most non natives use among themselves and understand perfectly, while struggling to understand and be understood by the natives. Make the natives learn and use this dialect too, when it's the Broken English's turn

[an onyme]

A regularized English that is pronounced as written, kills off the vestigial nub of conjugation that remains in strong verbs and non -s pluralization, and allows phrasal verbs to take whatever preposition you want might be a good idea. But I is not sure how well persons will put out with it if you mess in a language that they is used on.