Culture boxes will be available through the School Library System, a state-funded network that facilitates interlibrary loan and resource sharing among member libraries and other library systems both regionally and throughout the state. The Culture Boxes can be borrowed through the Language and Culture Resource Center Catalog. 

Generally, each box will contain the following items:  maps, posters, craft projects, recipes, games, books, DVDs, CDs, realia, and flags. In addition, recommended Internet links and other reference material will be provided.

We will have culture boxes for the countries highlighted below. 

We would like to thank the Wright Family Foundation for their generous support of these Culture Boxes.

Countries were chosen based on language and population. First, languages were ranked based on the number of native speakers. Then, countries in which the language is the official or national language were identified and ranked by population size. Culture boxes will be created for the highlighted countries. 

Language	Estimated Number of Native Speakers (Number of 2nd language speakers included for some countries)	Official/National Language (Population Number and Rank) World Population (6,464,750,000)
1. Mandarin	873 million	1. People's Republic of China (1,315,844,000), Republic of China, Singapore
2. Spanish	322 million	30. Argentina (38,747,000), Bolivia, Chile, 28. Colombia (45,600,000), Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, 11. Mexico (107,029,000) , Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, 29. Spain (43,064,00), Puerto Rico, United States (New Mexico), Uruguay, Venezuela
3. English	309 million	Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Brunei, Cameroon, Canada, Dominica, 15. Ethiopia (777,431,000), Eritrea, Fiji, The Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Hong Kong (People's Republic of China), India, Ireland, Jamaica, 34. Kenya (34,256,000), Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Maldives, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mariutius, Micronesia, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, #13. Philippines (83,054,00) , Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevs, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, 26. South Africa (47,432,000), Sri Lank, Swaziland, 32. Tanzania (38,329,000), Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, 21. United Kingdom (59,668,000), 3. United States (298,213,000), Vanuatu, Zambia, Zimbabwe
4. Arabic	206 million	Modern Standard Arabic: 35. Algeria (32,854,000), Bahrain, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, 16. Egypt (74,0333,000), Eritrea, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Oman, Palestinian Territories, Quatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, 33. Sudan (36,233,000), Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Western Sahara, Yemen; Hasaniya Arabic: Mauritania, Senegal
5. Hindi   7. Bengali   11. Punjabi   15. Telugu   16. Marathi   17. Tamil   19.  Urdu   23. Gujariati   26. Malayalam   27. Kannada   28. Oriya	181 million   Native:  196 million 2nd:  19 million Western: 60 million Eastern: 28 million Native:  70 million 2nd:  5 million Native:  68 million 2nd:  3 million Native:  68 million 2nd:  9 million Native:  61 million 2nd:  43 million Native:  46 million   Native: 37 million   Native:  35 million   Native:  32 million	2. India (1,103,371,000), Fiji 8. Bangladesh (141,822,000), India India, 6. Pakistan (157,935,000) India   India   India, Singapore, Sri Lanka India, Pakistan India   India   India   India
6. Portuguese	203 million	Anglola, 5. Brazil (186,405,000), Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Macau (People's Republic of China), Mozambique, Portugal, Sao Tome e Pricipe
8. Russian	Native:  145 million 2nd:  110 million	Abkhazia (part of Georgia), Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, 7. Russia (143,202,000), Transnistria (part of Moldova)
9. Japanese	Native:  122 million 2nd: 1 million	10. Japan (128,085,000), Palau
10. German	Native:  95.4 million 2nd: 128 million	Austria, Belgium, 14. Germany (82,689,000), Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, Switzerland
12. Javanese	Native:  76 million	4. Indonesia (222,781,000) (esp. Java)
13. Korean	Native:  71 million	North Korea, 25. South Korea (47,817,000)
14.Vietnamese	Native:  70 million 2nd: 16 million	12. Vietnam (84,238,000)
18. French	Native:  67 million 2nd: 63 million	Belgium, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo-Brazzaville, 23. Congo-Kinshasa (57,549,000), Cote d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, 20. France (60,496,000) only metropolitan areas, French Polynesia, Gabon, Guernesey, Guinea, Haiti, India Italy, Jersey, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Monaco, New Caledonia, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Switzerland, Togo, United States (Louisiana), Vanuatu
20. Italian	Native:  61 million	Croatia, 22. Italy (58,093,000), San Marino, Slovenia, Switzerland
21. Turkish	Native:  60 million	Bulgaria, Cyprus, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, 17. Turkey (73,193,000)
22. Persian	Native:  54 million	Afghanistan, 18. Iran (69,515,000), Tajikistan
24. Polish	Native:  46 million	31. Poland (38,530,000)
25. Ukrainian	Native: 39 million	27. Ukraine (46,481.000), Transnistria (part of Maldova)
29. Burmese	Native:  32 million 2nd:  10 million	24. Myanmar (50,519,000)
30. Thai	Native:  20 million 2nd: 40 million	19. Thailand (64,233,000)

Language information found at vistawide.com based on data from Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 15th ed. (2005) and Wikipedia. Country information based on estimates for 2005 from the UN World Population Prospects (2004 revision) found on Wikipedia.

For more information on any of these programs please contact:

Peggy Sharkey
WSWHE BOCES
Language and Culture Resource Center
27 Gick Road
Saratoga Springs, NY  12866
(518) 581-3581