German President succumbs to British empire, wants English as primary European language.
150 replies, posted
[QUOTE=Zeke129;39687796]If you scale this up to worldwide, the most spoken language is Mandarin.
Even Spanish is more popular than English.
Maybe we should all have to learn Mandarin and Spanish?[/QUOTE]
Spanish isn't anywhere near as spoken as English
If you're talking about native speakers, yes, but otherwise no.
I thought it already was? English is pretty much taught everywhere here.
It's so easy to learn that I learned it by just watching Cartoon Network for years when I was young, school(and Facepunch) then helped me improve it.
The people of Europe are historically Germanic so it should be German instead of English. However what ever floats your guys boats(not that the German president opinion reflects everyones and anyones view).
[QUOTE=Zeke129;39687796]If you scale this up to worldwide, the most spoken language is Mandarin.
Even Spanish is more popular than English.
Maybe we should all have to learn Mandarin and Spanish?[/QUOTE]
Only in terms of first language, especially in the case of Mandarin since I don't think that is actually the local language anywhere other than China and countries within China's sphere of influence.
English is by far much more widely spoken.
[QUOTE=DainBramageStudios;39687369]I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, lough and through?
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird,
And dead: it's said like bed, not bead -
For goodness sake don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt).
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother,
And here is not a match for there
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there's dose and rose and lose -
Just look them up - and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword,
And do and go and thwart and cart -
Come, come, I've hardly made a start!
A dreadful language? Man alive!
I'd mastered it when I was five!
oh and also
We must polish the Polish furniture.
He could lead if he would get the lead out.
The farm was used to produce produce.
The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
The soldier decided to desert in the desert.
This was a good time to present the present.
A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
I did not object to the object.
The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
The bandage was wound around the wound.
There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
They were too close to the door to close it.
The buck does funny things when the does are present.
They sent a sewer down to stitch the tear in the sewer line.
To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
After a number of injections my jaw got number.
Upon seeing the tear in my clothes I shed a tear.
I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
I read it once and will read it agen
I learned much from this learned treatise.
I was content to note the content of the message.
The Blessed Virgin blessed her. Blessed her richly.
It's a bit wicked to over-trim a short wicked candle.
If he will absent himself we mark him absent.
I incline toward bypassing the incline.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=deltasquid;39687374]When the English tongue we speak.
Why is break not rhymed with freak?
Will you tell me why it's true
We say sew but likewise few?
And the maker of the verse,
Cannot rhyme his horse with worse?
Beard is not the same as heard
Cord is different from word.
Cow is cow but low is low
Shoe is never rhymed with foe.
Think of hose, dose,and lose
And think of goose and yet with choose
Think of comb, tomb and bomb,
Doll and roll or home and some.
Since pay is rhymed with say
Why not paid with said I pray?
Think of blood, food and good.
Mould is not pronounced like could.
Wherefore done, but gone and lone -
Is there any reason known?
To sum up all, it seems to me
Sound and letters don't agree.[/QUOTE]
You just know that somewhere you two just made some poor guy who doesn't speak English very well commit suicide.
[QUOTE=Jsm;39689059]You just know that somewhere you two just made some poor guy who doesn't speak English very well commit suicide.[/QUOTE]
i am end life now
i do not have understand
[QUOTE=mdeceiver79;39688729]Some languages have words which don't appear in other ones.
You throw away the language you're throwing away a means to communicate which may not be possible in another way.
In bulgarian there is some word like "ligloo" you'll be hard pressed to find a concise translation to english. In the himlayas theres languages with words which cannot be translated.[/quote]
Nevertheless I don't think anyone's ever had a problem communicating in their native language because there are terms that don't exist in that language.
Whatever language you use, you'll find a way of expressing what you want to say.
[quote]
+ even if you make everything one universal language, dialects will pop up. Some places in the uk have trouble understanding each other because the dialects differ. People will mix in words from their own language, it will be dynamic but you'll still need to do some learning if you wish to fit into a place.[/QUOTE]
The more people talk to people from different parts of the world regularly, the less that will happen.
[QUOTE=Aide;39689049]The people of Europe are historically Germanic so it should be German instead of English. However what ever floats your guys boats(not that the German president opinion reflects everyones and anyones view).[/QUOTE]
why would history matter
[QUOTE=Aide;39689049]The people of Europe are historically Germanic so it should be German instead of English. However what ever floats your guys boats(not that the German president opinion reflects everyones and anyones view).[/QUOTE]
That doesn't really make sense though, as the people have changed as well as the language. It's not as if we're all German speaking different languages, because if you're going to argue that we're all really German then you'd have to also argue that all the current european languages are actually German as well, so it wouldn't matter which one was picked.
This is good, my German friends are horrendous in English and they should be better if they want to survive business wise in this world
[QUOTE=mdeceiver79;39688729]Some languages have words which don't appear in other ones.
You throw away the language you're throwing away a means to communicate which may not be possible in another way.
In bulgarian there is some word like "ligloo" you'll be hard pressed to find a concise translation to english. In the himlayas theres languages with words which cannot be translated.
+ even if you make everything one universal language, dialects will pop up. Some places in the uk have trouble understanding each other because the dialects differ. People will mix in words from their own language, it will be dynamic but you'll still need to do some learning if you wish to fit into a place.[/QUOTE]
Or you'd just stop saying "cor blimey, guv" and whatnot when talking to someone from a different place.
[QUOTE=deltasquid;39687374]When the English tongue we speak.
Why is break not rhymed with freak?
Will you tell me why it's true
We say sew but likewise few?
And the maker of the verse,
Cannot rhyme his horse with worse?
Beard is not the same as heard
Cord is different from word.
Cow is cow but low is low
Shoe is never rhymed with foe.
Think of hose, dose,and lose
And think of goose and yet with choose
Think of comb, tomb and bomb,
Doll and roll or home and some.
Since pay is rhymed with say
Why not paid with said I pray?
Think of blood, food and good.
Mould is not pronounced like could.
Wherefore done, but gone and lone -
Is there any reason known?
To sum up all, it seems to me
Sound and letters don't agree.[/QUOTE]
Please tell me there are more of these, they're brilliant!
guys, guys
its so simple
speak esperanto
[QUOTE=GREN EYGS N HAM;39687262]Would be great if everyone had to learn English and be good at it so you can actually communicate with other people when traveling within the EU.[/QUOTE]
Actually, many people that work people-jobs in EU speak many languages. It's necessary to communicate with the English Speaking travelers and other English speakers in general.
It's like how everything in Switzerland is written in Italian, French, English and German. If you took a flight out of a certain part of Switzerland you'd have to listen to that oxygen mask over the face thing in 4 different languages.
Not to mention, almost everybody in Germany can speak English now as well as every other country in EU besides Frankreich(France).
I'm guessing your American and didn't grow up with the same value of learning other languages. It isn't needed so much for you because everyone speaks your tongue.
Also, most English speakers learn a lot about English after taking German. I learned English pretty quickly (still memorizing a lot of the exceptions) having already known German and Russian.
no swedish is the way to go
The only thing English has going for it is the ease of conjugation. However, so many verbs are irregular that it's a moot point, because you'd have to memorize over half the verbs conjugations anyway.
But for example, look at the verb "like". There is only one change when conjugating, and that in the he/she form. "He likes". Everything else is "I like; you like; we like; they like". In contrast, a language like Spanish has different conjugations for every form. This mostly carries over to different tenses as well, though in this case he/she changes to "liked" along with everything else. For future, just add "will" in front of "like".
[QUOTE=ewitwins;39690847]Please tell me there are more of these, they're brilliant![/QUOTE]
Got mine from here
[url]http://www.spellingsociety.org/news/media/poems.php[/url]
[QUOTE=dije;39691800]no swedish is the way to go[/QUOTE]
Swedish sounds like someone's trying to speak english while trying to eat a fish whole.
But then again, Finnish sounds like some evil shaman trying to curse you all the time.
[QUOTE=DrTaxi;39688234]Hence english should be taught as a primary language, everywhere.
I do hope one lingua franca will eventually replace *all* other primary languages. People shouldn't have to learn different langauges for living in different countries.[/QUOTE]
Fuck every other countries' culture, right?
Oh god, France voted against Britain joining the EU, or European Economic community as it just was then, because Charles de Gaulle was worried that English would become the language of Europe - gutted for you mate
[url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/DeGaulle%27s_Veto_on_British_membership_of_the_EEC] De Gaulle's veto on British membership of the EEC[/url]
We should all speak Welsh so that the whole world fills up with phlegm and we all drown and die and then we won't have to worry about the EU at all
Fhtagn.
[QUOTE=RobbL;39692077]We should all speak Welsh so that the whole world fills up with phlegm and we all drown and die and then we won't have to worry about the EU at all[/QUOTE]
I quite like having vowels in my language, thanks.
Doesn't the President have only a little bit of power in Germany, I thought the Chancellor made most of the decisions.
Meh it'd be nice but it won't happen everyone wants to be stubborn and stick to their own language.
Well of course native English speakers are going to be proponents of making English international. Perhaps we should ask a less biased population?
But, but, but speaking English makes you [URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21518574"]poor and unhealthy![/URL]
I think Latin should be the official language. Going back to the roots. Latin roots.
english is the best language
The internet is hugely English-centric and works very well.
I don't see the problem of making communication between most people on the planet viable through the quickest means.
Though there is one thing said about English: Easiest language to speak, hardest to learn.
we should really consider a worldwide official language.
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