• UK at risk of being 'cut off from world' for not learning more languages
    245 replies, posted
And the majority of people in my school didn't want to learn French, If i remember correctly, more people wanted German than French.
Chinese is pretty easy to get learn basics, even if your pronunciation is all over the shop, spent 3 weeks there between 2007 and 2009, all I needed was "Yes and No" "how much" "too much" "Please and thank you" "hello, how are you" "Piss off/fuck off"
The solution is to have more sex and procreate in areas where English is the language by default. The chinese showed us the solution.
i was taught french as a compulsory subject from age 11 to 16 i remember nothing. literally nothing. oh wait. actually... the lessons always used to be straight after playing rugby and the french teacher's room was unbearably hot so all i can remember is "ouvre la fenetre?"
I can't speak any other language Hell, I can barely speak English
[QUOTE=7DeadlySyns;32652610]I highly doubt that the UK would be cut off from the rest of the world.[/QUOTE] [img]http://www2.travelodge.co.uk/assets/img/maps/static_uk_map.gif[/img] [editline]6th October 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=matt.ant;32652804]Not at all, not when we have words like "their" "there" and "they're" and also words like "phobia" where it sounds like an F but is a PH, and it doesn't help that we spell words like "centre" with an RE on the end (other than American English)[/QUOTE] I find English to be the easiest language I know tbh. Easier than Dutch.
[QUOTE=Ganerumo;32652736]Replace Japanese by Chinese and you've got the truth. If things keep going as they go right now you can be assured Chinese will soon be the international language instead of good ol' english.[/QUOTE] No it won't.
[QUOTE=Mabus;32652878]Chinese is pretty easy to get learn basics, even if your pronunciation is all over the shop, spent 3 weeks there between 2007 and 2009, all I needed was "Yes and No" "how much" "too much" "Please and thank you" "hello, how are you" "Piss off/fuck off"[/QUOTE] Speaking from experience, living in china as a filthy rich westerner is pretty easy, you can just let the money do the talking :v:
[QUOTE=matt.ant;32652804]Not at all, not when we have words like "their" "there" and "they're" and also words like "phobia" where it sounds like an F but is a PH, and it doesn't help that we spell words like "centre" with an RE on the end (other than American English)[/QUOTE] Rofl... If you think that's "complicated" than you have never seen any other language's grammar. As many, including me, have said, English is piss easy for foreigners. You have zero forms of words, you don't even distinguish between female and male when using adjectives!
English is the language of business, I can't see us being cut off being one of the most influential countries in the world.
[QUOTE=Parker;32652989]English is the language of business, I can't see us being cut off being one of the most influential countries in the world.[/QUOTE] Tbh I hear next to nothing about the UK in the news.
I would say its nearly impossible for it to be cut off from the world. English is the Lingua Franca, and will be for a good long time, (Despite Rome ending, Latin somehow managed to be used as much as possible even today.) especially with foreign nations teaching it, globalisation and the inevitable death of the smaller insignificant languages.
I done some french in High School. This is the extend of what I can still speak of it. Omlette du fromage.
[QUOTE=mobrockers2;32653011]Tbh I hear next to nothing about the UK in the news.[/QUOTE] That's because news focus on local news and the US because they have really crazy shit, you don't hear about Swiss or Canada even less.
English is the language of pilots. All international flights have all radio communications conducted in English. Just thought I'd throw that out there. (For local flights, you can use the local language)
[QUOTE=Crhem van der B;32652987]Rofl... [B]If you think that's "complicated" than you have never seen any other language's grammar[/B]. As many, including me, have said, English is piss easy for foreigners. You have zero forms of words, you don't even distinguish between female and male when using adjectives![/QUOTE] Heh, I, like many other Britons in this thread, learned French from age 11 to 14 so you're probably right, I was just going by what others had said.
[QUOTE=Falchion;32652650]russian (international crime)[/QUOTE] There you go. [editline]7th October 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=GunFox;32653056]English is the language of pilots. All international flights have all radio communications conducted in English. Just thought I'd throw that out there. (For local flights, you can use the local language)[/QUOTE] And the sea. [editline]7th October 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=Scotty.;32653024]I done some french in High School. This is the extend of what I can still speak of it. Omlette du fromage.[/QUOTE] All I remember is Je deteste francais!
[QUOTE=Contag;32653079] And the sea. [/QUOTE] Oh yeah, forgot about that one. Good call.
[QUOTE=GunFox;32653056]English is the language of pilots. All international flights have all radio communications conducted in English. Just thought I'd throw that out there. (For local flights, you can use the local language)[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Contag;32653079]There you go. And the sea. [/QUOTE] This is partly why I believe it is inevitable that by the end of the century, everybody will have English as a first or second language.
[quote]Urdu, which are studied by far too few of our young people.[/quote] Yes, because all young people are going to end up working for the intelligence agencies.
I think this problem is even more severe in the US. US diplomats don't even have to know the language of the country they're a diplomat for.
Why should we learn other languages instead of others learning English? What makes their languages so important that we have to learn them? It's the same argument for them telling us to learn their languages - it's ours, so no, fuck off, learn it if you want to speak with us learning the three major trade languages is something that people should be doing anyway, but English happens to be one of them so
[QUOTE=PvtCupcakes;32653131]I think this problem is even more severe in the US. US diplomats don't even have to know the language of the country they're a diplomat for.[/QUOTE] US diplomats don't speak English? [editline]6th October 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=Taggart;32653150]Why should we learn other languages instead of others learning English? What makes their languages so important that we have to learn them? It's the same argument for them telling us to learn their languages - it's ours, so no, fuck off, learn it if you want to speak with us learning the three major trade languages is something that people should be doing anyway, but English happens to be one of them so[/QUOTE] Because when someone doesn't speak your language, you have a problem.
Most people know English any way, however I wouldn't have minded knowing another language, however I got French thrown at me in high school and really couldn't pick it up, with the same applying to German.
If anything, the more stubborn English speakers are and the less they learn other languages, the more everyone else learns English. This is dependent on English-speaking countries being powerful in cultural and economic terms.
[QUOTE=Taggart;32653150]Why should we learn other languages instead of others learning English? What makes their languages so important that we have to learn them? It's the same argument for them telling us to learn their languages - it's ours, so no, fuck off, learn it if you want to speak with us learning the three major trade languages is something that people should be doing anyway, but English happens to be one of them so[/QUOTE] Wow you're being a massive dick. language is a part of people's culture.
[QUOTE=Falchion;32653192]Wow you're being a massive dick. language is a part of people's culture.[/QUOTE] Yeah but it's far better for everyone to learn one language than everyone learn all the various other languages.
[quote]Speaking to a conference of [B]language specialists[/B] organised by the Schools Network, Dr Seldon, head teacher of private school Wellington College, will warn that the UK is being 'cut off from the world' by [B]refusing to learn new languages.[/B][/quote] analogous situation: [quote]Speaking to a conference of [B]ice cream makers[/B] organised by the Eating Network, Dr Seldon, head chemist of private firm IceCream Bonanza, will warn that the UK is being 'cut off from the pursuit of happiness' by [B]refusing to eat more ice cream.[/B][/quote] you know, it's not like language teachers have a vested interest in people learning language or anything
Business language really depends on what you're doing. These days, Japanese and German (according to my dad) are still those languages you learn if you're going into the automotive industry. Back when he was working in the 80's, it was plain Japanese, but if you worked with European companies, it would be German. I think the key issue here is that instead of working to build multiculturalism (which is lately one of the reasons a lot of countries encourage second languages), it basically forces Britons to have to be the tourist who speaks loudly and makes hand gestures to get his point across. At least it's not like Canada, where they only just now started encouraging people to learn Canadian Gaelic so the thing doesn't die out. I just think that in general, in the US and the UK, we kind of take for granted that everyone speaks English and may not actually put as much effort into learning other ones. Regarding when you should learn, though, it needs to be before adolescence, because around that age is the boundary where children can learn languages the easiest, and be able to speak it without an accent. This is why a lot of the time, first generation immigrants to the US never lose their accent, and may take a long time to be fully fluent. I work at a Kumon center, where we get a lot of Indian children who aren't very fluent in English since they've come directly from India with their parents. Generally speaking, the ones that arrive when they're older have several problems with overcoming accent issues. Tl;Dr If you don't start learning a language early on, good luck trying to be good with it later.
[QUOTE=itak365;32653260]Business language really depends on what you're doing. These days, Japanese and German (according to my dad) are still those languages you learn if you're going into the automotive industry. Back when he was working in the 80's, it was plain Japanese, but if you worked with European companies, it would be German.[/QUOTE] A whole lot of blueprints are written in German, in Europe at least.
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