UK at risk of being 'cut off from world' for not learning more languages
245 replies, posted
[QUOTE=Contag;32680748]I learn a language so that learning two other languages easier?
Why not cut out the middle man?
Besides English has stolen enough from French Spanish and Latin anyhow.[/QUOTE]
And Spanish has stolen words from English before if I remember correctly
[QUOTE=Scar;32680918]Well, if you want to study anything scientific here in Germany, you have to had Latin for at least 3 years.
It's also really helpful for scientific names and shit[/QUOTE]
What are you on about?
[QUOTE=Scar;32680918]Well, if you want to study anything scientific here in Germany, you have to had Latin for at least 3 years.
It's also really helpful for scientific names and shit[/QUOTE]
Ah, then I take back what I said for it being useless. Quite a few rich kids here study latin as it gets increased 35 points (the maximum amount is 50), so most technically fail, but get their grades artificially increased. And then they never use it again.
I find a few people who study end up learning some latin terms a byproduct of scientific terms.
I'm learning mandarin
it's hard, and i'm a native speaker
words are hard to remember, basic phrases just sort of fall out of your head if you aren't motivated.
[QUOTE=Coffee;32655119]English is rather hard for people who've grown up on non-germanic/latin based languages.[/QUOTE]
Getting into the language is hard, but the language itself is incredibly simple. Honestly there's few languages with so little grammar as English.
The only thing somewhat complex is that english isn't WYSIWYG.
[QUOTE=Sobotnik;32680743]If you live in South or Mesoamerica or Iberia it is.
He means worldwide as in, every continent and most countries. You can go to Hong Kong, New York, Paris, Berlin, etc and chances are you will very easily find people who will speak English.[/QUOTE]
no I mean in terms of number of speakers, there are more spanish speakers than english speakers
this is worldwide
Chinese will never take over because there are far too many different dialects (and they are not mutually understandable) for it to be an effective international language
[editline]8th October 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=DainBramageStudios;32682486]no I mean in terms of number of speakers, there are more spanish speakers than english speakers
this is worldwide[/QUOTE]
Native speakers, yes. But English has the most amount of non-native speakers at around 350 million
I'm curious, when schools teach Spanish in the UK, do they usually teach it like it's spoken in Spain? That would make sense.
[QUOTE=b4nny;32683360]I'm curious, when schools teach Spanish in the UK, do they usually teach it like it's spoken in Spain? That would make sense.[/QUOTE]That's an interesting question, here in the US if I remember correctly it's usually taught like in Mexico or Central America, which makes sense, but I have no idea about the UK.
[QUOTE=b4nny;32683360]I'm curious, when schools teach Spanish in the UK, do they usually teach it like it's spoken in Spain? That would make sense.[/QUOTE]
We get told about the differences between Castilian and Latinamerican, and we're free to pick which one we want to use so long as we're consistent.
Spanish from Spain sounds classier
[QUOTE=Wiggles;32652570]That's the problem really. Here you don't start learning French until your 10/11 years old (at least when I was at school) and by then most kids, except for ridiculously intelligent ones, just simply don't want to take much of an interest.[/QUOTE]
Here in 'Murrica I didn't start taking a second language until I was 15. Took two years and pretty much all I remember are a couple dirty words.
no habla Español :C
Spanish is a rather easy language to learn and useful in the US.
[QUOTE=Themage;32698024]no habla Español :C
Spanish is a rather easy language to learn and useful in the US.[/QUOTE]
Especially with all that illegal immigration
[QUOTE=CakeMaster7;32698219]Especially with all that illegal immigration[/QUOTE]
I'd say that was tasteless but it's true.
[QUOTE=DainBramageStudios;32683656]We get told about the differences between Castilian and Latinamerican, and we're free to pick which one we want to use so long as we're consistent.
Spanish from Spain sounds classier[/QUOTE]
Here we just learn Mexican Spanish, though our books will usually show the vosotros forms, but never have questions about them.
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