What is your mother tongue?

kiri76 · Tue Jul 05, 2005 10:26 am *What is your mother tongue?*

My mother tongue is one type of Chinese cause we have so many regions that every region has its own dialect.Of course ,nowadays,young ppl can all speak mandarin Chinese.we begin learn english from middle school,but now even from elementary school.The number of chinese mandarin speakers are more than the amount in aboved statistics and near 1.4billion.More and more students from abroad come to learn Chinese.I belive Chinese will be the universal language along with the high speed of chinese economic development and 2008 Beijing Olympic.Do you agree with me? Razz

Mosteque · Tue Jul 05, 2005 13:33 pm *What is your mother tongue?*

indeed

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carbonarius · Tue Jul 05, 2005 14:38 pm *What is your mother tongue?*

I can't see why English would lose its leadership. USA is still the most powerful country in the world; many people speak English as their mother tongue; many people speak English as a second language; English is the language of science, technology and business.

I'd love Spanish to become the leading language in the world, as it's the language I speak best, but I think that one of the reasons for its growing importance is that Spanish speaking countries are in America: Spanish is the most widely spoken language in the continent, and so, people from the USA are willing to learn it. USA spreads it's customs all around the world, for example Coca Cola, Hip Hop and the trend of learning Spanish

As for Chinese, it would be a terrible waste of money if we had to change all the scientific and technological things that are written in English, and in latin alphabet.

But I've studied History, and they say that historians are completely unable to foresee the future. And I agree with it; anything could happen: Polish will be the next leading language in the world! Wink

Mosteque · Tue Jul 05, 2005 15:09 pm *What is your mother tongue?*

Karlos, you've hit the nail here Very Happy

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englishfan · Wed Jul 06, 2005 0:07 am *My mother tongue*

This is an interesting discussion. The initial question was what is your mother tongue and now we are talking about what language will be number one in a few years. Did you know that there exist about 6000 different languages in the world and many of them are dying out every year. Rich says that in the long run Spanish will be the universal language. But what does that mean? Will I be able to travel around the world speaking Spanish? Our Chinese friend is suggesting that in a few years the world will speak Chinese. So I have to start learning Chinese then? Actually this might makes sense. I live in a city which has a little China town. I once was there with my friends and we noticed that many people didn't understand much English. My English is far from perfect too because I moved here only recently. Anyway, this discussion is about our mother tongue, isn't it?
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kiri76 · Wed Jul 06, 2005 6:50 am *My mother tongue*

Nicole · Wed Jul 06, 2005 10:40 am *Chinese the universal language?*

Hi Kiri. You say that a language becomes universal if it is spoken by many people. If that were true then Chinese and Hindi would be more universal than English. I think there are more things that make a language universal. English is so popular because it is the language of technology, science, marketing and entertainment. Of course the economy in China is growing faster than many other countries. But does this mean that the Chinese language will spread throughout the world? The question is how many inventions are made in China? How many Chinese movies and TV shows are broadcast in other countries? How many books are printed in China and translated into other languages?
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kiri76 · Wed Jul 06, 2005 12:12 pm *What is your mother tongue?*

ok,i am afraid i have misunderstood the meaning of "universal language".so sorry for my poor english.
I just want to say that more and more ppl are beginning to learn chinese.That's all.

Andreana · Wed Jul 06, 2005 12:57 pm *Learning Chinese*

Hello Kiri. I agree with you. China's population is growing fast and there are already more than 1 billion peole who speak Chinese as their mother tongue. There are certainly people who learn Chinese as a second language because now many western companies are investing lots of money in China and it's important that you speak the language well and understand the culture.
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Kievstar · Thu Jul 07, 2005 0:07 am *Learning languages*

Do you remember the attempts of creating a universal language that would be spoken all around the world? The most popular of those tries certainly was Esperanto. To my knowledge esperanto has never really spread as far as its inventors had hoped. Instead English is used as the universal means of international communication. At the same time more and more people are also other languages like Spanish, Chinese, French and Arabic. I can't see a conflict here. On the contrary. I think with the spread of English as a universal language people are becoming more aware of how important it is to speak more than just one language. You can learn several languages as long as you are ready and willing to learn.

newmind · Thu Jul 07, 2005 0:43 am *English again*

Nicole · Thu Jul 07, 2005 10:09 am *Esperanto as mother tongue?*

Karina · Fri Jul 08, 2005 0:14 am *What is your mother tongue?*

Hardly anyone.... Rolling Eyes

sunny · Fri Jul 22, 2005 11:40 am *What is your mother tongue?*

Hehe.. Esperanto Smile

No, I don't speak that one.
But I speak Dari and Greek as my mother tongues. And I don't think that any one of these two might become a universal language - hihi.

Andreana · Sat Jul 23, 2005 21:35 pm *Dari vs farsi*

Hi Sunny,

Is Dari similar to Farsi? Is it a version of Arabic or different? Why do you speak so many languages?
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