Everyone will choose English

[Rahel]

Hi! Sometimes I think that every pupil in school will shoose English for learning in his school as a second Language. Nobody will learn French, German and so on. What do you think about?
Rahel

[Torsten]

In many countries English is already considered as second rather than a foreign language and yes, the vast majority of children learn English at school or in kindergarten. However, this doesn't necessarily mean that nobody will learn other languages than English or their mother tongue. Why not learn two or more 'second' languages? Learning is a life long process and language is the single most powerful tool we human being have at our disposal. The more language you know the better you will understand the world around you.
Also, what about people who speak English as their mother tongue? They too will continue to learn other languages.
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[Sarah]

Hi !

The choice of which language to learn at school/college should be based on a few factors. At least, it was so in my case. I take into account the fact that English is now the most popular language and the knowlegde of this language enables one to communicate with quite a lot of people all around the world. The second thing is that the English language has become sth of "a must" when it comes to applying for a job in my country.
And if you ask why so many students choose English my answer is that it's to a great degree because of its popularity and because of popularity of english culture and so on. On the other hand, I wouldn't go for English just because everybody does so. If you don't feel like learing English, why bother ?
What about learning two (or even 3) languages -it might be the solution , mightn't it?

Sarah

[Guest]

Oops, I've reapeted some of Torsten's ideas....
However, it was by chance

[Rahel]

[Bruce]

Hi Rahel,
I?ve just read your comment to Torsten about the English speakers
being arrogant and expecting everybody else to learn English because
they rule the world. There is a minority of English speakers who present this attitude which IS very arrogant and very immature.
To think that everybody should understand them causes resentment in the victim of their rebuke and certainly won?t make any friends in the country they are visiting. This attitude is often shown by people from England directly. It started in the class system in the Victorian era and carried on through much of this century until probably the 60?s when the British Empire began to break down and many colonies became independant of British rule. The "snobs" as we call the rich were the perpetrators of this attitude because they did, literally, rule the world for a long time. The famous English Language author and historian David Crystal has written that - behind the success of a language is usually an military might. This could be true. Look at the Roman Empire and the Latin Language back then. David Crystal has written a Historical Encyclopaedia of the English Language. It?s a very worthwhile buy if you can afford it. Action-packed with information. David Crystal?s articles can also be seen in the Spotlight Magazine if you are interested further.

Thankfully there are thousands of English speakers like myself who can speak at least one or two more languages and are alternatively pleasantly complemented when someone speaks to us in our own language.
You will find in Australia for instance that Japanese is the second language,
or most popular second language to learn for obvious reasons - import and export business. In the USA - Spanish is the second language.
In GB it is French and then German. In Canada it is also French. There are many English speakers who can speak French and German followed by Spanish or even Portuguese. Italian then becomes easier to learn after you have a French or Spanish basis. As far as arrogance and purity of language is concerned you will be surprised to know that the French are trying to erradicate ALL English words out of their vocabulary. They have even got a word for Computer. The Computer was invented and named by English speakers are as I know - please correct me if somebody knows better. The words origin is once again from the Latin.
Com = with ; and Put?re = to think. I?m sure there were a few French scientists who also contributed to the developement of the computer, but isn?t that taking it a bit too far.
In Germany any words which don?t belong to the usual "Duden Deutsch" are called "fremdw?rter" (foreignwords) which is also a form of puritism. I understand the reason for doing this. It is through a language that a culture and nation is recognised. It is indeed the "Soul" of the people. In Germany today they (who are responsible) have introduced an alteration to the written form of German. It called the New Duden Deutsch. It?s logic and supposed ease or simplification is not clear to see and there are many criticisms to its new form.
In Scotland, we have societies and organisations which protect our Scots culture, which I think is great. I would be very upset if our culture was destroyed. I also learned French and love it, although I don?t get to speak it s? much. It?s getting rusty. So maybe I have a bit more understanding for the French and other countries who in my opinion should preserve their culture. I guess this is a large subject once again for our forth-coming Cross-Culture Forum.

To get back to the point about language protection. In the English Language you will find a rich source of words from Latin, Greek, Gaelic, Angle/Saxon/Jute - Germanic, French, D?nish, Norwegian, Spanish/Iberian/Briton and Indian-Sanskrit. You will then realise why the English speaking countries are not interested in protecting the language from foreign influences. English is about as foreign as you can get and at the same time very familiar. English as a language is a melting pot of cultures just like America is as a nation. The English Language subconsciously absorbs new words everyday from every new country which takes English as its second language. English is in continual developement and in fifty years your Grandparents will have just as much a problem understanding everyday English as it is spoken now, as it is for the average English student to understand a New York hip-hop or rap singer.

Any comments out there??? Bruce.
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[Hurricane_Sh]

Hi Bruce, I also noticed that Spanish is very popular in USA, do think what's the reason for that? Thanks!

[Bruce]

Greetings hurricane_sh,

Spanish as a second language in America has simply come
about because of Mexico being the next natural
(non-English speaking) neighbour to the USA.
There are thousands & millions of Spanish speakers all over the US
who originated from Mexico, Columbia, Peru, Cuba, Panama etc.
Even today thousands of Spanish speakers from & through
Mexico are endeavouring to cross the US border into
California looking for a chance of a better life.

Best Wishes, Bruce.
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[Ooen]

[Naufragis]

[Naufragis]

...
One of the first references to the word COMPUTER is given by Sir Thomas Brown in 1646 he spoke of : "The calendars of Compotystes".

COMPUTARE = RECHNEN (germ.)/ to calculate (en.), latin in fact! the german one-to-one-translation is "mitdenken".

what do you think about this?

[Ooen]

[Bent_Ilq8]

for me English is very important laguage because It is the most popular in the world and I will chose this language . also I like other languages like french and I studed french language at school before 1 year .

[Conchita]

Just a few statistics to add to all your interesting views:

18-20 million people are learning German as a foreign language today.

There are more than 40 million students of Spanish around the world.

82 million people are presently learning French throughout the world.

Around one thousand million (or one billion in American English) people are learning English worldwide. A fifth of the world’s population speak it to some level. “Linguistic experts forecast that in the next 5 to 10 years there will be more than 2 Billion people learning English”. “According to the British council, as of the year 2,000 there were 750 million English as a Foreign language speakers. In addition, there were 375 million English as a Second Language speakers. The difference between the two groups amounts to English as a Foreign Language speakers using English occasionally for business or pleasure, while English as a Second Language speakers use English on a daily basis.”

While English grows and grows, half of the world’s 6.000 languages are endangered...

Now the question is, will languages have to be protected as species are?

[Jamie (K)]