Register  Login  Active Topics  Maps  

How many languages do you need to learn..

 Language Learning Forum : General discussion (Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post Reply
60 messages over 8 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next >>
jimbo
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 6296 days ago
469 posts - 642 votes 
Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French
Studies: Japanese, Latin

 
 Message 41 of 60
03 February 2010 at 11:05am | IP Logged 
lichtrausch wrote:
   Consider that, although, as you would say, a sufficiently large amount of people speak both
German and Chinese, you are far more likely to run into a speaker of Chinese around the globe because there are
something like 8 times more Chinese speakers. So in your average uni class, hotel, business you'll probably have 8
Chinese speakers for every 1 German speaker.


Seems Germans have more vacation days and more money so you run into them pretty much everywhere.

I know I'm much more likely to run across a magazine in German than in Chinese pretty much every time I go
traveling. Too bad for me, I can't read German but I can read Chinese.

Does anyone here happen to work at some sort of tourism association that has these kind of statistics?
1 person has voted this message useful



tractor
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5455 days ago
1349 posts - 2292 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan
Studies: French, German, Latin

 
 Message 42 of 60
03 February 2010 at 12:18pm | IP Logged 
lichtrausch wrote:
Sennin wrote:

How many people can you reach in a lifetime?

You're looking at it the wrong way. Consider that, although, as you would say, a sufficiently large amount of people speak both German and Chinese, you are far more likely to run into a speaker of Chinese around the globe because there are something like 8 times more Chinese speakers. So in your average uni class, hotel, business you'll probably have 8 Chinese speakers for every 1 German speaker. So considering these kind of situations, you can reach more people by knowing Chinese. Of course I left out a host of other factors, but this is just to demonstrate the effect that total speaker numbers have when isolated from the other factors.


It all depends on where you live, where you go and who you meet. Where I live and travel, I'm much more likely to run into a German speaker than a Chinese speaker. If I went to the far east, the opposite would probably be true.
1 person has voted this message useful



lichtrausch
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5962 days ago
525 posts - 1072 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Japanese
Studies: Korean, Mandarin

 
 Message 43 of 60
03 February 2010 at 5:00pm | IP Logged 
jimbo wrote:

Seems Germans have more vacation days and more money so you run into them pretty much everywhere.

I know I'm much more likely to run across a magazine in German than in Chinese pretty much every time I go
traveling. Too bad for me, I can't read German but I can read Chinese.

Does anyone here happen to work at some sort of tourism association that has these kind of statistics?

tractor wrote:

It all depends on where you live, where you go and who you meet. Where I live and travel, I'm much more likely to run into a German speaker than a Chinese speaker. If I went to the far east, the opposite would probably be true.

I was trying to describe a world in which all other factors are equal. I probably should have used a different language combination such as Korean/Japanese instead of German/Chinese.
1 person has voted this message useful



tractor
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5455 days ago
1349 posts - 2292 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan
Studies: French, German, Latin

 
 Message 44 of 60
03 February 2010 at 6:45pm | IP Logged 
lichtrausch wrote:
I was trying to describe a world in which all other factors are equal. I probably should have
used a different language combination such as Korean/Japanese instead of German/Chinese.


I did get your point, but as long as we live in a world where we simply can't leave out all other factors, I don't think
it is a very good one.
1 person has voted this message useful



lichtrausch
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5962 days ago
525 posts - 1072 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Japanese
Studies: Korean, Mandarin

 
 Message 45 of 60
03 February 2010 at 6:48pm | IP Logged 
tractor wrote:

I did get your point, but as long as we live in a world where we simply can't leave out all other factors, I don't think
it is a very good one.

My point was in response to a hypothetical. I recognise that the real world isn't so.
1 person has voted this message useful



QiuJP
Triglot
Senior Member
Singapore
Joined 5857 days ago
428 posts - 597 votes 
Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French
Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese

 
 Message 46 of 60
11 February 2010 at 6:33pm | IP Logged 
Thanks for the advice here. I still have a question here: what is the largest number of languages that a person had learnt?

Edited by QiuJP on 13 February 2010 at 12:53pm
1 person has voted this message useful



Ari
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 6584 days ago
2314 posts - 5695 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese
Studies: Czech, Latin, German

 
 Message 47 of 60
11 February 2010 at 8:47pm | IP Logged 
QiuJP wrote:
Thanks for the advice here. I still have a question here: what is the largest number of languages
that a peson had learnt?

Unless you define "learnt", that question is quite impossible to answer.

Actually, you'll probably have to define "languages", too. Do Swedish, Norwegian and Danish count as separate
languages? Do Mandarin and Cantonese? Serbian and Croatioan? Cockney English and Indian English? Do conlangs
like Esperanto or Toki Pona count?

Edited by Ari on 11 February 2010 at 8:48pm
1 person has voted this message useful



QiuJP
Triglot
Senior Member
Singapore
Joined 5857 days ago
428 posts - 597 votes 
Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French
Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese

 
 Message 48 of 60
13 February 2010 at 1:06pm | IP Logged 
Ari wrote:
QiuJP wrote:
Thanks for the advice here. I still have a question here: what is the largest number of languages
that a peson had learnt?

Unless you define "learnt", that question is quite impossible to answer.

Actually, you'll probably have to define "languages", too. Do Swedish, Norwegian and Danish count as separate
languages? Do Mandarin and Cantonese? Serbian and Croatioan? Cockney English and Indian English? Do conlangs
like Esperanto or Toki Pona count?


Learnt: the ability to read, speak, write and speak almost like a natvie.

Language: in the political correct sense.

Are you a separatist? I got very angry when you consider Mandarin and Cantonese as different languages. Only separatist will talk of them as different languages, because it is one of the tricks to divide a country into many pieces. I won't hestitate to use force against you, even if you are a girl! Long live my motherland China!




3 persons have voted this message useful



This discussion contains 60 messages over 8 pages: << Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8  Next >>


Post ReplyPost New Topic Printable version Printable version

You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum


This page was generated in 0.4219 seconds.


DHTML Menu By Milonic JavaScript
Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved
No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization.