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crackpot
Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 6243 days ago
144 posts - 178 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Spanish
Studies: Italian
| Message 81 of 149 25 February 2009 at 3:45pm | IP Logged |
Over a quarter of all books are published in English. Two thirds are published in English, Chinese, German, French and Spanish. Ninety percent are published in the above five plus Japanese, Russian, Portuguese, Korean and Italian.
1 person has voted this message useful
| Juan M.
Senior Member
Colombia
Joined 5841 days ago
460 posts - 597 votes
| Message 82 of 149 25 February 2009 at 4:56pm | IP Logged |
crackpot wrote:
| Over a quarter of all books are published in English. Two thirds are published in English, Chinese, German, French and Spanish. Ninety percent are published in the above five plus Japanese, Russian, Portuguese, Korean and Italian. |
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Yet if the only books written in Russian were the works by Dostoevsky and Tolstoi, it would still be worth learning.
There are jewels and worlds to uncover in every major language.
1 person has voted this message useful
| Suriya
Tetraglot
Newbie
Thailand
Joined 5732 days ago
34 posts - 38 votes
Speaks: Thai*, Laotian, English, Japanese
Studies: Spanish, French, Welsh
| Message 83 of 149 26 February 2009 at 4:55am | IP Logged |
jbbar wrote:
By the way, some people would argue that I'm being eurocentric in my suggestions. I disagree. The reality is that "European" languages are simply the most useful ones from a global perspective. So it's simply a matter of being realistic - not "eurocentric." Hindi, Persian, Korean, etc are all awesome languages but really not a must on a global level. Then again they may be indespensible for others, e.g. intelligence services or those who have strong ties with the countries where these languages are spoken. Context is everything.
jbbar |
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Oh you'd find that in most part of the Asia continent European languages are just as useful as a hammer made of blueberry cheese cake. Even English can hardly get you anywhere in some countries.
Edited by Suriya on 26 February 2009 at 5:03am
1 person has voted this message useful
| jbbar
Senior Member
Belgium
Joined 5742 days ago
192 posts - 210 votes
Speaks: English
| Message 84 of 149 26 February 2009 at 5:57am | IP Logged |
Suriya wrote:
jbbar wrote:
By the way, some people would argue that I'm being eurocentric in my suggestions. I disagree. The reality is that "European" languages are simply the most useful ones from a global perspective. So it's simply a matter of being realistic - not "eurocentric." Hindi, Persian, Korean, etc are all awesome languages but really not a must on a global level. Then again they may be indespensible for others, e.g. intelligence services or those who have strong ties with the countries where these languages are spoken. Context is everything.
jbbar |
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Oh you'd find that in most part of the Asia continent European languages are just as useful as a hammer made of blueberry cheese cake. Even English can hardly get you anywhere in some countries. |
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Precisely what countries are you speaking of? If English is useless in the countries you're speaking of (please give us some examples) then I suppose it is due to a lack of proper education. It is up to those countries to change that.
Edited by jbbar on 26 February 2009 at 11:35am
1 person has voted this message useful
| Suriya
Tetraglot
Newbie
Thailand
Joined 5732 days ago
34 posts - 38 votes
Speaks: Thai*, Laotian, English, Japanese
Studies: Spanish, French, Welsh
| Message 85 of 149 10 March 2009 at 8:25pm | IP Logged |
jbbar wrote:
Suriya wrote:
jbbar wrote:
By the way, some people would argue that I'm being eurocentric in my suggestions. I disagree. The reality is that "European" languages are simply the most useful ones from a global perspective. So it's simply a matter of being realistic - not "eurocentric." Hindi, Persian, Korean, etc are all awesome languages but really not a must on a global level. Then again they may be indespensible for others, e.g. intelligence services or those who have strong ties with the countries where these languages are spoken. Context is everything.
jbbar |
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Oh you'd find that in most part of the Asia continent European languages are just as useful as a hammer made of blueberry cheese cake. Even English can hardly get you anywhere in some countries. |
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Precisely what countries are you speaking of? If English is useless in the countries you're speaking of (please give us some examples) then I suppose it is due to a lack of proper education. It is up to those countries to change that. |
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Japan, to start with?
China, although millions of people eager to learn English but the number of speakers is still quite low.
Thailand, outside Bangkok and some big towns it's just not useful at all.
Laos? Oh don't let me start...
And Bangladesh, Vietnam, etc. But I never been there so I cannot say for sure. I only heard from friends who have been to those places that they were virtually unable to try to get them understand anything more complex than 'I want food', etc.
And that's only for English, let alone other European languages. Also former colonies like Laos used to speak French but people didn't really want to, so they stopped.
Edited by Suriya on 10 March 2009 at 8:42pm
1 person has voted this message useful
| jbbar
Senior Member
Belgium
Joined 5742 days ago
192 posts - 210 votes
Speaks: English
| Message 86 of 149 11 March 2009 at 1:01am | IP Logged |
Suriya wrote:
jbbar wrote:
Suriya wrote:
jbbar wrote:
By the way, some people would argue that I'm being eurocentric in my suggestions. I disagree. The reality is that "European" languages are simply the most useful ones from a global perspective. So it's simply a matter of being realistic - not "eurocentric." Hindi, Persian, Korean, etc are all awesome languages but really not a must on a global level. Then again they may be indespensible for others, e.g. intelligence services or those who have strong ties with the countries where these languages are spoken. Context is everything.
jbbar |
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Oh you'd find that in most part of the Asia continent European languages are just as useful as a hammer made of blueberry cheese cake. Even English can hardly get you anywhere in some countries. |
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Precisely what countries are you speaking of? If English is useless in the countries you're speaking of (please give us some examples) then I suppose it is due to a lack of proper education. It is up to those countries to change that. |
|
|
Japan, to start with?
China, although millions of people eager to learn English but the number of speakers is still quite low.
Thailand, outside Bangkok and some big towns it's just not useful at all.
Laos? Oh don't let me start...
And Bangladesh, Vietnam, etc. But I never been there so I cannot say for sure. I only heard from friends who have been to those places that they were virtually unable to try to get them understand anything more complex than 'I want food', etc.
And that's only for English, let alone other European languages. Also former colonies like Laos used to speak French but people didn't really want to, so they stopped. |
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And yet there is no inherent need for us to study Chinese or Japanese in order to be successful, let alone Lao. Also, what language do the East Asians study? English by and large. So my argument that the most important and useful languages are largely European ones (with the exception of Arabic) doesn't fall simply because a large number of Japanese, Chinese or marginal South East Asian people can't speak English. It only affirms it.
jbbar
1 person has voted this message useful
| skeeterses
Senior Member
United States
angelfire.com/games5Registered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6560 days ago
302 posts - 356 votes
1 sounds
Speaks: English*
Studies: Korean, Spanish
| Message 87 of 149 11 March 2009 at 4:49am | IP Logged |
Jbbar, foreign language education is pretty much broken in many parts of the world, including Asia and North America. And lousy education isn't the only reason why a lot of people who learn English can't learn it. Foreign languages are a lot more complex than the trades. If a person doesn't want to learn English, he/she isn't going to succeed at it. As far as making a living is concerned, people should go to trade school and learn Carpentry or Welding for that.
If a person is set on learning a "useful language" for the sake of earning more money or getting a pretty husband/wife, that person is going to be pretty disappointed in life. Heck, I got a Computer Science degree but upon graduation it didn't turn out as useful as the people at the top said it would be and I ended up teaching ESL for a few years. And right now with the Global recession going on, there's a lot of bilingual people with English certificates driving taxi cabs.
1 person has voted this message useful
| Suriya
Tetraglot
Newbie
Thailand
Joined 5732 days ago
34 posts - 38 votes
Speaks: Thai*, Laotian, English, Japanese
Studies: Spanish, French, Welsh
| Message 88 of 149 11 March 2009 at 7:12pm | IP Logged |
jbbar wrote:
Suriya wrote:
jbbar wrote:
Suriya wrote:
jbbar wrote:
By the way, some people would argue that I'm being eurocentric in my suggestions. I disagree. The reality is that "European" languages are simply the most useful ones from a global perspective. So it's simply a matter of being realistic - not "eurocentric." Hindi, Persian, Korean, etc are all awesome languages but really not a must on a global level. Then again they may be indespensible for others, e.g. intelligence services or those who have strong ties with the countries where these languages are spoken. Context is everything.
jbbar |
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Oh you'd find that in most part of the Asia continent European languages are just as useful as a hammer made of blueberry cheese cake. Even English can hardly get you anywhere in some countries. |
|
|
Precisely what countries are you speaking of? If English is useless in the countries you're speaking of (please give us some examples) then I suppose it is due to a lack of proper education. It is up to those countries to change that. |
|
|
Japan, to start with?
China, although millions of people eager to learn English but the number of speakers is still quite low.
Thailand, outside Bangkok and some big towns it's just not useful at all.
Laos? Oh don't let me start...
And Bangladesh, Vietnam, etc. But I never been there so I cannot say for sure. I only heard from friends who have been to those places that they were virtually unable to try to get them understand anything more complex than 'I want food', etc.
And that's only for English, let alone other European languages. Also former colonies like Laos used to speak French but people didn't really want to, so they stopped. |
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And yet there is no inherent need for us to study Chinese or Japanese in order to be successful, let alone Lao. Also, what language do the East Asians study? English by and large. So my argument that the most important and useful languages are largely European ones (with the exception of Arabic) doesn't fall simply because a large number of Japanese, Chinese or marginal South East Asian people can't speak English. It only affirms it.
jbbar |
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Your point as I perceived is 'European languages are more useful than any other languages', which in reality in Asia it's just way more useful to learn Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese than to learn French or German (The very reason I want to learn Mandarin) just like tens of posts here have pointed out. French used to be a major language taught in Thai schools, however nowadays numbers of student is becoming less and less as French students 'could find no use of French in Asia'. It's doesn't help you get a job for example, while if you are good at Japanese you are guaranteed to earn your salary 3-4 time more that average.
 English is now regarded as lingua franca and there's no question that it's a-must to learn, however you stated 'European languages', thus implies to more than one, which in fact only English is worth to study around here. Major European languages like French, German are utterly useful in Europe, Spanish in N&S America, that I agree, but in many parts of Asia they're not. And I mean NOT. You'd be quite lucky to bump into someone in Laos that could speak German, or successfully ask a random Japanese in Tokyo which line you have to take to go to Kamakura in English before s/he running away from you!
Edited by Suriya on 11 March 2009 at 7:19pm
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