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Top 10 Languages - Rankings in 2050 | ||
Tags: Language Importance | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Huliganov Octoglot Senior Member Poland huliganov.tvRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5356 days ago 91 posts - 304 votes  Speaks: English*, Polish, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Esperanto, Czech Studies: Romanian, Turkish, Mandarin, Japanese, Hungarian | Message 57 of 108 09 January 2011 at 11:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
I think you must be having a laugh. Have you looked at who is calling the shots in Africa and South America recently? That and a lot of other places. Have you been following the amount of investment from China into western countries, and the resultant flow of migrant management? On an economic scale China is of "little importance"? Have you looked at who owns most of US international debt? Have you looked at where the world's biggest ticket engineering structures, city projects, science research, just about anything you care to think about, is happening? If you take a look at China you'll see a place that is rapidly making large portions of the West look like third world countries. I suggest you reach for a Chinese course if you have not already done so. I know I am. Edited by Huliganov on 10 January 2011 at 12:00am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| dbruggeman Diglot Newbie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5073 days ago 14 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 59 of 108 10 January 2011 at 7:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
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This is a good argument for learning French.
http://www.fll.vt.edu/French/whyfrench.html 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Beysic Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5067 days ago 20 posts - 39 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 60 of 108 11 January 2011 at 5:33am | IP Logged | |||||
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I don't think it's very wise to make these kind of decisions based on the economic power certain countries are projected to have in 2050, since that's obviously subject to change. It's quite easy to forget nowadays that just twenty five years ago everyone thought Japan's economic rise was unstoppable. I think English is the safest bet, since while it rose to prominence based off of British & American power, its position is now solidified to the point where the fate of English speaking countries isn't really tied to the popularity of English.
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| dbruggeman Diglot Newbie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5073 days ago 14 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 61 of 108 11 January 2011 at 7:02am | IP Logged | |||||
I agree with you that English is number 1 and will continue so for the next 40 years, but what other languages need to be learned. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Huliganov Octoglot Senior Member Poland huliganov.tvRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5356 days ago 91 posts - 304 votes Speaks: English*, Polish, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Esperanto, Czech Studies: Romanian, Turkish, Mandarin, Japanese, Hungarian | Message 62 of 108 11 January 2011 at 7:43am | IP Logged | |||||
Fine. But if we don't learn it, how are we gonna teach them? Shouldn't we be setting them an example?
One of the other factors to be considered that I would consider is a little joke I know, the which was brought to mind for me by the nature of your argument. Two policemen in Poland stop a speeding motorist. The first policeman says in Polish "Good evening sir, please come to our vehicle with your driving licence and registration document." The foreigner says "I'm sorry, I don't understand. Do you speak English?" The policemen shake their heads. The foreigner says "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?" The policemen shake their heads again. "Parlez vous francais?" "Govorite po russki?" Again the policemen shake their heads. The foreigner gets so frustrated that he simply puts his vehicle in gear and speeds off into the distance. One policeman looks at the other and says in Polish "Franio, you know what? Maybe it's time we started learning foreign languages." The other says "Why should we do that? Look at him, he knows four, and it still didn't get him anywhere". 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Beysic Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5067 days ago 20 posts - 39 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 63 of 108 11 January 2011 at 8:04am | IP Logged | |||||
I would certainly put Spanish over Mandarin. Spanish is the main tongue of dozens of nations, the majority of which are rapidly increasing both in terms of population and economic power, and is increasingly influential in the U.S. as well. Furthermore, Spanish is a relatively easy language to learn for English & Romance language speakers, which will give it an enormous advantage over Mandarin. Speaking as someone who has studied both, I think Mandarin's difficulty is a bit overstated, but it is a rather difficult language to master and has little in common with the other major language besides Japanese. Furthermore, China's economic rise is likely to hit a brick wall sooner than later because it's developing the same exact real estate bubble that brought the U.S. and Japan down, but is unfortunately not nearly developed as those two were when shit hit the fan, not to mention will almost certainly face political upheaval in the event of economic downturn. But I digress.. Besides English, Spanish, and Mandarin, there isn't much point in ranking other languages as particularly vital, because just as they do today, people in pertinent professions will probably be able to speak one of the three languages above in addition to their native tongue, so someone from say Brazil will do business with an Indonesian using English. The motivation for studying most other languages will largely have to do with personal interest and the soft power of certain countries (i.e. Japan). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| polyglHot Pentaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5067 days ago 173 posts - 229 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, German, Spanish, Indonesian Studies: Russian | Message 64 of 108 11 January 2011 at 11:29am | IP Logged | |||||
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1. Spanish
Will be the language of America, including the U.S. 2. Arabic As Islam embraces the world or the world embraces Islam it will be the language of all of Africa, Arabia, Indonesia, India etc. 3. Russian Many Russians still can not speak English, even teenagers in big cities. Some Central Asian immigrants speak only Russian. 4.Mandarin I don't know enough about it but it seems to be a viable contender. 5.English I believe English is and will continue to fall. Many countries learn Mandarin, Russian, Arabic or Spanish as a second language, and even a third, with no need for English in their regions. Maybe it will still be a first language in England and Australia. Edited by polyglHot on 11 January 2011 at 11:29am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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