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Which country is the worst at languages? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6597 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes  4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 17 of 72 12 April 2012 at 11:46am | IP Logged | |||||
Great to see you write in Russian though, impressive<3 Anyway, Finnish schools teach in either Finnish or Swedish, not both. The other one is studied as a second language (even if you're bilingual and consider it your native language). And true, most speak quite good English. My mum is better than me at finding those who don't :D But with Swedish, there's far less exposure (many use English when going to Sweden!) so how well one speaks it depends on where they live, whether it's required for the job etc. Of course this still makes them better at languages than Swedes and people from many other countries - far more Finns speak Swedish than vice versa :P (As for other countries... I suppose it can even be compared to Spanish in the USA. There are native speakers, there are places where it's needed for most jobs... but those who just studied it at school aren't necessarily good at it) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6582 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 18 of 72 12 April 2012 at 1:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
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As previously stated, Swedes are terrible at foreign languages (I don't consider English that "foreign", really). Apart from people with a heritage language, I know one person who speaks German and that's it. Oh, and I once did martial arts with a guy studying Japanese, but I don't think he got that far. People aren't really hostile to it, rather the "you can only learn a language by living in the target country" fallacy is extremely widespread.
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| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6597 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 19 of 72 12 April 2012 at 2:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Which is funny considering how effortlessly everyone learns to at least understand English :)
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| Hoppy Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4615 days ago 26 posts - 32 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 20 of 72 12 April 2012 at 2:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The interesting thing about the United States right now is that most students have to take a foreign language (which about 90% of the time is Spanish) but most students come out of high school completely unable to speak it. I have three friends who after three to four years of Spanish couldn't understand or speak hardly any of the language (that is, they were at no more than A1 in the language). Because everyone is required to take a language, and Spanish is deemed the "easy" one, the teachers dumb down the class so that only the most egregious sloths end up failing.
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| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6597 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 21 of 72 12 April 2012 at 2:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think it's common everywhere where a foreign language is required but there's not much exposure to it.
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| dandt Senior Member Australia regarderetlire.wordp Joined 4624 days ago 134 posts - 174 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French | Message 22 of 72 12 April 2012 at 3:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'd say Australian's are pretty bad. Languages aren't required, and few students take a language for more than a few
years, if they take one at all. Further, there isn't a huge need. As an island, there aren't neighbours speaking in different tongues or any 'need' to learn a language. If you learn a language it is because you want to. I suppose it is the same everywhere, but there is certainly no further incentive. With little emphasis on or exposure to foreign languages, why would people bother? 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| HenryMW Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5174 days ago 125 posts - 179 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, French Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 23 of 72 12 April 2012 at 3:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Two things. I remember that ad about Romney, and if I remember correctly, there were a
lot of people on the right who didn't like it and thought it was the last gasp of a losing campaign. I wouldn't take too much about American politics from that ad. The candidate who made it has said a lot of wacky things in the past few years. I would hate for the people in this forum who aren't American to draw the wrong conclusion from that ad. I also am curious to know where some of the Americans who have posted in this thread live. I have never had someone question my loyalties nor heard any disparaging remarks for my language learning. Ever. Even for Mandarin. Most people are envious and wish they had the time/ability/drive to learn another language themselves. I refuse to believe that where I live in southeast Louisiana (mostly New Orleans, though) is so much more open minded than the rest of the country. I think that Americans are "bad" at languages for two main reasons, we don't need to learn them because of the role of English and our geography, and most people had bad experiences in high school and think they can't. I've heard both excuses for not learning other languages. No one wants to spend the time, effort, and money it takes to learn a language that they think they will never use. My friends, though, view my language learning as an interesting hobby that has useful benefits. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| kman543210 Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4664 days ago 26 posts - 73 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, German | Message 24 of 72 12 April 2012 at 4:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
I wasn't going to post in this particular thread because I generally don't find much value in the "who's the worst/best" threads, but I too have found some of the generalizations about Americans' attitudes towards foreign language learners to be very surprising. I have never heard of anyone being suspicious of or considering someone "wimpy, left-wing, or pseudo-intellectual" just because he learned another language. Everyone I've heard talk about foreign languages would love to be able to speak another language (I know a lot of different people from all walks of life too).
Again I have to agree with everything HenryMW said here too. I truly believe that there are no inherently bad language learners and that it comes down to necessity in most cases. Due to the global position of English, it doesn't surprise me to hear people say that native English speakers from country X are "the worst". Edited by kman543210 on 12 April 2012 at 4:20pm 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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