|
 |
What is a non-mainstream language for you | ||
Tags: Rare Languages | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| vermillon Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4670 days ago 602 posts - 1042 votes  Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, German | Message 9 of 71 12 August 2012 at 3:23am | IP Logged | |||||
When I've read the OP, my first thought was "a mainstream language is a language that Chung studies"! I concur that there are shades of mainstreamness: languages that are commonly learnt by the population of a country, languages commonly learnt by language enthusiasts, languages rarely learnt by the aforementioned.. and finally languages not even learnt by the children of the people who speak it? I don't think I've seen anyone studying Manchu here, don't know if that would be interesting... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6895 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 10 of 71 12 August 2012 at 3:49am | IP Logged | |||||
|
In Poland:
The main mainstream ;), i.e. no one should be very much surprised when you say you study/speak one or two of these languages: - English, German - French, Spanish - Italian - Russian Less mainstream, i.e. no one should think you're crazy if you study them although some people might look at you doubtfully or with amazement - Portuguese - Japanese, Mandarin - Swedish - Czech - Latin (if anything more than a compulsory year or two at the university/at school) The other languages would be considered less or more non-mainstream. I might have leaved out something but the truth is most people never even tried anything other than the 6 languages from the first list (only some of them, obviously). Edited by Julie on 12 August 2012 at 11:44am 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5548 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 11 of 71 12 August 2012 at 3:59am | IP Logged | |||||
|
When I was at school and plesiosaurs once roamed the seas, there was no World Wide Web and only two options available to a budding language scolar: French and German (the new kid on the block at my local comprehensive). Those were the main tributaries leading into the vast interconnecting ocean of languages out there at the time, and anything else in the UK would probably have seemed quite exotic.
Now we're living in a 21st century global society, with people and knowledge often a mere browser click away, so learning Czech or dabbling in Xhosa might not seem as far-flung as paddling down the Congo or scaling the Himalayas anymore. Cities and towns (even villages) have also become far more cosmopolitan. For example, if I walk down the main street where I live, I'll generally hear a wonderful hotchpotch of languages like Polish, Urdu, Cantonese and Thai mixed in with English. And if I catch the train into London, I'll often hear no English spoken on the street or on public transport at all (especially right now with the Olympics going on). In this sense, I think we're adapting to growing multiculturalism and tourism, and open to prevalent new languages coming into fashion (e.g. Spanish, Mandarin). This doesn't mean that you won't still hear the occasional gasp of surprise or bedazzlement over learning a language like Russian, nor face the all too frequent and sadly ignorant reply: "What's the point when everyone speaks or learns English anyway?". However I think people are at least a bit more aware of the variety of languages out there now, even if everything in the global media does seem to end up in English these days, and perhaps this growing awareness has lead to a few more languages becoming mainstream in the public eye than in my childhood. Personally, I like vermillon's answer the best: "a mainstream language is a language that Chung studies"! And I can recount from experience that Ancient Egyptian never fails to raise at least an eyebrow (but thankfully nothing else). :) Edited by Teango on 12 August 2012 at 4:21am 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ZombieKing Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4519 days ago 247 posts - 324 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin* | Message 12 of 71 12 August 2012 at 5:18am | IP Logged | |||||
|
You know, considering the impact Greece has had on Europe throughout History, you'd think it'd have more relevance among the language learning community... I've actually only seen a few users on this site who speak or are learning Greek. Well, I find Greek fascinating, but it's not a language I'd learn unless I somehow ended up there.
So among the Indo European languages, I'd say Greek should be mainstream but isn't. Mainstream among the Asian languages would be Mandarin, Japanese, now Korean due to the cultural boom, and Cantonese among many second generation Chinese Canadians (who only speak Mandarin). Edited by ZombieKing on 12 August 2012 at 5:19am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5326 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 13 of 71 12 August 2012 at 9:37am | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, in the North of Norway it would make a lot of sense to study Russian, so I doubt that it would raise any eye brows there. But they are as far away from Oslo as Rome, both geographically and culturally. In my 50 years on this planet I have yet to meet anyone who studies Sami, so I cannot say there is any attitude. It is like asking for our attitude towards the African elephant, which is just as rare. Chung is the first person I have ever heard of who studies Sami, but he is a HTLALer, for whom any language is seen as normal. Greenlandic is another issue, since both my sister and my mother have dipped their toes in that. ( My mom spent a whole summer in Greenland, with a maximum temperature of 10 degrees and wearing her woollen leotard every day). They never went beyond the basics, though, and I have not heard of anyone really studying Greenlandic either. I guess if you were to live there for any length of time, people would understand that you studied it, but just for fun? I think that would have a rather high geek factor. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| maydayayday Pentaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5211 days ago 564 posts - 839 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, SpanishB2, FrenchB2 Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Polish, Persian, Vietnamese Studies: Urdu | Message 14 of 71 12 August 2012 at 9:41am | IP Logged | |||||
|
Back in the dark ages: ie when I was a teenager we had the French and/or German option and was compulsory up until Year 11 and the first public exams.
Everyone thought I was weird when I was self studying Japanese and Italian though I'd rejected German at school. There is still a pitiful uptake of language in schools nowadays unless the school make the subject compulsory for example neither of my partners children opted to take a language and of their friends only about 10% did. So I'd say the perception amongst the teenage population is that English is mainstream and everything else is weird! 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4839 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 15 of 71 12 August 2012 at 10:00am | IP Logged | |||||
|
Even though I am not Japanese, let me give you the perspective from here in Japan.
There's English, and everything else is just weird. The end. Fin. Fino. Just kidding... somewhat. Obviously English is the king... er... emperor over here. I believe it is a required subject in all Japanese public high schools, and there's a ton of books and materials sold every year (English learning is an industry unto itself). Mandarin Chinese is probably the next on the ladder, as it is useful for many Japanese businessmen going to China, as well as for shopkeepers here who do business with the many Chinese tourists. The situation with Korean is very interesting to me. It is popular with young people due to the popularity of Korean pop and dramas here. (There are a few students who never pay attention in my English classes, but I often see them with their mobile phones looking at the Korean lyrics of their favorite bands.) But hardly any schools have Korean classes, and you won't find as many materials as with English and Chinese. Anything else is out of the mainstream, but you are considered "cultured" if you learn French, and Portuguese can be useful as there are some immigrants from Brazil. Interestingly enough, the foreign language section of my school library is 95% English, with a few dictionaries for Chinese, German, and (shock) Esperanto. 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| petteri Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4924 days ago 117 posts - 208 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: German, Spanish | Message 16 of 71 12 August 2012 at 10:42am | IP Logged | |||||
It depends on the area. In Finland I would classify languages as follows: 1) English (Lingua Franca) 2) Swedish (Certainly not popular choice, but still has the second place.) 3) German, Russian, French, Spanish 4) Non-mainstream languages Edited by petteri on 12 August 2012 at 10:45am 2 persons have voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
