|
 |
Why not Spanish as essential? | ||
Tags: Polyglot Academy | Language Importance | L3 via L2 | Polyglottery | Alexander Arguelles | Choosing a Language | German | French | Spanish | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Falkenstein Triglot Newbie Germany Joined 3923 days ago 20 posts - 38 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Modern Hebrew Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 89 of 115 12 March 2014 at 1:09am | IP Logged | |||||
So it's the biggest country, land wise and population wise, in South America including Mexico.
It's just a fact. Edited by Falkenstein on 12 March 2014 at 7:35am 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ericblair Senior Member United States Joined 4711 days ago 480 posts - 700 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 90 of 115 12 March 2014 at 1:32am | IP Logged | |||||
|
Language doesn't stop at borders. Why do you insist upon comparing one Portuguese-
speaking country to all of the Spanish-speaking ones individually when you were discussing the language continent-wide? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| PolyNotYet Diglot Newbie Japan Joined 4000 days ago 10 posts - 26 votes Speaks: English*, Irish Studies: French, German, Persian | Message 91 of 115 12 March 2014 at 2:16am | IP Logged | |||||
|
I think it depends on how we define 'useful'. If a person is interested in Spain, South
and Central America, then Spanish is a very useful language. If another person wants to travel through Central Asia or work for a company in China then Spanish will probably not be useful on a day-to-day basis (unless the person is interested in Spanish language media and literature, or the company has strong links with Spanish speaking areas). The utility of a language is relative. From what I have read on this thread so far, not all the posts so I apologise if this has been already mentioned, I think the under-lying issue is that Spanish was not/is not(I am open to correction) as prominent a language in international academia as French or German.During the 1920s and 1930s many scientific journals were published in German and French was the diplomatic lingua franca.Today, both roles have been taken over by English. It is not surprising that Spanish is studied so widely in the USA, a lot of it's residents and citizens are hispanophones and most of it's southern neighbours have Spanish as their primary language. There are French speakers in Quebec and Haiti, but there is far better chance of meeting an Hispanophone than a Francophone in the USA. As has already been mentioned, if a person want access to a larger number of language learning materials then French and German is of more more use than Spanish. If a person wants to learn Spanish because they are near an Hispanophone region or community then Spanish is, to me, of more practical use than either French or German. 'Useful' is a term that gets thrown around a lot when people talk about learning languages. We, as learners, make our own decision on what is useful to us and what is not. We should not to be so concerned about what others think is a 'useful'language for us. It is, after all, just that individual's opinion, but it is your decision and investment of time. 11 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ericblair Senior Member United States Joined 4711 days ago 480 posts - 700 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 92 of 115 12 March 2014 at 2:25am | IP Logged | |||||
|
Very well said, PolyNotYet
2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Saim Pentaglot Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5083 days ago 124 posts - 215 votes Speaks: Serbo-Croatian, English*, Catalan, Spanish, Polish Studies: Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Occitan, Punjabi, Urdu, Arabic (Maghribi), French, Modern Hebrew, Ukrainian, Slovenian | Message 93 of 115 13 March 2014 at 4:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
The first three languages for a "would-be polyglot" to tackle are the three that are most relevant or interesting to them. Getting to a level to use French and German resources for other languages is highly demanding and requires a lot of dedication, if you're South American and want to connect with indigenous culture I don't see why you should learn French and German before Aymara, Quechua, Mapudungun or Guarani for example. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Mountolive Pro Member United States Joined 4459 days ago 10 posts - 29 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 94 of 115 15 March 2014 at 9:33am | IP Logged | |||||
|
I have no opinion about whether French or Spanish is a better early language for polyglots.
However, the claim that French literature is richer than Spanish literature is at least a questionable one (I would even say dubious). The claim is at least arguably true if you ignore the 20th and 21st centuries. But also arguably not. There is a very rich classical Spanish literature that tends to be overshadowed by a few giant figures like Cervantes. It is much harder to argue that French literature is richer than Spanish literature if you count the 20th Century, a period in which Latin American literature really took off and, at least for the second half of the century, was arguably the most active and productive literature of any language in the world. Anyway, it is probably all academic, because both languages have far more outstanding books written in them than anyone could read in a lifetime. There are, in fact, excellent books being published right now in both languages faster than anyone could read them. Edited by Mountolive on 15 March 2014 at 9:33am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| 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 95 of 115 15 March 2014 at 10:11am | IP Logged | |||||
|
Again, you're missing the context. It's about a specific person's advice, based on his choice of language learning materials (Assimil) and his list(s) of great books (only those whose authors have been dead for 100+ years).
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4622 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 96 of 115 15 March 2014 at 10:23am | IP Logged | |||||
|
Few native speakers will even have heard of, let alone read, these so-called "great books". Even if you did
plough through them, the language would most likely be archaic and bear scant relation to modern contemporary usage. If someone is a literature buff, then fine, but such materials have little serious impact on learning to speak a language. Edited by beano on 15 March 2014 at 10:24am 1 person has 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. |
