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Proportion of polyglots | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7106 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 33 of 51 31 January 2006 at 3:00am | IP Logged | |||||
While they seem to have moved the report from the original link I downloaded it from a while ago, I've managed to find it after a bit of searching. It is available - together with some of the research and other papers - here.
Current UK government policy on language provision is detailed in one of my previous posts above. Andy. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6946 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 34 of 51 31 January 2006 at 7:33am | IP Logged | |||||
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Andy:
Thanks for the link.
Serves me right - I somehow only had the bit about removing the requirement for 14-19, "For children in Key Stage 4 (14-19) any obligation to pursue the study of another language has been removed with no plans (AFAIK) to re-introduce it", stuck in my head, and forgot that your post also covered the younger age groups. Seems quite risky, actually, but I will need to read the report and the supporting documents to see why they feel that if they start early enough, allowing one to stop at 14 years of age will not undo all the efforts between 7 and 14. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Lugubert Heptaglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6870 days ago 186 posts - 235 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Danish, Norwegian, EnglishC2, German, Dutch, French Studies: Mandarin, Hindi | Message 35 of 51 05 February 2006 at 10:53am | IP Logged | |||||
I found it striking in Brussels that so many job ads asked for people who were "perfectly bilingual" or even "perfectly trilingual". For family, Mother (90) manages English and German in addition to our native Swedish, I translate professionally from some 6 languages, younger sister and hubby like Mother, plus probably some French, youngest sister English, very little German but some French and working Spanish, her husband En-Ger and, practically enough, working French and some Spanish. For a family like that, it's obvious that we all understand Danish and Norwegian. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| hwanmig Newbie Philippines Joined 6850 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Speaks: Tagalog | Message 36 of 51 05 March 2006 at 8:02am | IP Logged | |||||
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Here where I live people would probably consider a polyglot as someone who speaks at least 4 languages.Most can speak the native language and Tagalog. Then there's English, you also have to understand it but its uncommon for people to use it in speaking. People won't be surprised though if you speak it but from my personal experience most would avoid any kind of situation where they are forced to use it least someone overhears and waits for some kind of mistake.
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| wombat Tetraglot Groupie Australia Joined 7120 days ago 49 posts - 50 votes Speaks: English*, German, French, Thai Studies: Mandarin | Message 37 of 51 05 April 2006 at 9:51am | IP Logged | |||||
Scandinav wrote:
I am rather surprised to read of somone not knowing of American brands. Maybe the following aren't well known in Scandinavia because in the parts of the world where I've travelled they are certainly all too familiar: Microsoft Apple Hewlett-Packard Dell Texas Instruments Budweiser Pepsi Johnson&Johnson, Ford, General Motors, Exon Mobil Starbucks Citibank... These are just a few off the top of my head, and most of them are far more imortant than Rolex or Gucci. I'm sure I could dig up a hundred others. And getting back to cultural exports the world is flooded by them - from Hollywood movies to (usually banal) American TV Shows. Wasn't this sort of thing such a problem that a French Culture Minister once launched a furious one-man campaign to proscribe American TV imports? How's he doing by the way? It seems to me the problem is not that America is not good at promoting itself globally, but it is too good! Much of what makes it good is of course that it is so big and so rich. I don't know where the figure of the 90% not holding passports comes from but it is simply not realistic to compare the situation in America with Europe. In the past most Europeans needed a passport if they wanted to drive more than a few hundred kilometres in any direction - whereas in America (as others have pointed out) you can drive for days and still be in the same country. And most countries that might entice an American abroad are a long plane flight away. It is completely different situation to Europe. I do agree however with comments that, socially and lingustically, American is an inward-looking and insular country - I just don't think that it affects its interaction with the global economy. One other point - if there is a country which has a real problem with language beyond its borders (and is also rather insular), I would say it is Japan. And yet that is pretty well the strongest trading economy on earth. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Zelaia Tetraglot Newbie El Salvador Joined 6812 days ago 29 posts - 37 votes Speaks: Spanish*, FrenchC1, English, Portuguese Studies: Kurdish | Message 38 of 51 07 April 2006 at 1:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
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America is a huge continent.Please don't monopolize it.
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| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6946 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 39 of 51 07 April 2006 at 2:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
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In a Spanish-language post, the word "americano" might have been inappropriate. However, in English using the adjective "American" for US-related subject matters is well-established, accepted, and unlikely to change in the near future. This usage is not, by the way, confined just to English.
Edited by frenkeld on 07 April 2006 at 2:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Frisco Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6859 days ago 380 posts - 398 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Italian, Turkish, Mandarin | Message 40 of 51 07 April 2006 at 3:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thank you, frenkeld. It's really irritating when people claim that the usage of "American" is somehow arrogant and insulting. In these times, people just enjoy pointing out anything that resembles American imperialism.
We have a few names for inhabitants of the Americas. They're a bit clunky, but they serve their purpose. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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