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EU- Mother tongue + 2 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4707 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 17 of 42 18 March 2014 at 2:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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I had 5 languages at school too: Dutch, English in 4th, French from 7th, German and Latin
in 8th. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4444 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 18 of 42 18 March 2014 at 3:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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Growing up in a place like Hong Kong which is now part of China, the local Chinese are not known for
their language skills. Although the place was a former British colony, the majority of the population still rely on Cantonese as the language of communication. The local schools teach English but very few are fluent enough to even ask for directions until they reach high school. Since the handover to China in 1997, there is a growing popularity in learning Mandarin. Like English, it is taught as a second language. You will be surprised how few people in Hong Kong including taxi and bus drivers who can speak English or Mandarin fluently. Part of the reason is that China once considered itself as the centre of the universe and being a large country learning foreign languages wasn't a necessity. In Hong Kong the locals wanted to retain a separate identity from the Mainland Chinese. For over 100 years the people developed an Us vs. Them attitude relating to the Mainlanders. Unlike in Africa where you have small countries and linguistic diversity within individual countries, the Chinese tend to see Europeans as 19th century colonizers / foreign invaders. In Africa where most people would learn 1 of several European languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and they see European languages as being practical for uniting different ethnic groups while the Chinese does not. Edited by shk00design on 18 March 2014 at 3:03pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ninibo Diglot Groupie Germany Joined 4016 days ago 88 posts - 116 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 19 of 42 18 March 2014 at 8:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think one of the most important things to keep in mind is that we're talking about children who are busy with school work and who are made to take languages they might not even be interested in. Most twelve-year-olds don't care about what languages are going to be useful in the future.
The reason so many people manage to learn English to a usable level is imho not that they are taught from an early age or that they get taught only one language, but rather that an incredible amount of popular media is English - books, movies, TV series. That's the reason we get highschool graduates with usable language skills. If the same popular stuff was in French/German/any we'd get people fluent in that language. I think it's more a question of how prevalent a language is than school curricula. At the very least, that is the only reason my English is usable, it has a lot less to do with my schooling. I was pretty bad in my English classes. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Hungringo Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 3988 days ago 168 posts - 329 votes Speaks: Hungarian*, English, Spanish Studies: French | Message 20 of 42 18 March 2014 at 9:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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While I mostly agree with you, I have to add that English language media is not popular because people make a deliberate and informed decision having compared the cultural products of different languages. People watch English TV programmes and listen to English music because that is pushed down their throat. If we are to take seriously the linguistic diversity of Europe then we should make an effort to make it available to the general public. Portuguese radio stations should broadcast Polish music and Swedish TV channels should run Spanish soaps and so forth.
3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 4082 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 21 of 42 18 March 2014 at 9:31pm | IP Logged | ||
Yes, they have. House MD/Baywatch/CSI are dubbed in local languages and shown, Spanish/Polish etc shows are not dubbed. Hollywood, with its big budgets is able to produce better shows. This is what people prefer. Then, there is young adult fiction, DC comics, Marvel. Is there any other language which has close to this amount of literature and high quality shows? 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Hungringo Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 3988 days ago 168 posts - 329 votes Speaks: Hungarian*, English, Spanish Studies: French | Message 22 of 42 18 March 2014 at 9:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Bigger budget means better marketing and lobbying power, but not necessarily better quality.
When I was a child Hungarian radios played only Hungarian and English language music. I never understood why, as nobody I knew could speak English. Very seldom, perhaps once a month, if you were lucky you could listen to an Italian or French song and it was like a feast for my ears. As a teenager I tried to syntonize Austrian, Italian, Slovak stations to listen to their music. But it meant a lot of trouble and I had to make a very conscious effort and most people simply don't bother. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ninibo Diglot Groupie Germany Joined 4016 days ago 88 posts - 116 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 23 of 42 18 March 2014 at 10:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, when I was still in school a lot of stuff I watched or read was because everyone did and I wanted to be able to talk with them about it. Unless you had a, say, TV show in another language that turns out to be extremely popular you are not going to have a lot of people watching things in foreign languages, even if they could. Especially not children or teenagers.
And I agree, that budget and production value play big roles as well, but I'd still think that motivation is by far the biggest factor. After all, when even adults fail at learning languages they are not really interested in, why should children succeed? Most sit there, because they have to, not because they want to. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 4082 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 24 of 42 18 March 2014 at 10:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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Music, I agree. Unfortunately modern music is like a show, the actual music part is an
addon. There is excellent music being produced in various languages which is not getting its due. However, TV shows are different as its actually a collaborative production. Budgets matter. Literature: Here I think the size of the native population comes into play. There is just a massive amount of excellent English literature, for all ages. There is also a feedback effect: professional usually have to deal with English as its now the language of science, and due to the US economy. This feeds into them preferring English over other languages in other arenas like entertainment. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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