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EU- Mother tongue + 2 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Hungringo Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 3985 days ago 168 posts - 329 votes  Speaks: Hungarian*, English, Spanish Studies: French | Message 25 of 42 18 March 2014 at 10:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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Budgets do matter and many great literary works have been produced by Anglophone writers, but the matter of the fact is that English linguistic and cultural monopoly is based almost entirely on the economic, military and poltical clout of the US. Should this change in the future and there will be a shift in the language of science and the global entertainment industry as well. It happened in the past and without doubt it will happen in the future as well. Our ancestors 300 years ago sang Latin hymns, 200 years ago read French philosophers, 100 years ago read German books on science.
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| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4946 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 26 of 42 19 March 2014 at 4:35am | IP Logged | ||
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I would tend to agree that "cultural intrusion" makes it possible for many more people to attain independent speaker status in English.
Further evidence for that is the relatively poor performance and low English penetration in the Spanish speaking world. Most things are dubbed for "us", and there is much native-language content from countries like Mexico, Spain, Argentina, Colombia, etc. And in music even more so, not only the incredibly rich and vibrant music cultures of the Caribbean or northern South America, but in Argentina for example there is a huge local rock and pop scene, and unlike in most places, they sing ONLY in Spanish. So all those things make it that children are far more removed from English than say European and in particular Scandinavian children. And the discrepancies in results speak for themselves. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4665 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 27 of 42 23 March 2014 at 12:21pm | IP Logged | ||
Knowledge of English:
Knowledge of German: 
Knowledge of French: 
Knowledge of Italian: 
Knowledge of Spanish: 
Knowledge of Russian: 
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_European_Union It's not that bad. Edited by Medulin on 23 March 2014 at 12:22pm 11 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4662 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 28 of 42 23 March 2014 at 12:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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^ So more Portuguese people speak French than speak Spanish? That's kind of interesting.
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| Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4250 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian | Message 29 of 42 23 March 2014 at 1:15pm | IP Logged | ||
Or less people feel that they need to study it formally, I guess. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6579 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 30 of 42 23 March 2014 at 2:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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Any study that concludes that at least 20% of Swedes speak German is not to be trusted. That requires an exceptionally broad definition of "speaks".
Sweden is a pretty multilingual country, but that's because of the large immigration and not because of education. I know about half a dozen people here who speak a language other than Swedish or English, and only one of them was born in Sweden. He speaks rudimantary Malay after living for several years in Malaysia and marrying a Malaysian woman (who speaks six languages, by the way). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6594 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 31 of 42 23 March 2014 at 6:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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Interesting how in Denmark, Netherlands and Slovenia more people speak German than in non-German parts of Switzerland.
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| Hungringo Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 3985 days ago 168 posts - 329 votes Speaks: Hungarian*, English, Spanish Studies: French | Message 32 of 42 23 March 2014 at 6:37pm | IP Logged | ||
For a Dutch-speaker German is much easier than for a French- or Italian-speaker. Slovenia used to be an Austrian province having German as its official language. There is some resentment in Slovenia against Germans/Austrians but the cultural influence is beyond doubt. When someone asked what Slovenia was like I said: a Slavic-speaking Austria. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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