Your list of "useful" languages? (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

Your list of "useful" languages?
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Language Learning Forum : General discussion

31 messages over 4 pages: 1 2 3 4 Next >>

Medulin
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Croatia
Joined 4666 days ago
1199 posts - 2192 votes

Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali

Message 17 of 31

10 September 2013 at 2:28pm | IP Logged

Mad Max wrote:

Well, there are 4 big areas where the language is spoken by over 250 million people,
English is not very spoken and the language is considered international:

- China. Mandarin Chinese is the first or second language of the majority. Some 850
million people speak Mandarin in China

- Latin America, from Los Angeles to Buenos Aires, people usually speak Spanish.
Spanish is spoken in all the Americas by over 400 million people

- Arabic world. Modern Standard Arabic is spoken in Northern Africa and Middle East as
second language (there are not mother tongue speakers) by over 300 million people.

- Former USSR and Eastern Europe, where Russian is the first or second language of some
275 million people.

You forgot Hindustani (Hindi/Urdu). Because of Bollywood it is now used in all parts of India except for the two Southern states (Kerala and Tamil Nadu). 50 years ago no one understood/spoke Hindi in Bangalore, Goa or Kolkatta. Now it's the 2nd language of people there (competing with English).

Portuguese is also pretty big.
190 million of Brazilians + 10 million Portuguese + 50 Portuguese speakers in Africa

Edited by Medulin on 10 September 2013 at 2:32pm
1 person has voted this message useful

Darklight1216
Diglot
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5098 days ago
411 posts - 639 votes

Speaks: English*, French
Studies: German

Message 18 of 31

10 September 2013 at 11:07pm | IP Logged

Obviously English and Spanish are the most useful languages here in the US, but that's boring.

I would like to visit Europe extensively if I had the money. So for that scenario French and German would be most useful to me (since I want to visit countries where these languages are spoken. I would like to visit parts of Eastern Europe, but I'm not entirely certain which (non-English) languages will serve me well there. Perhaps each country's national tongue...
1 person has voted this message useful

tarvos
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
China
likeapolyglot.wordpr
Joined 4705 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 19 of 31

11 September 2013 at 11:21am | IP Logged

Yes. In some areas (for example in the areas near borders with Germany or Austria) some
German remains spoken.
1 person has voted this message useful

jeff_lindqvist
Diglot
Moderator
SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6907 days ago
4250 posts - 5711 votes

Speaks: Swedish*, English
Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French
Personal Language Map

Message 20 of 31

12 September 2013 at 12:43am | IP Logged

From Best languages in the region?:

Quote:

In my area (Visby, Sweden):
1 Swedish (obviously)
2 English (-"-)
3 German (lots of tourists)
4 Finnish (-"-)
5 Arabic/Kurdish/Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian/(Spanish) (the major immigrant groups, it seems)

Over four years since that post, and nothing has changed. Not that there are big communities for any of these languages - perhaps with the exception of Finnish and Polish (which I didn't mention) - but these are the languages you're most likely to hear.

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beano
Diglot
Senior Member
United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4620 days ago
1049 posts - 2152 votes

Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian

Message 21 of 31

12 September 2013 at 1:28am | IP Logged

tarvos wrote:

Yes. In some areas (for example in the areas near borders with Germany or Austria) some
German remains spoken.

I know from personal experience that German is widely understood in Polish towns and villages near the
German border. It's a sort of language bubble in which English won't help you very much.

Funnily enough, the British have a reputation of visiting other lands and not even attempting to learn or use
the language. Yet German speakers do exactly the same thing on the borders with the former communist
states. To me, this proves that an unwillingness to learn a language unless there is an obvious advantage to
be gained is a human trait, rather than one that affects only native English speakers.
1 person has voted this message useful

Halfdan
Newbie
Canada
Joined 4182 days ago
13 posts - 21 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Danish, Mandarin, French

Message 22 of 31

12 September 2013 at 4:33am | IP Logged

beano wrote:

tarvos wrote:

Yes. In some areas (for example in the areas near
borders with Germany or Austria) some
German remains spoken.

I know from personal experience that German is widely understood in Polish towns and
villages near the
German border. It's a sort of language bubble in which English won't help you very
much.

Funnily enough, the British have a reputation of visiting other lands and not even
attempting to learn or use
the language. Yet German speakers do exactly the same thing on the borders with the
former communist
states. To me, this proves that an unwillingness to learn a language unless there is an
obvious advantage to
be gained is a human trait, rather than one that affects only native English speakers.

The same seems to be true, at least in part, for German tourists in Scandinavia. I know
a Dane who works in a bakery and has had a number of German customers insist on
ordering in German (as opposed to, say, Danish or even English).
1 person has voted this message useful

Darklight1216
Diglot
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5098 days ago
411 posts - 639 votes

Speaks: English*, French
Studies: German

Message 23 of 31

12 September 2013 at 10:47am | IP Logged

beano wrote:

tarvos wrote:

Yes. In some areas (for example in the areas near borders with Germany or Austria) some
German remains spoken.

But don't both Germans and Eastern Germans tend to learn English? Perhaps they use that as a lingua franca.
1 person has voted this message useful

tarvos
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
China
likeapolyglot.wordpr
Joined 4705 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 24 of 31

12 September 2013 at 10:53am | IP Logged

Germans learn English, but they are not as accustomed to using it. Germans dub for
example. In the younger generations English has made some inroads but for people older
than, say, 35-40, it's still not common. When I was in Munich, and stayed with the family
of a friend, I spoke German exclusively, in part because I wanted to practice my rusty
German but also because the English of at least one of the parents left a bit to be
desired. Even though the daughter does speak fluent English (albeit with a morse code
German accent).

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