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Understudied European languages | ||
Tags: European Languages | Rare Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4624 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 49 of 85 29 August 2013 at 11:37am | IP Logged | ||
There are parts of Northern Italy where German is spoken natively. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4641 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 50 of 85 29 August 2013 at 11:57am | IP Logged | ||
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In Norway Spanish has become more and more popular over the last 10-20 years. Firstly, Norwegians travel a lot to Spain, and many buy a second home or retire there. Secondly, more and more young people are interested in Latin America and visit this part of the world. As more and more schools offer Spanish as an optional second language, more and more pupils chose Spanish instead of German or French.
The table would have looked quite different 30 years ago, when I went to school. English would still be number one, but German would have been number two, and with a higher figure in primary and lower secondary. For me and everyone else of my generation most schools only offered German as the second foreign language, which was obligatory from the 4th to the 7th year. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| stelingo Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5834 days ago 722 posts - 1076 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Czech, Polish, Greek, Mandarin | Message 51 of 85 29 August 2013 at 12:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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Spanish has now overtaken German in popularity in England, at least in the number of pupils taking it at GCSE (national exam taken by all 16 year olds). I would guess this is also the case at A level and undergraduate courses.
GCSE results: At least foreign languages provided a bright spot Edited by stelingo on 29 August 2013 at 12:26pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| showtime17 Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Slovakia gainweightjournal.co Joined 6086 days ago 154 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Russian, English*, Czech*, Slovak*, French, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch | Message 52 of 85 29 August 2013 at 1:10pm | IP Logged | ||
Well in terms of native speakers, Italian is not that high on the list, especially if you compare it to languages like Portuguese. In the US for example it is the 4th most studied foreign language (not counting sign language). So that's why I say it's way overstudied. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_ native_speakers For travelling in Italy, this is the only "Italian" you will need :) http://glistranieri.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/italian-gest ures-1.jpg Edited by showtime17 on 29 August 2013 at 1:12pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4624 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 53 of 85 29 August 2013 at 2:39pm | IP Logged | ||
Strangely, Spanish struggles to make headway in Scottish schools. Yet with Spanish-speaking holiday destinations being incredibly popular, that could be an angle to sell the language to pupils, who seem to be turning away from foreign languages. I would say it's roughly an equal split between French and German here, although Mandarin is steadily gaining pace. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5011 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 54 of 85 29 August 2013 at 5:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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As I said, showtime17, the number of speakers is NOT the most important factor.
If it were, than there must have been only 4 or 5 times less Czech learners in the world than Italian learners. In reality, there is at most 50 times less Czech learners. (Funny how unsure I am whether to say "at most" or "at least in this sentence :-D ) Why? The numbers don't matter that much, other things do. Therefore Italian is not overstudied because the country and culture has a lot to offer. While Czech is not understudied, it is just a useless language. And if I were you, I would be quite careful about the gestures. Btw have you ever travelled to Italy or just anywhere? You might want to rethink your attitudes, this is not a funny joke. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4624 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 55 of 85 29 August 2013 at 9:17pm | IP Logged | ||
How is Czech a useless language? It is spoken by millions of people every day and is the national language of the Czech Republic. I would never class a language as useless because it is spoken in only one country and it becomes incredibly useful to someone if they move there. The Czech people have had ample opportunity to embrace German and Russian in the past....and now there is English. The fact they still resolutely speak Czech proves they do value their own language. People should be proud of their home country and native language.....they make us what we are. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4624 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 56 of 85 29 August 2013 at 9:30pm | IP Logged | ||
I can't speak for Breton but I recently spent 2 weeks in Wales and heard a LOT of Welsh spoken. I even witnessed a toddler splashing about in a rock pool and babbling to himself in Welsh. I think the language will be around for a while yet. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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