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What is a non-mainstream language for you | ||
Tags: Rare Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Cheshire Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4656 days ago 23 posts - 26 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese | Message 49 of 71 21 August 2012 at 9:32am | IP Logged |
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From my area of the US, which is the southwest, Spanish is by far the most common
mainstream language out there. I would say French is second with Japanese surprisingly being third, passing up both German and Italian. Studies in Japanese, Mandarin, and Arabic have been growing a lot around here over the past several years and it seems like it might surpass studies of Italian and German in several years, at least here. Less commonly studied languages would be Russian, Portuguese, Latin, Korean, and Filipino, which are languages that are very hard to find resources for in local bookstores. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6660 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 50 of 71 21 August 2012 at 5:15pm | IP Logged |
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In my part of Ohio, Italian is perhaps slightly more mainstream because of the significant Italian-American population. However, that doesn't mean that most Italian-Americans, articularly the younger generation, know much more than kitchen vocabulary or swear words or both.
My younger brother and I are both adopted and he was born in South Korea. People see it as being somewhat "mainstream" for him to know some Korean, but it might not be as mainstream for me. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Luso Hexaglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 6062 days ago 819 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, French, EnglishC2, GermanB1, Italian, Spanish Studies: Sanskrit, Arabic (classical) | Message 51 of 71 07 December 2012 at 3:06pm | IP Logged |
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Here, Portuguese is definitely mainstream!
The other mainstream languages are English, French and German (in that order). One by one: English: everyone sees its use, therefore it's ok. French: back in the 40s-50s, it was still the #1 foreign language in school; by the 70s, you could start with either English or French by the age of 10, and you'd get the other one two years later; now, it's English from day 1 (age 6). Nowadays, most young people just hate French, seeing it as three years wasted in school. A pity, but true. German: somewhat cool, because it's difficult; since few people know it, to learn it is seen as a good move. Spanish: available for a few years now; if you study it, you have to explain why, since we all understand it (and everyone speaks Portunhol); people that live near the border have a good command of it, and vice-versa. Italian: cool (especially among the feminine population), but almost no one learns it. Mandarin chinese: everyone says it will be very useful in the future, but very few people actually learn it. Many in our chinese-speaking population actually speak Cantonese, being originally from Macau. Japanese: the exotic, cool language par excellence back in the 80s, is now one more that very few people learn, along with Italian, Chinese, Russian or Arabic. Oh, I had forgotten one: Mirandese. Geographically very limited, but it's the supreme cool. When you pick up one of the very few books available in Mirandese, you say "Look! I'd love to know it!"; and the other person goes: "Yeah, me too!" Edited by Luso on 07 December 2012 at 3:21pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| zerrubabbel Senior Member United States Joined 4601 days ago 232 posts - 287 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Mandarin | Message 52 of 71 07 December 2012 at 4:38pm | IP Logged |
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I just went to a book store last night to specifically look at languages materials, and based off that trip, here is my
take on which languages are more mainstream than others, here in the land of the great lakes... Spanish - by far the most popular french german italian russian mandarin japanese portuguese arabic korean vietnamese I didn't see any other slavic, south east asian, or african languages... and on a similar note, I would also like to comment on the resources I saw, or rather, didnt see... Rosetta stone was the most obnoxiously advertised language program there, and after that, everything else was just on the shelf... I saw one pimsleur Spanish [first 8 lessons only] one colloquial japanese, no linguaphone, no assimil, and one teach yourself German grammar... everything else seemed to be lonely planet [which I didnt like their japanese phrasebooks because they tried to over Englishize the words rather than sticking to roomaji] or two way dictionaries which seemed as good as any other dictionary, but a dictionary by itself isnt good enough to learn a language from... 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Bruno87 Diglot Groupie Argentina Joined 4383 days ago 49 posts - 72 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: German, Portuguese | Message 53 of 71 09 December 2012 at 4:17am | IP Logged |
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From Argentina point of view:
English is the mainstream. In High School there are two options: French and English. Besides there some schools (the privates ones) which have bilingual Spanish/German or Spanish/Italian. I know some people who study Portuguese. To sum up: English in the first place (by far), then French, Italian and German very close each other, and Portuguese in the last place. Everything out of that list is exotic. Edited by Bruno87 on 09 December 2012 at 4:20am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4445 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 54 of 71 13 December 2012 at 9:47am | IP Logged |
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An exotic language would be 1 with few native speakers worldwide or in very remote locations.
Obviously Russians, Chinese or Spanish don't qualify. We are probably looking at Zulu, Xhosa or Swazi in Africa or Fuji from the Pacific. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| MixedUpCody Senior Member United States Joined 5257 days ago 144 posts - 280 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 55 of 71 23 December 2012 at 6:31am | IP Logged |
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I think the level of perceived exoticism of a language is directly tied to its cultural "importance". For instance: Arabic was considered very exotic in the US prior to 2001, but now many people study it because they think that it will get them high-paid jobs in cloak-and-dagger communities. Likewise, Spanish is widely considered an important in the States, especially in the South, where I live.
Other countries will draw their distinction of importance based on their needs, or perceived needs. Studying Classical Arabic may be mainstream in some Middle East countries, whereas a working knowledge of Classical Chinese may be more important in Taiwan. Overall, I would say that mainstream is a constantly fluctuating standard, based on regional biases and recent events. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| langslav Newbie United States slav.freemessageboar Joined 4380 days ago 24 posts - 31 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Albanian, German, Spanish | Message 56 of 71 25 December 2012 at 12:15am | IP Logged |
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I live in Arizona USA, just east of California and barely north of Old Mexico, about 200 km north. Spanish is everywhere. and lately there is also an increase in Mandarin, Vietnamese, Japanese and Korean speakers moving here. The main Languages in high School are Spanish, French, I took Latin, German and Russian.
at the University, ASU, they have CLI, Critical Language Institute. last summer They taught: Albanian (I took Albanian because BCS was full and it was a choice between Albanian and Macedonian, Albanian only had 3 students so I filled in a warm seat). Armenian, BCS, Farsi, Persian, Polish, Russian, Tatar, Ukrainian, & Uzbek. during the year ASU offers Arabic, Ancient Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Farsi. Chinese, Hindi-Urdu, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese. French, Italian. Spanish, Portuguese. German, Romanian and Russian, Macedonian, Polish. so many Languages, so few brain cells. The local "minority Language" is Navajo. probably the oldest language in Arizona and maybe one of the older-est Languages in North America. about 300 Native American Languages in N America are in serious Trouble of going extinct. http://www.city-data.com/states/Arizona-Languages.html "With the possible exception of the Navajo word hogan (earthand-timber dwelling), the linguistic influence of Arizona's Papago, Pima, Apache, Navaho, and Hopi tribes is almost totally limited to some place-names: Arizona itself, Yuma, Havasu, Tucson, and Oraibi. Indian loan-words spreading from Arizona derive from the Nahuatl speech of the Mexican Aztecs, for example, coyote, chili, mesquite, and tamale. Spanish, has given English mustang, ranch, stampede, rodeo, marijuana, bonanza, canyon, mesa, patio, and fiesta." (good Map of Native Languages of N America) http://www.cogsci.indiana.edu/farg/rehling/nativeAm/ling.htm l ** http://www.gomyson.com/ (way cool website try the matching games) http://www.native-languages.org/arizona.htm http://navajolanguageacademy.org/nla.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navajo_language http://www.native-languages.org/index.htm#tree ** Navajo Language weather report (with English Translation below) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XFayF Uiyv20 Edited by langslav on 27 December 2012 at 12:00am 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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