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What is a non-mainstream language for you | ||
Tags: Rare Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6598 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 65 of 71 30 December 2012 at 10:40pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I'm always annoyed by fellow Russians, hehe. they're ALWAYS talking 32474x louder than Finns do!
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| zerothinking Senior Member Australia Joined 6373 days ago 528 posts - 772 votes Speaks: English* | Message 66 of 71 03 January 2013 at 11:22am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Mainstream languages in Australia are: Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish, Italian, French,
German, Indonesian, Greek. Arabic is offered at some universities since Arabic is one of the most spoken minority languages here. If you want to study a less common language in high school, in my city, you can go to the school of languages. You go once a week and do homework outside school. Non-mainstream languages: Anything else. Swedish is offered at only one university. Cantonese is apparently one of the most spoken languages other than English here but it's not offered anywhere that I know of. I hear Mandarin more than Cantonese. I'm surprised Korean isn't more studied. I hear it around the place sometimes. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| cacue23 Triglot Groupie Canada Joined 4300 days ago 89 posts - 122 votes Speaks: Shanghainese, Mandarin*, English Studies: Cantonese | Message 67 of 71 26 February 2013 at 1:41am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Chinese (and the understanding of some of its dialects), English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, with the possible inclusion of Spanish and Russian, anything other than those are considered quite exotic in modern China. I personally would add Italian, Portugese, Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Esperanto to the list. I know this list is heavily biased towards European languages, but then there are so many countries in Europe, each speaking different languages...
Oh, and I would stop learning more languages once I acquired all 14 of these languages enough to communicate with (native) speakers (this project will most likely occupy me for the rest of my life), unless special circumstances come up and I have to learn another language. I encountered a strange psychic reader several years ago and she told me that I am bound to marry a Swede. That is yet to happen though... Edited by cacue23 on 26 February 2013 at 1:53am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4652 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English | Message 68 of 71 27 February 2013 at 1:46pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I agree, this metaphor sums it up perfectly.
Gimme a link to the Dialog website and a name of the bookstore you went to. Anything apart from the big languages clumsy mentioned is seen as marginal here in Poland, with the possible exception of Czech/Slovak. You should see the looks I get for learning Arabic! Edited by Zireael on 27 February 2013 at 1:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Melya68 Diglot Senior Member France Joined 4292 days ago 109 posts - 126 votes Speaks: French*, English | Message 69 of 71 27 February 2013 at 10:46pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Swahili is really exotic in France. I think it's possible to find textbooks for most other languages.
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| Carisma Diglot Senior Member Argentina Joined 5623 days ago 104 posts - 161 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC1 Studies: Italian, Mandarin | Message 70 of 71 03 March 2013 at 1:50am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I bet this is a really useful post for hipsters that are interested in foreign
languages haha. My college has a Foreign Language department that offers classes of English, Spanish for foreigners, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Hebrew, Quechua, Mandarin, Japanese, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Arabic (and possibly one or two more that I am forgetting) for the general public; and it also offers Spanish, English, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese as university degrees. From the languages offered to the general public, English, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Mandarin, and Japanese are officially considered "languages that attract large audiences", and the rest are "languages that attract small audiences". Students who sign up for those often fear the course won't open because the minimum of students is 6, and in some years some languages like Dutch or Polish don't reach that minimum. As a plus, here are the stereotypes that people have (in my college) about people who study specific languages: - Spanish for foreigners. They are foreigners. They are interesting, and possibly you want to date them. Not much to say here. - English. "They are so obnoxious. They think this college is a freaking English academy and walk around the halls like they own them. And they are so many!" - Italian and Portuguese. "They probably joined to meet new people and learn an easy language while socializing." - French. Not much to say here either. - Mandarin. "Intellectual masochists, or wannabe diplomats/international bussinessmen that heard it's the language of the future." - Japanese. "Otakus." - Dutch. "They are mostly girls who have a Dutch online boyfriend." - German. "We pity them, the teachers are mean and give them a hard time." (same for those who study English or German as a degree) - The rest of the languages. "Oddballs." 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Waylon Newbie United States Joined 4285 days ago 10 posts - 14 votes Studies: French, Georgian, Persian | Message 71 of 71 04 March 2013 at 10:35pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I would say some indigenous language that's considered so endangered that all five native speakers live in the same square mile of each other.
For my area, speaking English is a non-mainstream language (and I mean that in the most serious way), but for those that have been exposed to other languages, any sort of East Asian language is rare outside of the two Chinese fast food restaurants and the french bakery. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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