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If I hear "Spanish is easy" ONE more time | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6705 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes  Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 129 of 137 16 October 2012 at 4:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
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With the number of Latinos in the USA it is logical that Spanish is the first choice for a second language there. Where I live it is not Spanish, but English that has that role, and if you feel that Spanish is pushed upon you in the states it is nothing against the pressure we have to learn English. So by Hiiro Yui's logic I should hate English. Well, I am also irritated by the tendency by dumb people to see English as a 'smart' language (for instance in commercials) and the tendency to rename our institutions into something ugly with an English ring, and I'm worried about the tendency to focus on courses in English in the mistaken belief that that's all you need to know in this world ... but the language itself is actually fairly popular here, in spite of its notorious spelling. So if we can live with Hiiro Yui's native language English here, he should also be able to accept that Spanish has the role it has across the pond.
The original question was however not whether you find the teaching of Spanish too 'pushy' and all-pervasive, but whether people underestimate its difficulties. And here Spanish is definitely not the worst language you could be presented with. It has a fairly regular orthography and a grammar which has many forms compared to English, but you could have had to deal with Navaho or Irish or Hungarian - or Japanese. Edited by Iversen on 16 October 2012 at 4:40pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Chris Ford Groupie United States Joined 4745 days ago 65 posts - 101 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese | Message 130 of 137 16 October 2012 at 6:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
This is a common view outside of the US (and one held by a lot of reactionaries in the US), but it's not really supported by history or current evidence. Even if immigrants may be mono-lingual Spanish speakers, their children will learn English because it provides more opportunities than only speaking Spanish, as has happened with every other wave of immigration in the past (although it's worth noting that many regions in the US where Spanish is highly concentrated were Spanish speaking before English speakers ever showed up). Nevertheless it's difficult to imagine a future where Spanish is spoken as the primary language in US politics, business, and the like, no matter how common it may be in daily usage in some places. 2 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 131 of 137 16 October 2012 at 6:23pm | IP Logged | |||||
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As far as I'm concerned, anything that skakes up the typical American assertion that English is the only language you need to know, can only be a good thing.
People in the UK are no better of course. We are positively dreadful at learning languages. But it's a two-way thing. If there were places in Europe where the people point-blank refused to communicate in English, then maybe we would be more motivated to learn. Edited by beano on 16 October 2012 at 6:23pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5455 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 132 of 137 16 October 2012 at 8:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
Sorry, not going to happen. We need English to communicate with each other. On the other hand, there are still plenty of places in Europe where English is not commonly spoken or understood. Edited by tractor on 16 October 2012 at 9:02pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5132 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 133 of 137 16 October 2012 at 10:17pm | IP Logged | |||||
My own experience traveling tells me that that wouldn't really make a difference. I've been to plenty of places that have enclaves of English-only speakers. Expat communities exist everywhere. The same can be said of Spanish in the US. There are many communities here that are made up of Spanish-only speakers, with no real desire to learn another language. And tractor has a point that there are still plenty of places where English doesn't have a foothold. You DO have to get out of the touristy areas to find them, though. R. == 1 person has 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 134 of 137 16 October 2012 at 10:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
Small trading nations like Norway which didn't have empires of their own have always had to learn other languages in order to communicate with others. That role is currently filled by English but at various times in the past the international lingua franca would have been Latin, French and German. Will another language take over in the future? Who knows? But it does seem as if an English-speaker can move to Norway and not feel any real social pressure to learn the language. This situation is created by the Norwegian people themselves being tolerant of somebody refusing to learn. Perhaps this could change. Edited by beano on 16 October 2012 at 11:01pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Aquila123 Tetraglot Senior Member Norway mydeltapi.com Joined 5308 days ago 201 posts - 262 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Italian, Spanish Studies: Finnish, Russian | Message 135 of 137 17 October 2012 at 6:06am | IP Logged | |||||
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It has a fairly regular orthography and a grammar which has many forms compared to English, but you could have had to deal with Navaho or Irish or Hungarian - or Japanese.
[/QUOTE] The funny thing here is that Spanish verb phrases (the verb itself plus clitical elements), and even more so Italian ones often get the same structure as a Navajo verb, except that you write them as several words in Spanish, and they present many of the same challenges. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6705 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 136 of 137 17 October 2012 at 10:40am | IP Logged | |||||
my my, it's a small world indeed! Edited by Iversen on 17 October 2012 at 10:40am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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