|
 |
Countries good at 2nd foreign language? | ||
Tags: Foreign Languages | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
 Mae Trilingual Octoglot Pro Member Germany Joined 4994 days ago 299 posts - 499 votes  Speaks: German*, SpanishC2*, Swiss-German*, FrenchC2, EnglishC2, ItalianB2, Dutch, Portuguese Studies: Russian, Swedish Personal Language Map | Message 17 of 41 12 July 2012 at 10:20pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Strange that they report about "Europe" in that paper, but do not mention the foreign
language learning situation in Switzerland at all. Funny, because they write about Europe, not about the European Union... In Switzerland they start quite early with foreign language education. I don't remember when exactly. In the German speaking part of Switzerland they learn English and French at school. In the French part of Switzerland they learn English and German. In the Italian speaking part of Switzerland they learn English and German or French. In Cantons with a common border with the Italian speaking Canton Tessin/Ticino, pupils learn English and French or Italian. Many pick up some more languages, because there is a lot of immigration. In bigger cities there are barely kids with both parents being Swiss. Most of my classmates spoke at least one more language at home (other than German), such as Turkish, BCS, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, etc. Edited by Mae on 12 July 2012 at 10:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4625 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 18 of 41 15 July 2012 at 11:16am | IP Logged | ||
|
French is widely spoken in North Africa alongside the native Arabic. I guess these countries are now embracing English as a 2nd foreign language. Ditto the former Soviet republics where Russian still has a massive influence.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Rykketid Diglot Groupie Italy Joined 4836 days ago 88 posts - 146 votes Speaks: Italian*, English Studies: French | Message 19 of 41 15 July 2012 at 2:57pm | IP Logged | ||
|
This is what I've always thought: ok, Scandinavians are incredibly good at English and
you definitely have an edge in comparison to the speakers of other languages, due to the linguistic closeness to English. But in my opinion, this advantage which may be seen as a "blessing" by many people, on the other hand is a disadvantage because you don't get used to languages that function in a different way. Whereas speakers of languages that are more different from English will have to study harder to get a good level of English, but they will also acquire more mental flexibility. Back to your question: in Italy, honestly I don't know how the results are because I just had Latin as 2nd "foreign" language (this would require some words about the Italian school system but I would go off topic I think), the only thing I know is that the three languages that can be picked are Spanish, French and German (not in all kinds of school though). I think that for us Italian speakers studying French and Spanish after years of English is a relief, but can't tell you about the results... I just have two friends who studied a second foreign language and now one of the two speaks Spanish fluently and the other one enjoys French literature but I think they are too a small sample for a good statistical inference on the entire population. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| liammcg Senior Member Ireland Joined 4607 days ago 269 posts - 397 votes Speaks: English* | Message 20 of 41 15 July 2012 at 3:19pm | IP Logged | ||
I have met a number of Morrocans in the last number of years whose abilities to communicate in Arabic, French and English have impressed me immensely. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jappy58 Bilingual Super Polyglot Senior Member United States Joined 4641 days ago 200 posts - 413 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Guarani*, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Maghribi), Arabic (Written), French, English, Persian, Quechua, Portuguese Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 21 of 41 15 July 2012 at 4:03pm | IP Logged | ||
|
The Maghreb is certainly an interesting region in terms of how the various languages work. Most people from the Maghreb speak the Arabic dialects/darija as their native language, but, as some have already stated, a solid command of French is widespread in most of the countries as well. I speak especially of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, since I've had less experience with Libya and Libyans.
Arabic tends to dominate as the language used at home, but French often makes its way in as well. In terms of business, French still dominates, though in some countries, such as Tunisia, steps have been made that have increased Arabic's presence in that field. As far as politics goes, most systems have also been "Arabized". In all, both Arabic and French are quite important in the Maghreb. As far as entertainment goes, much is done in Arabic, but a good amount is also French. English is also becoming more popular, and it may - over the next several generations - become more used in some areas than French. There are also several Berber languages throughout the countries, and although they're not as prevalent in most citizens' lives as Arabic and French, you're likely to meet several Moroccans, Algerians, and Tunisians whom have a solid command of Berber in addition to the other two languages. In Tunisia and Libya, Italian also has a good number of speakers, though not usually - as one would know - as a native language, nor is it as popular as Arabic and French. When I was growing up in Paraguay, Guarani and Spanish were generally seen as the most important languages (obviously). There's a lot of pride in Guarani and Spanish is also definitely respected (though Guarani is seen as more notable to our national identity). In many schools, Portuguese was offered and some people may have a solid command of the language, but honestly, I don't think this is the case with enough of the population to say that it is a country great at foreign languages. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| 98789 Diglot Groupie Colombia Joined 5046 days ago 48 posts - 55 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English | Message 22 of 41 16 July 2012 at 1:46am | IP Logged | ||
|
I'm from Colombia. I don't want to disvalue my country, guerrillas are doing it already, but ...
Here the people hardly speaks English. The fluent English speakers tend to be the riches. You spend 11 years in the primary school later highschool and you hardly get a B2 level ... (our education system, sadly, is f**ked up). The obligatory level at universities is about A2 or B1... read me: with my shit*y/poor fluency I skipped the courses (aproving a test... I got 91/100 :S) In my parents times you could choose between french and English, now most of the schools just teach English (it's obligatory). Yes, some highschools still offer other languages, but they're not so common. We're relatively near to Brazil (an expanding economy) and higschools don't teach portuguese (ok, maybe 2 or 3 in the main cities, don't know). Universities also have a poor languages programm (at least in "second class" cities). The university I study at, the best in the northeast region of the country (It's public) just offers English, French (both up to advanced ~B2 or ~C1), portuguese (I and II... that's like A2) and Italian (I and sometimes they "open" II, it'd be A1 or A2, depending) So, I'd say... WE SUCK AT LANGUAGES! (speaking 3 languages in this country is still very impressive ...) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| atama warui Triglot Senior Member Japan Joined 4704 days ago 594 posts - 985 votes Speaks: German*, English, Japanese | Message 23 of 41 16 July 2012 at 2:29am | IP Logged | ||
|
I wasn't aware that countries were good at anything. My impression was, people are good at stuff, or bad. ;)
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5337 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 24 of 41 16 July 2012 at 6:48am | IP Logged | ||
You are quite right, but the length of the titles permitted here does not always allow for accuracy. If you read the full question in my first post you will however see that I refer to people, and not to countries as some language speaking entity. :-) 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
