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Why care about the number of speakers? | ||
Tags: Number of speakers | Reasons for study | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5648 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 1 of 37 23 October 2010 at 4:34am | IP Logged | |||||
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I have always wondered this ever since I've been on this board. It seems like a "#1 criteria" to learn a language. This is, I see no point. I live in the U.S. and speak English. There are 300 million + people in this country and I doubt I've talked to 1,000 people in my life. With my languages, I don't plan on talking to all 120 million + Japanese people or the 50 million + in South Korea, but some people learn Mandarin just because it has 800 million native speakers. Do you really plan on talking to all 800 million speakers? (As for me, I have a hard time talking to the 15 in one of my college classes. After the first week of class, after this one dude found out I was Korean, he stopped talking to me all together.)
Basically, the short version is why learn a language for the number of speakers when you don't even talk to everyone in your own native language? 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6581 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 3 of 37 23 October 2010 at 5:38am | IP Logged | |||||
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Yeah, I think number of speakers is sometimes shorthand for availability of learning materials and native media. There are lots of languages I'd want to learn if only they had more native speakers, since more native speakers would mean more books, more movies, more music and so on.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6141 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 4 of 37 23 October 2010 at 5:41am | IP Logged | |||||
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I agree with paranday in that it is simply easier to find materials for "big and important" languages like Spanish, Japanese, and Russian as opposed to smaller languages such as Georgian, Swahili, and Afrikaans. It's almost too easy and just overwhelming for finding material in the bigger languages, while you might be lucky to find just a couple good resources for the smaller ones.
For me, personal interest (including how aesthetically pleasing the language is to me) is the greatest factor in choosing a language. If the language itself interests me enough that I'd want to learn it, I will. Finnish, Hungarian, Georgian, and Czech are listed higher on my hit list than Mandarin, Korean, Indonesian, and Hindi, which are much more "important" by size, simply because I'm interested in the former languages more than the latter ones. However, size also is a consideration for me. While I would probably find many very small languages interesting and aesthetically pleasing enough to want to learn them, I doubt I would ever learn such languages as Navajo, Hmong, or Faroese, because they aren't as useful as some of the bigger ones except for in very specific circumstances. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| fireflies Senior Member Joined 5180 days ago 172 posts - 234 votes Speaks: English* | Message 5 of 37 23 October 2010 at 6:20am | IP Logged | |||||
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You have a greater chance of encountering the language if it has a lot of speakers.
I am sort of practical I guess although I'd not mind knowing French just so I could read books in it. I like books and movies. A lot of it is probably about how many books, songs and movies are produced. Isn't that part of the appeal of English? Edited by fireflies on 24 October 2010 at 2:21am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| jasoninchina Senior Member China Joined 5230 days ago 221 posts - 306 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, Italian | Message 6 of 37 23 October 2010 at 7:08am | IP Logged | |||||
Unless you're a hermit, that number is much higher.
I really don't think anyone chooses a language because they plan on speaking to every native. Like others have suggested, the "numbers" reason has to do with the abundance of learning materials and natives. For example, living in America, you may choose to learn Spanish because of the numerous occasions you would have to speak the language. Do you plan on speaking to millions of Mexican's? probably not. But you could if you wanted to :-) For me, my main language of study is Mandarin. I live in China, so it makes sense. However, when I move back to the US it will still be of great service to me. I've been all over the world and I can tell you: you'll always run into Chinese people. So that's the way I play the "numbers" game :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Old Chemist Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5172 days ago 227 posts - 285 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 7 of 37 23 October 2010 at 12:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Aren't there also implications about the status of a language spoken by a smaller number of people? Such a language might not be uniform and consist of a fair number of mutually unintelligible dialects. Often, I think, they will tend to speak to foreigners in a more widespread and/or widely spoken language. Look at the former Soviet Union, Russian was a lingua franca, for example. A Uzbek would have amazed if you had spoken in Uzbek rather than Russian. For me, it's these issues which influence how likely I am to learn a language such as Uzbek. I think I will learn Turkish long before Uzbek! With no offence meant to any Uzbek speaker.
A decision to learn a language with fewer speakers than a major one would surely be influenced by such factors as: a familial connection to the country where the language is spoken; a burning desire to do some sort of work, such as volunteering; or, just extreme intellectual curiosity. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tothemax6 Newbie Australia Joined 5149 days ago 6 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 8 of 37 23 October 2010 at 3:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Well learning a new language is quite a hefty time investment, so people I guess want the most bang for their buck. More speakers = higher chance of being exposed to situations were the language is useful. Although the exception of course being when the speakers of the language can more often than not speak other languages just as well (for instance: french, Germans, often speak English, but not vice versa).
But people should definitely consider the value of the language in terms of 'why would I be speaking it?'. If you don't like Iceland, or don't plan to go there much, there is no reason to learn the language. But if you love the place, it doesn't matter how many Icelanders there are, you will consider learning the language worthwhile. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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