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Does Spanish depend on Mexico’s rise? | ||
Tags: Language Importance | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Mandira Triglot Newbie Norway Joined 4875 days ago 8 posts - 8 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, German Studies: Mandarin | Message 9 of 55 23 July 2011 at 11:54pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I fail to see why Argentina is out of the question. It is a large nation of 40 million, and does, to my (limited) knowledge, not struggle with the same problems regarding drugs and gangwars seen further north on the continent. As far as I understand, it is also both more liberal and much more prosperous than its neighbors.
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| Mad Max Tetraglot Groupie Spain Joined 5052 days ago 79 posts - 146 votes  Speaks: Spanish*, French, English, Russian Studies: Arabic (classical) | Message 10 of 55 24 July 2011 at 1:01am | IP Logged | |||||
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I think that Spanish doesn't depend only on one country.
IMHO, Spanish and, for example Arabic, are "key languages" because are also considered useful by a lot of countries, not only where the language is official. For instance, Arabic (Modern Standard Arabic) is official in some 25 countries in Africa and Middle East. Besides, it is also an important language by all the muslim people (over 1 billion people around the World). A lot of people study Arabic in these countries in madrasas or standard schools. Spanish is an useful lingua franca in all the Americas. It is very studied in Brazil, a BRIC country. There, it is compulsory in the school system from 2005. It is the second language in the USA too, with 50 million of Hispanics living there. At the same time, it is very studied in the European Union. In Portugal, Romania, France or Italy, all the Latin countries, for example, it is a language very studied. In Africa, Asia and Oceania is more studied nowadays. For example, in Philippines will be a compulsory subject in secondary next year. In Australia or New Zealand there is an important increase of students in the last 10 years. From an economic point of view, a lot of countries go to the Latin American Summits every year. Mexico, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Brazil, France, Italy, Philippines, Morocco, Belgium, etc are some of members of these summits that show the relevance of the Latin American World. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| nway Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/Vic Joined 5416 days ago 574 posts - 1707 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean | Message 11 of 55 24 July 2011 at 1:44am | IP Logged | |||||
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"Depend" is too strong of a word. But it is the right concept.
Let's put it this way: If it weren't for Mexico, Spanish would have the same "global utility" as Portuguese. That is, Mexico is the defining factor that "tips the scales" in favor of Spanish rather than Portuguese. Otherwise, Portuguese might even have the upper hand, with the smaller countries along Brazil's periphery learning Portuguese. As for Argentina, its economy is famous (or perhaps infamous) for doing so poorly. Among economists, the Argentinian economy definitely has a worse reputation than the Mexican economy, even though Argentina is slightly wealthier. Mexico's position in the Hispanosphere is similar to Egypt's in the Arab world. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| aquablue Senior Member United States Joined 6383 days ago 150 posts - 172 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 12 of 55 24 July 2011 at 1:52am | IP Logged | |||||
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Mexico is in a mess right now, and there is no certainty that it is ever going to take
off. If Mexico is the defining factor between Spanish and Portuguese or another strong language like German, I'm slightly concerned. I read that many Spanish youths are learning German due to the awful economy and lack of high skilled job opportunities in Spain right now. The problem with Arabic for economic use is that you have to learn a dialect on top of one of the hardest languages. Also, the arab world has no one defining economic power as Egypt has not yet emerged, and the gulf states use English for business. Moreover, you have to remember that several Arabic speaking countries are not very open for business or to tourism (syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen etc). So it is not exactly the best choice unless you are in the energy or governmental/military sectors. Edited by aquablue on 24 July 2011 at 2:05am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5023 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 13 of 55 24 July 2011 at 2:12am | IP Logged | |||||
I sure hope no one from any of thesse countries reads this. It is incredibly insensitive. Im sure theres far more to these countries than crime and poverty. Arent many parts of the U.S just as crime ridden, and poor? [/QUOTE] Mexico is the only country that could become a Spanish speaking powerhouse but it is in a major drug war which turns me off Spanish. [/QUOTE] Really? Why? Edited by dbag on 24 July 2011 at 2:14am 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| nway Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/Vic Joined 5416 days ago 574 posts - 1707 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean | Message 14 of 55 24 July 2011 at 2:19am | IP Logged | |||||
Well, what he said is factually correct. These countries are not and will never be economic powerhouses, simple due to scale. Most of them are poor and do have among the highest homicide rates in the world. As for these countries not being unique in their poverty and crime, I don't believe he ever said they were. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5131 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 15 of 55 24 July 2011 at 4:05am | IP Logged | |||||
I had a pretty sweet quality of life when I lived in Mexico. Better in many ways than in the US. I also know people who live in Japan who are miserable. Quality of life is very subjective. R. == 7 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4950 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 16 of 55 24 July 2011 at 4:33am | IP Logged | |||||
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Argentina's economy has a bad reputation among economists, and they created the mess in large part!! So screw the propaganda spewed by the Economist, FT and WSJ.
They do have some valid points to make in regards to how inflation is being handled and all, but in terms of Argentina giving the IMF the middle finger, which so upsets them, I say more power to them. I have never heard a country that followed the IMF model and succeeded... Mexico and Argentina are both G20 members so that is of significance. Mexico (and certainly Brazil) has a better business and investing climate (in spite of the large drug violence) than Argentina's populist and inept government, but Argentina does have an edge in quality of life, anything from literacy, security, crime, pollution, overall health and water safety. So if you are a business person you would want to learn Spanish for Mexico (and Chile, and perhaps to the surprise of many, countries like Peru and Colombia which are nice little places to invest right now), but perhaps as a place to live (and where dollars and Euros still get you a bit of a bang), Argentina. In fact there are significant American and European expat communities in Buenos Aires, Mendoza and Patagonia. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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