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Global language - another domino falls | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| Rabochnok Diglot Newbie Colombia Joined 5610 days ago 37 posts - 59 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Turkish, Persian | Message 17 of 37 25 April 2010 at 5:22am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
If the population of the new US didn't speak a certain language, it would've been wrong to force it to, regardless of whether the leaders spoke the language in question. English speaking leaders imposing English on a French speaking population would've been wrong too.
Yeah, Arabs have no culture at all. And the dialects have no culture of their own. Swahili either. Sure.. And English, French, and other languages certainly haven't branched into informal dialects that are quite different from the media standard. K.
Arabic's left its mark on other languages too. Its alphabet and vocabulary have been exported around the world, even to languages not associated with Muslims, including English and Spanish.
While others might say that Arabic is the dream of polyglots (but not for me, if you wondered)..... turns out you can't speak for all polyglots. You acknowledge that, but it's a bit much to say we should be in arms anyway..... because? It's hard? That's rich for a forum where some people take on languages because they're hard. Because it's scary? I thought a forum like this wouldn't be so likely to see aversion to different cultures for being different.
If French has a right to be spoken outside of its traditional area, then so does Arabic and any other language.
I am American, and I oppose forcing anyone to learn French. Or Arabic. Or anything. Language learning shouldn't be imposed on the public in general. If anything, mandating French instruction would be likely to make people dislike French, as with any other mandated language.
Are you saying Spanish has no right to be spoken in the Americas? Why? Spanish's already ingrained in large swaths of the Americas, are you suggesting a language switch? Doesn't Spanish enjoy the right to be spoken outside of its area of origin? Edited by Rabochnok on 25 April 2010 at 5:23am 7 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5956 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes Studies: French | Message 18 of 37 25 April 2010 at 7:56am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
I am assuming some or most or perhaps all of this post was written facetiously, but I am not sure how much, as there is no smiley face or "LOL". At least I hope most of this was intended facetiously. Edited by Spanky on 25 April 2010 at 8:05am 7 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| noriyuki_nomura Bilingual Octoglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 5340 days ago 304 posts - 465 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Japanese, FrenchC2, GermanC2, ItalianC1, SpanishB2, DutchB1 Studies: TurkishA1, Korean | Message 19 of 37 25 April 2010 at 9:01am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Frankly, I still don't see why French (or English or any other language, for that matter) should be taught across the globe. Take Asia for example, the history of French existing in Asia (specifically only in countries such as Cambodia, Vietnam) is pretty much limited during colonial times in the late 20th-21st century.
Are we going to say that, due to the history of French existing in "Asia", we are going to/must teach French in Asia too, and sacrifice the local or regional languages that have long existed in the region for many many more centuries? In terms of history, in my opinion, learning and preserving local/regional languages are much more important than the force-teaching of French in a continent, where French language has never been a 'traditional/historical' language for us. Besides, even in countries such as Vietnam and Cambodia, you would find it hard nowadays to find people speaking French, especially the younger generation! Likewise for other parts of the world, I just don't see the need that French has to supplant any local languages in order to "preserve the glory of the Grande Nation". Sacrificing local languages/cultures (that have long existed in their respective regions) in order to preserve the glory of another country, to me, that just seems so wrong, unnecessary and egoistic. Furthermore, contemporary France is about the promotion of a multilingual, multicultural world, if France forces others to adopt French language, then it really defeats its own advocacy that the world should be a more multilingual, multipolar and multicultural world. On a side note, if Africa (or any other continents) speaks or insists speaking more of their local languages, instead of French, that would create a job market that requires interpreters, translators, language teachers, thereby helping to create job opportunities and reduce unemployment rates across Africa, in France (unemployment rate in France is high anyway, hence wouldn't it be great that a job market is created that requires the French to learn African languages in order to communicate with the Africans more effectively when they are in the African continent). To me, this would not only help France to lower its high unemployment rate, but it would also enable France and her blind supporters to appreciate, understand and respect the languages and cultures of other continents! Edited by noriyuki_nomura on 25 April 2010 at 9:38am 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fazla Hexaglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6262 days ago 166 posts - 255 votes Speaks: Italian, Serbo-Croatian*, English, Russian, Portuguese, French Studies: Arabic (classical), German, Turkish, Mandarin | Message 20 of 37 25 April 2010 at 3:31pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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My biggest dream for East Africa would be a Swahili fluent East Africa (possibly Central Africa too). Because it makes me puke to see such a beautiful continent having to resort to extra-African foreign languages to interract between African states. The fact that French is dying out in favour of English doesn't sadden nore make me happy... if it were for Swahili or any other real African language, it would have been a different story.
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| noriyuki_nomura Bilingual Octoglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 5340 days ago 304 posts - 465 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Japanese, FrenchC2, GermanC2, ItalianC1, SpanishB2, DutchB1 Studies: TurkishA1, Korean | Message 21 of 37 25 April 2010 at 4:25pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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As someone who's passionate for languages, cultures and diversity, I definitely wish (I am sure other polyglots too) to see a stronger Africa that's more assertive regarding the use of its local languages in Africa and the world.
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| LatinoBoy84 Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5575 days ago 443 posts - 603 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Latvian | Message 22 of 37 25 April 2010 at 5:28pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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I think that the continued growth of English as a de facto language is what bothers
people. French seems to be one of the few Lingua Francas that provides some resistance. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| lynxrunner Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States crittercryptics.com Joined 5922 days ago 361 posts - 461 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Swedish, Haitian Creole | Message 23 of 37 25 April 2010 at 6:44pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Oh, no! Spanish is going to take over English USA (ha ha, yeah right), English Canada, and French Quebec (prft, good luck with that). Whatever shall we do? Poor widdle baby French is in danger! 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Smart Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5339 days ago 352 posts - 398 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Latin, French Studies: German | Message 24 of 37 25 April 2010 at 10:01pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||||||||
>.< No one likes French anymore? Could you please rationalize for me why Spanish is the dominant language taught in education across the States? Why not French? German? Mandarin? Italian. When I said what I said, i was speaking about the LACK of languages, I was not talking about forcing French down the throats of anyone. There should be no forced or mandatory languages, though I do support the introduction of second and third language requirements like there is in most of Europe. If my friend from Finland can know Finnish, English, Spanish, French, German and some Russian by the age of 16.... the average American can tackle three languages by the age of 18. As for arabs not having culture, compared to other groups of people on the planet, there is not all that there. My apologies to any arabs on the board who disagree, I was only speaking about Arabic, not the arab race or people. AFAIK, Arabic gave only a few words to Spanish. And English has nearly a million words, so if we do have anything from Arabic, we also have similar words from other languages. Certainly they do, they already are, its just, Americans have no interest in the language as a whole (poll it for evidence of that). So encorporating European and Asian languages, as well as native american languages as opposed to immediately introducing Farsi, Arabic, etc would be better. Feel free to disagree. I made no claim to speak for all polyglots, I was speaking for myself and four other people I am in constant contact with, none of them have interest in the Arabic language. Also, Arabic is rather easy, I already know some Arabic, so do not think i am judging a language I know nothing of. Indeed, remove the mandate to learn a second language ONLY if there is only one language offered. If we begin to have schools with French, Spanish, German, etc all offered, we would see immediate results. But yes I totally agree, the current system of, "take this language or never succeed in life!" is of course not beneficial. if English is supposed to be our tongue, the introduction of Spanish will kill off English, we see this in border states. I speak from experience, being in Southern California. So please do not interpolate what I wrote to say "Spanish should be removed from the Americas!". Don't get me wrong though, if we started seeing English being more dominant in South America, I would be pleased. As an individual said earlier though, it would just be a switch of a foreign colonial language. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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