|
 |
The 10 most influential languages | ||
Tags: Language Importance | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| joanthemaid Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5470 days ago 483 posts - 559 votes  Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Russian, German | Message 9 of 40 21 March 2010 at 4:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
I think it looks all right. I might have thought that Arabic would rank a bit higher though.
Also it seems like the first eight are on my list of known/to learn languages, and almost in the same order. Edited by joanthemaid on 21 March 2010 at 4:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Impiegato Triglot Senior Member Sweden bsntranslation. Joined 5433 days ago 100 posts - 145 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, Italian Studies: Spanish, French, Russian | Message 10 of 40 21 March 2010 at 5:37pm | IP Logged | |||||
We have to assess whether Arabic is really ONE language. Written arabic and standard arabic on the news are far away from the dialects in the different countries, from the Maghreb to the countries situated east of the Mediterranean Sea. However, according to my understanding, spoken Egyptian is widely understood. On the other hand, we often think of Mandarin as one language, although there are lots of dialects in China. Edited by Impiegato on 21 March 2010 at 5:38pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Impiegato Triglot Senior Member Sweden bsntranslation. Joined 5433 days ago 100 posts - 145 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, Italian Studies: Spanish, French, Russian | Message 11 of 40 21 March 2010 at 5:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
I think it will be interesting to look at the ligustic situation in 10 years. How useful will Mandarin be at that time? Will it depend mostly on the development of the Chinese economics or primarily on the politics in European countries? I think it will depend a lot on the major research centres. Will they publish scientific articles in Mandarin and let people from other Asian countries accept that the future lingua franca in East Asia could be Mandarin? However, in other parts of Asia like India and Singapore the lingua franca of science may still be English. The time-consuming aspect is also important: In what way should schools in countries like France, Germany and Sweden really Mandarin? Would the politicians in Europe accept that it could take three or four times longer for an average European to become proficient in Mandarin? And question number three is: when would Mandarin be introduced in school and is it good to make it compulsory for everyone? This depends on how important Mandarin will be, but we should also be aware of the fact that introducing Mandarin at an early age in a great number of countries in Europe will consolidate the position of Mandarin. Edited by Impiegato on 21 March 2010 at 6:07pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5453 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 12 of 40 21 March 2010 at 6:13pm | IP Logged | |||||
And if they made Mandarin compulsory, or even optional across the board, question number four would be where to find all the qualified teachers needed. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cyrus Diglot Newbie France Joined 5508 days ago 39 posts - 70 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Mandarin | Message 13 of 40 21 March 2010 at 6:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
No, Mandarin is one and only one language -it is when we said "chinese" that it covers a lot of languages. However everyone in China learnt or is learning Mandarin ; it is quite easy since every chinese language language or nearly are writing in the same way and are very close to each other. Impiegato, I am not sure that it is the european political leaders' behaviour that will determine the future influence of chinese, I would rather say the behaviour of the most important asian country (Japan, India, Indonesia)... It is very possible for mandarin to become a lingua franca in this area (however it is difficult to imagine that Indians prefer learn Mandarin than English). If that end up, Mandarin would surely increase a lot its importance. Edited by Cyrus on 21 March 2010 at 6:40pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Impiegato Triglot Senior Member Sweden bsntranslation. Joined 5433 days ago 100 posts - 145 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, Italian Studies: Spanish, French, Russian | Message 14 of 40 21 March 2010 at 6:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
That is easy: we could recruit native Chinese speakers from China. Thus, they start by studying pedagogy, grammar, literature etc in China, and then schools and universities in European countries would employ them. Before this can be done, there must be a clear demand of knowledge of Mandarin outside of China. Edited by Impiegato on 21 March 2010 at 6:34pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Impiegato Triglot Senior Member Sweden bsntranslation. Joined 5433 days ago 100 posts - 145 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, Italian Studies: Spanish, French, Russian | Message 15 of 40 21 March 2010 at 6:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
"Chinese" does not refer to anything, in my opinion. The definition is too vague - do you mean both all dialects of Mandarin AND Cantonese or do you only mean the division of Chinese languagesd in two major groups: Mandarin and Cantonese. Whether to regard Mandarin as one or several languages is just a question of definitions. The written language is standardized, but the Chinese spoken in the Beijing area and Chinese in western China differ greatly. In addition to this, Standard Mandarin and Cantonese differ, as far as I know, a lot more than any dialects of Mandarin. Edited by Impiegato on 21 March 2010 at 6:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Impiegato Triglot Senior Member Sweden bsntranslation. Joined 5433 days ago 100 posts - 145 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, Italian Studies: Spanish, French, Russian | Message 16 of 40 21 March 2010 at 6:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
The demand from the market is also important, probably more important than the language policy in Europe. I still think that the combination is important: first there will be a demand from major international companies when they establish subsidiaries there or in other business situations, and a demand for reading scientific journal articles in Mandarin. I assume that the next step is the response from Europe and other continents. Will the parliaments vote for an increase of Mandarin teaching in Europe once the market and politicians have recognized the need? What will then happen to the policy if the popularity among the students turns out not to be that big for some reason? Edited by Impiegato on 21 March 2010 at 6:56pm 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. |
