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The future doesn’t speak French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| victor Tetraglot Moderator United States Joined 7105 days ago 1098 posts - 1056 votes  6 sounds Speaks: Cantonese*, English, FrenchC1, Mandarin Studies: Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 9 of 33 12 September 2005 at 8:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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Sapredro, it's rather subjective to say what's more important for the people. Portuguese students will go to different careers and their needs vary. French isn't really that bad (around the same level, I daresay) compared to German, if we're talking about at the European level.
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| Miri-chan Tetraglot Groupie United States crimsonietta.ne Joined 6795 days ago 59 posts - 60 votes 2 sounds Speaks: Cantonese, English*, French, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Thai | Message 10 of 33 17 September 2005 at 11:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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French is and always will be an important language, just like English. Even if Chinese catches up, it won't change much.
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| Giordano Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6961 days ago 213 posts - 218 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Cantonese, Greek | Message 11 of 33 18 September 2005 at 10:55am | IP Logged | ||
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I read an article a day or two ago from a Ukrainian immigrants' group, about the fact that, when Ukrainians immigrate to Canada (not sure about the US), their names are often transliterated using French (Yushchenko, for example, would more often be Youchtchenko), even though they are going into an English-speaking society.
I guess this is a manifestation of the importance of French as a language of diplomacy. However, even in this function, French is now being slowly replaced by English (for example, although all passports are required to have French translations in addition to the official language, many now also include English). I don't know what to think about this... It's just the way things are going. Maybe, with several new and far less related languages coming into prominence, French will once again become a lingua franca of choice. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sir Nigel Senior Member United States Joined 6891 days ago 1126 posts - 1102 votes 2 sounds | Message 12 of 33 18 September 2005 at 2:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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That name problem happened to our Russian class' teacher. It is odd that they do that.
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| delectric Diglot Senior Member China Joined 6968 days ago 608 posts - 733 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: German | Message 13 of 33 20 September 2005 at 9:50am | IP Logged | ||
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Every English major student in China must eventually take a second language after English. It seems that French is the most popular language, then Japanese and lastly Russian.
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| Magnum2 Newbie United States Joined 6789 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes | Message 14 of 33 24 September 2005 at 12:25am | IP Logged | ||
French has been the most important language for cultured people the past three hundred years. There is a reason French was the spoken language of Czar Alexanders' court and of aristocrats in Russia. The province of Quebec passed a law making French their official language, and if English is used in signs, it must be smaller than the French letters. And how many other countries have French as their official language? French will continue to be, in my opinion, the second most important language in the world, just behind English. Chinese will not be as important, because what is the market? 1 billion speakers, but how many of them are peasants? How many Chinese people will have a buisness purpose for needing to know English? Compare this with French, and how many American companies trade with French companies. Maybe this signifies in the future there will be growth in the Chinese market, but I believe the growth is exaggerated. Meanwhile, France has deep ties to so many advanced countries. China might be the next new industrialized nation, France will be entering the information age with the USA and Germany and other advanced nations. I would argue that India will have a much greater impact on the world economy in the next 100 years than China. India has more engineers per capita than the USA!! They are a very smart people, highly educated, and willing to work for peanuts. The infrastructure is continually being upgraded, and many American firms have moved their information technology centers to India. It was in the papers a few weeks ago, that India is opening new "capitalist-style" hospitals, complete with elective type surgeries such as liposuction and nose jobs, with a recovery in a resort style hotel, and these entrepreneurs are making money left and right. The paper indicated Americans are flying to India by the thousands per year for these procedures, at half the cost of an American hospital. India is innovative. Does this mean that everyone should run out and study Hindi? Probably not. But in my opinion, it is just as good a language to learn as Chinese for people who want to crack into a growing market. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| delectric Diglot Senior Member China Joined 6968 days ago 608 posts - 733 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: German | Message 15 of 33 24 September 2005 at 12:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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Though Hindi won't be nearly as popular as Chinese because English is already widely spoken in India. And, for sure amongst the Indian elite, who do business English will be widely spoken.
If anything, the growth of the Indian economy will merely cement English as the global language, for the next 50+ years. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Miri-chan Tetraglot Groupie United States crimsonietta.ne Joined 6795 days ago 59 posts - 60 votes 2 sounds Speaks: Cantonese, English*, French, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Thai | Message 16 of 33 24 September 2005 at 5:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hindi won't be so widely spoken. True, they may have good employment and such, but India is still lacking in economy. They still depend on agriculture and fishery and merchandising (textiles, cloth, etc.) and still hold strong bonds to traditions. They have moved ahead as much as China has (which was mainly due to Communism anyways). In addition, even though it has a large population, they aren't very global with their interactions. Oh sure, they trade and do business, but they aren't as well known.
By the way, Indian language has many dialects just like Chinese, although the most dominant are Hindi, Marathi, and Urdu. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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