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EU & Languages: Policies and your view?

  Tags: Europe | Multilingual
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
66 messages over 9 pages: 13 4 5 6 7 ... 2 ... 8 9 Next >>
johntm93
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5138 days ago

587 posts - 746 votes 
2 sounds
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish

 
 Message 9 of 66
03 July 2010 at 11:10pm | IP Logged 
cordelia0507 wrote:

All these languages have more native speakers on the European continent than English!
The reason we speak English is because of the dominance USA, which is not a European country and which does not support the same goals that we do in many areas.

If you are so mad that English is so widespread in Europe, stay away from American media and American things.

Anyway, I'd say whatever happens to be the lingua franca of the time (now it's English, it used to be French, before that Latin, etc. etc.) would probably be a good choice. That being said, it doesn't matter to me because I don't live in Europe.

Edited by johntm93 on 03 July 2010 at 11:10pm

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patuco
Diglot
Moderator
Gibraltar
Joined 6826 days ago

3795 posts - 4268 votes 
Speaks: Spanish, English*
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 10 of 66
04 July 2010 at 2:15am | IP Logged 
Thatzright wrote:
Above all, I do not want to start political bickering or arguing with this.

This is the first thing that I thought of when I saw the title of the thread.

I would like to make it very clear that any deviation into the realm of politics and/or attacks on other members will result in the thread (and possibly member accounts) being closed.

Thank you.

Edited by patuco on 04 July 2010 at 2:16am

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guesto
Groupie
Australia
Joined 5552 days ago

76 posts - 118 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian, Spanish

 
 Message 11 of 66
04 July 2010 at 3:49am | IP Logged 
patuco wrote:
Thatzright wrote:
Above all, I do not want to start political bickering or arguing with this.

This is the first thing that I thought of when I saw the title of the thread.

I would like to make it very clear that any deviation into the realm of politics and/or attacks on other members will result in the thread (and possibly member accounts) being closed.

Thank you.



How is it possible to discuss this topic without deviating into politics? The topic includes the word "policies" and asks for your view on them. It IS politics through and through.
1 person has voted this message useful



GREGORG4000
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5334 days ago

307 posts - 479 votes 
Speaks: English*, Finnish
Studies: Japanese, Korean, Amharic, French

 
 Message 12 of 66
04 July 2010 at 5:34am | IP Logged 
guesto wrote:
How is it possible to discuss this topic without deviating into politics? The topic includes the word "policies" and asks for your view on them. It IS politics through and through.

In my opinion:
Discussion = "I think this is a good idea"
Politics = "I think this is a good idea which is why my political party is good and yours is stupid"
2 persons have voted this message useful



cordelia0507
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5649 days ago

1473 posts - 2176 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*
Studies: German, Russian

 
 Message 13 of 66
04 July 2010 at 10:08am | IP Logged 
johntm93 wrote:
If you are so mad that English is so widespread in Europe, stay away from American media and American things.

That would be VERY hard ;-) I'd have to get a different job, change my eating habits and stop watching TV, listening to radio. And that's just the beginning... However fortunately I have no desire to do that, and it was not the topic of this thread anyway. And I am not "mad" about it at all. I am an EU citizen who takes an interest in language related policy questions. This happens to be one of the biggest ones, but very rarely discussed.

I did not write this post to provoke, challenge or offend any members here and I admire and respect a lot of things about the USA, its' people, its language and its' culture. If anyone chooses to interpret this post as an attack against their country, then its a reflection of their own insecurity, or their worldview.

The purpose of this question was to find out what linguistically interested (primarily but not exclusively) Europeans think about this topic, which is relevant to us every single day: The language that we use for communication with people in other European countries, at work, online or while on holiday, or even in daily life for those who live in border areas. Whether you think this is something that the EU should (or shouldn't) control and if so, how you think they should do it?

I thought it was very interesting to read what Arturs and Thatzright think about this based on their own experiences. That was the sort of responses I was hoping to get on this thread.

I was hoping that lots of people with different opinions would respond. I happen to hold an opinion about this, but someones arguments might convince me to change my mind, or see the matter from a different angle. I have no problem at all with people who take a different view and I think its a complex question with many possible answers.

It is the sort of thing that people tend to accept at face value, take the status quo for granted, without considering "why", "how" and "Can we change it?" "Do we want to change it?..." Why? Why not?
1 person has voted this message useful



patuco
Diglot
Moderator
Gibraltar
Joined 6826 days ago

3795 posts - 4268 votes 
Speaks: Spanish, English*
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 14 of 66
04 July 2010 at 1:02pm | IP Logged 
guesto wrote:
patuco wrote:
Thatzright wrote:
Above all, I do not want to start political bickering or arguing with this.

This is the first thing that I thought of when I saw the title of the thread.

I would like to make it very clear that any deviation into the realm of politics and/or attacks on other members will result in the thread (and possibly member accounts) being closed.

Thank you.



How is it possible to discuss this topic without deviating into politics? The topic includes the word "policies" and asks for your view on them. It IS politics through and through.


Not necessarily. There have been some good replies without discussing politics which, as has been pointed out above, usually means rather heated and personal discussions.
1 person has voted this message useful



^veganboy^
Groupie
United Kingdom
Joined 5730 days ago

51 posts - 51 votes 

 
 Message 15 of 66
04 July 2010 at 1:50pm | IP Logged 
IN MY PERFECT WORLD:

Official language(s)       
Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Catalan ,Latvian, Basque, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Welsh and Swedish

Semi-official;
Galician, Aranese

Significant unofficial language(s)       
Luxembourgish, Turkish, Russian, Romani, Scottish Gaelic, Walloon, Frisian, Saami, Breton, Sardinian, Corsican, Friulian

Main immigrant language(s)       
Russian, Turkish, Arabic, Chinese, Serbo-Croatian and Hindi.

Main foreign language(s)       
English, French, German, Russian and Spanish are the most commonly studied and spoken foreign languages.


Edited by ^veganboy^ on 04 July 2010 at 1:52pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Derian
Triglot
Senior Member
PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5119 days ago

227 posts - 464 votes 
Speaks: Polish*, English, German
Studies: Spanish, Russian, Czech, French, Mandarin, Japanese

 
 Message 16 of 66
04 July 2010 at 2:35pm | IP Logged 
Thatzright wrote:
there is still a bit of a negative stigma around German due to the unfortunate events of the first half of the 20th century. Maybe it's not a big stigma, but it's there.
In Poland, that stigma is quickly vanishing or gone already.
It is only perhaps relevant with the older people (but even there already quite marginally).
German is the second most popular language in Polish schools, and the general public understands the importance of that language, especially as Germany is our neighbour.

Thatzright wrote:
The same goes for Russian too, I wonder how the Baltic states, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary would react if the Council of Europe announced that Russian would be adopted as the second 'lingua franca' of Europe for starters.
Now, talking about social stigmas...
Russian was a mandatory subject in Polish schools until 1989, and had always been a symbol of Soviet oppression in Poland. So the negative emotions towards that language are still fresh, and familiar not only to older people but to the generation of today's 35-year-olds.

But this situation is also changing rapidly. The young people of today (including the 35-40-year-olds) think practically and appreciate what may be beneficial to them. So the negative image of the Russian language is quickly changing for better.

Therefore, I think that "if the Council of Europe announced that Russian would be adopted as the second 'lingua franca' of Europe" the young people wouldn't mind and/or even embrace the idea.
And why?
Because Russian is generally easier for Poles to learn than English :)


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