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Second most important language | ||
Tags: Language Importance | Poll | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5070 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes  Speaks: Russian* | Message 9 of 68 12 October 2011 at 9:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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The history shows that Languages can lose its positions fast and be replaced by another.
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| georgiqg Triglot Newbie Spain Joined 4918 days ago 36 posts - 50 votes Speaks: Bulgarian*, Spanish, English Studies: German, Russian | Message 10 of 68 12 October 2011 at 9:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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For me, the second most important language is Spanish, because it's the official language of 21 countries and also I think it's the world's most studied as a foreign language, after English, of course.
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| MarcusOdim Groupie Brazil Joined 4861 days ago 91 posts - 142 votes | Message 11 of 68 12 October 2011 at 9:36pm | IP Logged | ||
None of them was even close to what English is, you know, how many courses of French/Latin did Russia have 50 years ago? just as many as Brazil, but nowadays we (any country) have 1 in each corner (for English), their music, movies and everything isn't gonna be replaced any time soon Do you really think that most westerners would get CLOSE to learning how to write and read in Mandarin proficientely even if they had to???? no way, look how lazy some people are to learn English, the most useful language on earth, they'd try to memorize a few characters and give up (off-topic: not to mention that Mandarin is not the most pleasent sounding language, and I'm saying "pleasant" because I don't wanna be rude) Edited by MarcusOdim on 12 October 2011 at 9:39pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4842 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 12 of 68 12 October 2011 at 9:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, I voted for Chinese, purely on economic grounds.
I can certainly see an argument for Spanish, and just possibly German, but none at all for French (sorry). It might be a very simplified form of Chinese, particularly for the written language, for us lazy westerners, but if by then, we are completely in hock to our economic masters, I imagine we'll find sufficient incentive to learn it. The world is going to change, I am sure of that. Maybe not in my lifetime though. There'll always be an English .... but maybe not as we know it, Jim. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6679 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil | Message 13 of 68 12 October 2011 at 11:08pm | IP Logged | ||
- Northern Hemisphere: English, Chinese, Arabic - Southern Hemisphere: Portuguese, English, Bahasa Indonesia 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| MarcusOdim Groupie Brazil Joined 4861 days ago 91 posts - 142 votes | Message 14 of 68 12 October 2011 at 11:42pm | IP Logged | ||
why not? :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| gogglehead Triglot Senior Member Argentina Joined 6089 days ago 248 posts - 320 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Russian, Italian | Message 15 of 68 13 October 2011 at 12:55am | IP Logged | ||
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Interesting. But, as is always the true case, and as sad as it may be, nothing replaces English. I have lived in many countries on all continents, and, upon the occurence of any breakdown in communication, EVERYONE reverts back to English. I witnessed a misunderstanding in Brazil...A German tourist was trying to communicate with a vendor in Rio de Janeiro, what language did they inevitably communicate in? English of course! I have seen this between Spanish and Portuguese speakers, even between Dutch and German speakers! Even in the most remoter villages in the back of beyond, if, perchance anyone speaks another language...you guessed it!
This is a great shame, I do with that the dominance of this language was not so global. I know this thread relates to the second most important language, and that many people speak of "languages of the future" and other associated monikers, but really? Mandarin maybe one of the future languages of international business or whatever, but, unless you are involved in international business with China, is it really important? To a few international business people (who do business with China), yes, but globally? Mmmmmm. Hindi, another "language of the future" with a billion speakers (or however many there are) is only useful if you are involved in business with India, most of whom speak English anyway. Believe me, I am not an Anglophile of any kind, I speak several languages (my profile on here is several years old) and almost wish that the situation was not as it is, but come on, smell the coffee! Even this very (magnificent) website on which I type, founded by a speaker of another language, was created in English! I do not now live in an English speaking country, and I rarely use the English language, but its dominance is obvious everywhere. Anyway, I digress, second most "important" language? Chinese (if you either live in China, or do business with said country, or Hindi (if you either live in India, or do business with said country Mongolian (see above) Swahili (see above) Welsh (yawn) etc etc 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| lichtrausch Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5974 days ago 525 posts - 1072 votes Speaks: English*, German, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin | Message 16 of 68 13 October 2011 at 2:26am | IP Logged | ||
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Some people seem to be suggesting that every language besides English is basically irrelevant outside of the countries where they have official language status. If you go into a big electronics store in Tokyo, store clerks will serve you in Chinese if you prefer. There is no chance you will be served in Welsh. To me that says something about the relative importance of these languages.
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