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Second most important language

 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
Poll Question: What is the second most important language in the world after English?
Poll Choice Votes Poll Statistics
5 [4.13%]
35 [28.93%]
25 [20.66%]
9 [7.44%]
47 [38.84%]
You can not vote in this poll

68 messages over 9 pages: 1 24 5 6 7 ... 3 ... 8 9 Next >>
nway
Senior Member
United States
youtube.com/user/Vic
Joined 5165 days ago

574 posts - 1707 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean

 
 Message 17 of 68
13 October 2011 at 3:45am | IP Logged 
MarcusOdim wrote:
It can replace English, sure, in a billion years from now

Humans have only been around for 200,000 years, and you think it'd take a BILLION years for Chinese to supplant English?

I'm going to have to assume this was a joke...


MarcusOdim wrote:
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????

Do you really think *Asians* and *Africans* (you know, three-quarters of the world's population) would continue to prioritize English if Chinese were to eclipse it in terms of economic opportunity?

Yes, you're correct that the West will always prioritize English over Chinese—unfortunately, this thread is not about the *West*:

lichtrausch wrote:
What is the second most important language in the world after English?

;)

Edited by nway on 13 October 2011 at 3:54am

2 persons have voted this message useful



MarcusOdim
Groupie
Brazil
Joined 4597 days ago

91 posts - 142 votes 

 
 Message 18 of 68
13 October 2011 at 4:53am | IP Logged 
1.Hopefully you think it's a joke

2.Most Africans live in absurdly poor countries and barely manage to learn English, what about Mandarin?!?!

3. English not only boils down to USA, there are other several very important countries

4. Asians could prefer Mandarin but who cares? millions of them already do so and it makes no difference

5. What matters most is the West, that's a fact, the best countries are in the West, the best 'anything you want' is in the West

6. The only language that matters IN THE WORLD is English, there is no "second most important language" 'in the world', all others are major languages but still small compared to Enlgish, be it Spanish or French or Mandarin or Russian

English matters everywhere but Mandarin doesn't and it's not going to anytime soon

as you said "IF", let me emphasize it "IIIFFFFFFFFFF Chinese were to eclipse", while is HASN'T eclipsed it's still just another major language and far from being what English is

There are lots of Mandarin Language Courses arising but they are as popular as French and Japanese and even Italian courses, it may "possibly" be a sign that Mandarin is not thaaat much demanded yet

while searching some job opportunities on the internet I found that German, French and Spanish (by a laaaarrge margin) are more demanded

http://www.careerbuilder.com
http://www.cadremploi.fr
...


Let's take it easy with the Mandarin hype
2 persons have voted this message useful



leosmith
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6300 days ago

2365 posts - 3804 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Tagalog

 
 Message 19 of 68
13 October 2011 at 5:53am | IP Logged 
A wise old man once told me, and I quote "Thettle down Bevith".
4 persons have voted this message useful



nway
Senior Member
United States
youtube.com/user/Vic
Joined 5165 days ago

574 posts - 1707 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean

 
 Message 20 of 68
13 October 2011 at 5:55am | IP Logged 
MarcusOdim wrote:
1.Hopefully you think it's a joke

I'm glad that you were joking, but the implication of your joke contradicts your own argument, which is why I was confused that you would even make it.

MarcusOdim wrote:
2.Most Africans live in absurdly poor countries and barely manage to learn English, what about Mandarin?!?!

The point is that it's a significant chunk of the world that, along with Asia, isn't linguistically naturally predisposed to English over Mandarin.

MarcusOdim wrote:
3. English not only boils down to USA, there are other several very important countries

I never even mentioned the USA in my post...

MarcusOdim wrote:
4. Asians could prefer Mandarin but who cares? millions of them already do so and it makes no difference

Too empty of a statement to even respond to...

MarcusOdim wrote:
5. What matters most is the West, that's a fact, the best countries are in the West, the best 'anything you want' is in the West

"Best" is profoundly too subjective to even respond to, and I'm not even sure what "anything you want" is supposed to mean, but this should suffice:



MarcusOdim wrote:
6. The only language that matters IN THE WORLD is English, there is no "second most important language" 'in the world', all others are major languages but still small compared to Enlgish, be it Spanish or French or Mandarin or Russian

I agree.

MarcusOdim wrote:
There are lots of Mandarin Language Courses arising but they are as popular as French and Japanese and even Italian courses, it may "possibly" be a sign that Mandarin is not thaaat much demanded yet


A picture is worth a thousand words—here are nineteen-thousands' worth:







































Each of these headlines individually isn't too big of a deal—but their combined stock collectively affirms the transience of historical "facts" (such as lingua francas).
9 persons have voted this message useful



ReQuest
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Netherlands
Joined 4782 days ago

200 posts - 228 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, French
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 21 of 68
13 October 2011 at 7:32am | IP Logged 
In Europe french and German a lot of EU stuff is done in these languages. And usually when you meet someone who cant speak your native language nor English, they can speak one of these
Also I think French is a little bit more widespread then Spanish.

Edited by ReQuest on 13 October 2011 at 7:33am

1 person has voted this message useful



Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5084 days ago

4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 22 of 68
13 October 2011 at 10:48am | IP Logged 
As always I am impressed by the knowledge and depth of know-how nway displays. However when I see that the life expectancy among speakers of Arabic and Indonesian is set way above speakers of Norwegian, I am reminded of the three types of lies: Lies, damned lies and statistics. Don't get me wrong, I am sure nway has done a great job with it, but there simply must be an error somewhere. Either that or I have completey misunderstood what is being measured.

I voted for Spanish, but I do realize that like most people I see it from my own European perspective. But then again, can we really be expected to see it from any other perspective? Would not someone from China see it from his perspective, and someone from Egypt see it from his, and then putting together all the little pieces of mosaic, we should get something which would ressemble the truth? I do not know how many of us who have enough knowledge to see the total picture.

In fact I am a bit uncertain whether I should have voted for French, because from a European perspective that is the most useful language after English. It is neccesary if you want a job related to the EU, it is useful in France, Belgium, Switzerland and parts of Canada and for a lot of people of my generation and older it is the foreign language they learned at school in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. It is very useful if you go to North Africa - or to Mauritius were I was last week.

In a practical sense, it is the language that I have had most use for in my work, after English, of course, and I am far more likely to go on a holiday to Paris than to Shanghai.
2 persons have voted this message useful



Mad Max
Tetraglot
Groupie
Spain
Joined 4801 days ago

79 posts - 146 votes 
Speaks: Spanish*, French, English, Russian
Studies: Arabic (classical)

 
 Message 23 of 68
13 October 2011 at 2:05pm | IP Logged 
Spanish language is also very important, not only Chinese. You can see a lot of
articles about that:

1. Spanish will be the most spoken language by 2045.
http://www.guerrillero.cu/english/index.php?option=com_conte nt&view=article&id=2007:-
Spanish-will-be-the-most-spoken-language&catid=41:varieties& Itemid=61
Within 35 years, Spanish will be the most spoken language on the planet, above Chinese
and English, assured Humberto Lopez Morales, secretary of the Association of Spanish
Language Academies.

2. Spanish is the second most studied language in France and Sweden
http://www.atlantico.net/noticia/157187/espanol/segundo/idio ma/estudiado/escuelas/franc
ia/suecia/
3. Spanish is on the rise in Eastern Europe
http://spanish.about.com/b/2003/07/03/spanish-on-the-rise-in -eastern-europe.htm

4. Spanish is the most popular language in India, after English
http://verbiclara.wordpress.com/2008/12/16/espaaol-el-idioma -extranjero-mas-popular-de-
la-india/

5. Spanish is yet the second most studied language in Germany
http://www.icex.es/icex/cma/contentTypes/common/records/view Document/0,,,00.bin?
doc=4152705

6. Spanish is the second most studied language in Japan too.
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/JAPON/ESPANA/JAPON/ca stellano/idioma/estudiado/j
aponeses/despues/ingles/elpepicul/19840104elpepicul_5/Tes

7. Spanish will be spoken by 132 million people in USA.
http://www.lavanguardia.com/cultura/20100619/53949214032/el- espanol-ya-es-el-segundo-
idioma-mas-hablado-del-mundo.html

8. Spanish will be spoken by 30 million of Brazilians in 2020.
http://www.lavanguardia.com/cultura/20100619/53949214032/el- espanol-ya-es-el-segundo-
idioma-mas-hablado-del-mundo.html

9. Spanish is also popular in Italy and Portugal
http://www.lavozlibre.com/noticias/ampliar/5752/el-idioma-es panol-se-extiende-en-
portugal
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/ITALIA/ESPANA/ITALIA/ Italia/espanol/moda/elpepic
ul/19850125elpepicul_5/Tes

10. Spanish is spoken by over 30 million of Europeans as second language
http://www.lavanguardia.com/cultura/20100619/53949214032/el- espanol-ya-es-el-segundo-
idioma-mas-hablado-del-mundo.html


1 person has voted this message useful



nway
Senior Member
United States
youtube.com/user/Vic
Joined 5165 days ago

574 posts - 1707 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean

 
 Message 24 of 68
13 October 2011 at 4:41pm | IP Logged 
Solfrid Cristin wrote:
However when I see that the life expectancy among speakers of Arabic and Indonesian is set way above speakers of Norwegian, I am reminded of the three types of lies: Lies, damned lies and statistics. Don't get me wrong, I am sure nway has done a great job with it, but there simply must be an error somewhere. Either that or I have completey misunderstood what is being measured.

It was life expectancy per GDP per capita (adjusted for purchasing power), which measures the resilience of the population's ability to thrive despite
not necessarily being wealthy. In other words, the Vietnamese and Japanese, though of extremely varying levels of wealth, both live much longer than
the rest of the world relative to their wealth. By contrast, Russian life expectancy is much shorter than the relative wealth of Russia, per capita, would
suggest. There are various ways to manipulate the two variables to produce the final score, but the way I did so equalizes the culturally identical regions
of Hong Kong and mainland China, which is a good indicator that there is some intrinsic logic to this methodology. The reason Norway is so low is likely
due to the fact that Norwegian GDP per capita is so high. :)

Edited by nway on 13 October 2011 at 4:44pm



2 persons have voted this message useful



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