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List of things you cannot do with English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| clumsy Octoglot Senior Member Poland lang-8.com/6715Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4976 days ago 1116 posts - 1367 votes  Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Mandarin, Italian, Vietnamese Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swedish Studies: Danish, Dari, Kirundi | Message 1 of 60 23 March 2012 at 5:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have an idea for a post, in modern times it's a must to know English, and learning it gives you a lot of oppurtunities.
but is it worth at all to learn any other language? you want to watch anime? no problem, you can watch them subbed in English. You like Korean dramas? it's no problem too, a lot of subbed dramas on the net. You want friends from abroad? no problem, whole world learns English. Therefore I think it makes sense to do a list of things you cannot do with English, to motivate people to learn languages other than English, and to show that it's worth it. I will start: 1 you cannot learn Sundanese I did not find anything in English on it, but there were some websites on it in Japanese. 2. It's always better to understand movies in their original language rather than read subs. 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Everything Diglot Groupie France Joined 4499 days ago 87 posts - 167 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 2 of 60 23 March 2012 at 6:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, it works for almost all languages. But if you want to motivate a native English
speaker to learn another language, let's say : - English doesn't come with an open-minded community like for Esperanto. Esperanto works like a filter. When you speak English, it also includes racists, extremists, moralists and so on... Unlike Esperanto speakers who always are open-minded. But that's probably the only language which works this way. Edited by Everything on 23 March 2012 at 6:02pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5754 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes Studies: French | Message 3 of 60 23 March 2012 at 6:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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Lacking clusivity, you cannot in English distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first person plural pronouns.
When someone from a group of colleagues say to me "We are getting pay raises", I am left wondering whether by "we" the speaker meant herself and others with her but not me, or that I am included in her reference to "we". Of course, my boss, in looking at my various negative performance issues and just generally my habit of being a management nightmare, would strongly suggest that despite English lacking clusivity, I really should harbour no doubt at all about whether or not I fall into the class of folks getting a pay bump up. Edited by Spanky on 23 March 2012 at 6:34pm 12 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Chevalier Diglot Groupie Brazil Joined 4505 days ago 53 posts - 104 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English | Message 4 of 60 23 March 2012 at 6:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Depending on your job, you can't live in most Non-Anglophone countries.
9 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6395 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 5 of 60 23 March 2012 at 6:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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You mean there are no Esperanto-speaking bastards? At all?
Esperanto speakers are unlikely to be xenophobic but they may well be homophobic and a bunch of other things, for example. Just like some speakers of any other language. Being open-minded about one thing doesn't necessarily mean being open-minded about another (though it might make it somewhat more likely). TBH, the "yay Esperanto!" spirit of texts for learners reminds me on textbooks and phrasebooks from the USSR times... 27 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6237 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 6 of 60 23 March 2012 at 7:23pm | IP Logged | ||
I've heard of an Esperanto-speaking racist, so they apparently exist, though very firmly and openly racist Esperanto speakers are very rare. I haven't met one, though a certain amount of more casual racism, presumably through ignorance or lack of exposure, isn't entirely absent in many speakers, accompanied by anti-racist sentiments. Homophobia is more common - frequency varies drastically by country of origin, but tends to be significantly less common than among typical people from the same area. Learner texts vary; you're quite right that some are unreadably bombastic. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 4854 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 7 of 60 23 March 2012 at 7:53pm | IP Logged | ||
That's an exaggeration. Even if many young people learn English, most people do not speak it at the sufficient level, anyway. 8 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6070 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 8 of 60 23 March 2012 at 8:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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The idea that speakers of a particular language must be good people is illustrated in this excerpt from The Simpsons. Clearly the 20th century just passed some people by.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMkzdn2TDuI Edited by William Camden on 23 March 2012 at 8:04pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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