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Is number of speakers important? | ||
Tags: Number of speakers | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Marcos_Eich Diglot Newbie Brazil Joined 4027 days ago 16 posts - 21 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: German | Message 25 of 75 09 August 2013 at 10:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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In my opinion it depends on your ineterest. If you want to learn about the culture of
some country it would be nice to learn the language. If you can use it for work it is a great deal. But if you don't have any particular interest just go for the one your heart tell you to. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Tsopivo Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4280 days ago 258 posts - 411 votes  Speaks: French*, English Studies: Esperanto | Message 26 of 75 10 August 2013 at 12:15am | IP Logged | ||
Are you sure ? I did not think that kind of restrictions existed in the Schenghen Area for citizens of states member of the Schenghen convention. A friend of mine lives and works in Norway and I know that she learnt Norwegian but I did not think she had a B2 level prior to applying to her 1st position. I could be wrong though. As for the original question, informations about the population of native speakers is of interest to me (not only the number but the repartition) but it is not the main criteria I use to pick a language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4431 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 27 of 75 10 August 2013 at 1:11am | IP Logged | ||
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I would imagine there is a lot of satisfaction to be gained from learning a smaller language. A Berliner is
hardly likely to cartwheel down Unter den Linden because you approached him in German. But being able to speak, say, Finnish must bring an enthusiastic response from the natives. Edited by beano on 10 August 2013 at 1:12am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4099 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 28 of 75 10 August 2013 at 3:04am | IP Logged | ||
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What about Dutch? I think a very approximate estimate would be 15-20 million speakers in
the Netherlands and Belgium. I think this is a large amount of speakers, as well as it is covers two countries in the EU in terms of official language status, and also there are overseas imperial territories, present and former in the West Indies and Indonesia. The problem is that, like Scandinavian languages, if one is not fairly fluent or fast and competetent enough in conversation (probably B2 minimum), the native speeakers will switch into English. It reminds me of the switch to English in Montréal. So whilst there may be substantial amounts of speakers, in some cases it seems as if one must reach a high level to have opportunities to speak with native speakers if they are fluent in the learner's native language. My Dutch is not B2, and I am very frequently afraid of native speakers switching to English with me whilst I am in the Netherlands or Belgium. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lichtrausch Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5769 days ago 525 posts - 1072 votes Speaks: English*, German, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin | Message 29 of 75 10 August 2013 at 4:24am | IP Logged | ||
Only from a Eurocentric perspective. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4099 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 30 of 75 10 August 2013 at 4:32am | IP Logged | ||
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How is that not many speakers? Catalan speakers, for example, have less than Dutch
speakers, but Andorra have Catalan as its national language--it certainly is useful should one wish to live or visit there. I think someone said before, that if someone continuously met new people everyday, the number would still total under one million. Outside of Europe, I visited the Netherlands Antilles several years ago, and one could use Dutch there as well. I used to live in Newcastle, which seems to have more Scandinavian immigrants than other parts of the UK. I met approximately 20 Norwegians and 20 Swedes whilst there, so if I knew one of those languages better, I would be able to speak with them (if they did not switch to English, of course). Edited by 1e4e6 on 10 August 2013 at 4:45am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lichtrausch Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5769 days ago 525 posts - 1072 votes Speaks: English*, German, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin | Message 31 of 75 10 August 2013 at 8:07am | IP Logged | ||
Have you taken a look at the number of speakers for some of the larger languages? Even Portuguese, which is far from the largest, dwarfs Dutch by a factor of 10. And your point about meeting a million people or whatever makes no sense, as was explained in a previous post. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4099 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 32 of 75 10 August 2013 at 8:22am | IP Logged | ||
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I do not need to check the number of speakers for Portuguese, I already had known that
Portuguese has more speakers than Dutch. What makes no sense is a "Eurocentric perspective" argument--I would think that if a language is European, like Dutch, it would be useful if one were in the country of origin, which, by definition, is in Europe. But what I meant is that a language such as Dutch, or even Portuguese, which is "far from the largest", can be used outside of Europe in Brasil, Angola, Macau, etc. as Dutch can be used in the Dutch West Indies or Indonesia. When I was in Curaçao, Dutch was used, Dutch tourists were present, and it is the national language. A language such a Dutch is quite useful outside of the Netherlands or Belgium, but even if it were not widely spoken outside of Europe, such as Danish in Denmark or Swedish in Sweden, I do not see why the millions of speakers within their respective countries is not sufficient to start learning. A language does not need 200 million people for usefulness. In the UK there are language books for Catalan, Polish, with levels for B1, B2, etc. regardless of their having not as many speakers are Portuguese. Edited by 1e4e6 on 10 August 2013 at 8:37am 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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