Is number of speakers important? (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

Is number of speakers important?
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Language Learning Forum : General discussion

75 messages over 10 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 7 ... 9 10 Next >>

anime
Triglot
Senior Member
Sweden
Joined 6170 days ago
161 posts - 207 votes

Speaks: Spanish, Swedish*, English
Studies: German, Portuguese, French, Russian

Message 49 of 75

14 August 2013 at 4:20pm | IP Logged

lichtrausch wrote:

anime wrote:

People that consider 10 million speakers a small number are off their
rocker. If you meet 5 new people every
day from you're 15 until you're 80 you will still not cram in more than 118 625 people in
total.

You're missing the point. Number of speakers is just a proxy for other things like amount
of media and cultural output, chance of meeting a speaker in a big city, etc.. If I'm in
a city like Boston and want to meet and perhaps befriend a Swedish speaker, I have to
really go out of my way. And the few people I do meet might not have personalities or
life situations that match mine, so a friendship would be rather forced. Now consider
Mandarin speakers in Boston. There are thousands of them. In fact most people probably
know a Mandarin speaker without having made any effort to meet one.

I think you are missing the point. I live in Sweden, but I guess I should should pick languages based on how
many Mandarin speakers there are in Boston? Guess what, you can live your entire life in Sweden or
Netherlands and still have a satisfying life with plenty of social relationships in those languages alone

Edited by anime on 14 August 2013 at 4:26pm
2 persons have voted this message useful

lichtrausch
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5770 days ago
525 posts - 1072 votes

Speaks: English*, German, Japanese
Studies: Korean, Mandarin

Message 50 of 75

14 August 2013 at 4:26pm | IP Logged

anime wrote:

I think you are missing the point. I live in Sweden, but I guess I should should pick
languages based on how
many Mandarin speakers there are in Boston? Guess what, you can live your entire life in
Sweden or
Netherlands and still have a satisfying life with plenty of social relationships in those
languages alone. It's
about quality for me, not quantity

The Mandarin speakers in Boston thing is what we call an example. Examples are often used
to illustrate a broader point.
4 persons have voted this message useful

I'm With Stupid
Senior Member
Vietnam
Joined 3983 days ago
165 posts - 349 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Vietnamese

Message 51 of 75

14 August 2013 at 5:23pm | IP Logged

tarvos wrote:

I have not even had trouble with finding
Icelandic speakers. My italki contact even
speaks Dutch!!!

But Icelandic people have by far the sexiest English accents in the world, so why would you want to discourage them from speaking anything other than English? ;)
1 person has voted this message useful

SamD
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6469 days ago
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Speaks: English*, Spanish, French
Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian

Message 52 of 75

14 August 2013 at 6:30pm | IP Logged

If I want to speak to a person or a group of people who speak a language, it doesn't really matter whether the language has a hundred or a hundred million speakers.

There are all sorts of reasons for learning a language, so I don't criticize anyone for learning a "smaller" language as Dutch. There is no precise agreement about how many languages are spoken in the world today, but the consensus seems to be somewhere around six thousand. I've found a list of most widely spoken languages on Wikipedia that shows Dutch somewhere around 45th place. It's not a huge language, but it seems considerably larger than average in that context.
1 person has voted this message useful

anime
Triglot
Senior Member
Sweden
Joined 6170 days ago
161 posts - 207 votes

Speaks: Spanish, Swedish*, English
Studies: German, Portuguese, French, Russian

Message 53 of 75

14 August 2013 at 6:58pm | IP Logged

lichtrausch wrote:

anime wrote:

I think you are missing the point. I live in Sweden, but I guess I should should pick
languages based on how
many Mandarin speakers there are in Boston? Guess what, you can live your entire life in
Sweden or
Netherlands and still have a satisfying life with plenty of social relationships in those
languages alone. It's
about quality for me, not quantity

The Mandarin speakers in Boston thing is what we call an example. Examples are often used
to illustrate a broader point.

Your point being? The only thing you seem to illustrate is that for you personally it makes more sense to learn
Mandarin than Dutch or Swedish
4 persons have voted this message useful

lichtrausch
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5770 days ago
525 posts - 1072 votes

Speaks: English*, German, Japanese
Studies: Korean, Mandarin

Message 54 of 75

14 August 2013 at 7:22pm | IP Logged

anime wrote:

Your point being? The only thing you seem to illustrate is that for you personally it
makes more sense to learn
Mandarin than Dutch or Swedish

If you still don't know what my original point was then reread the last few pages. I'm
not explaining everything all over again.
2 persons have voted this message useful

ScottScheule
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
scheule.blogspot.com
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645 posts - 1176 votes

Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French

Message 55 of 75

14 August 2013 at 8:06pm | IP Logged

anime wrote:

Your point being? The only thing you seem to illustrate is that for you personally it makes more sense to learn Mandarin than Dutch or Swedish

His point was that having more speakers is generally an advantage when selecting a language. Your argument--it only takes meeting one speaker!--is akin to saying it doesn't matter how many lottery tickets you buy: all you need is one ticket to win!

Correction: tarvos was the one who implied that "you only need one speaker." I mistakenly attributed this comment to anime.

Edited by ScottScheule on 14 August 2013 at 8:48pm
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shk00design
Triglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 4254 days ago
747 posts - 1123 votes

Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin
Studies: French

Message 56 of 75

14 August 2013 at 8:25pm | IP Logged

You have to consider your location as well. If you intend to travel to places where a
specific language is spoken, you'd learn the language. A lot of people are saying
Mandarin Chinese is the #1 in terms of numbers. But if you are on business in
neighboring Hong Kong, you are better off with Cantonese. If you happen to be in Mexico
or S. America where Spanish is spoken, Chinese wouldn't be much help.

People learn languages for their own reasons. I know 1 person who took Japanese classes
to impress his Japanese friends. They are quite fluent in English and he never got pass
the basics. Another person who goes to Japan frequently on business and on vacation put
in a lot more effort including completing language exams.

The classic case of Moses McCormick in the US who learned half-dozen languages for
interest (including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Georgian, Turkish, Arabic, etc.) Being
married to a Chinese wife he would be learning Chinese to communicate with the in-laws.
What are the chances you'd be travelling to all the places where the languages you
acquire are spoken?

1 person has voted this message useful

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