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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| DaisyMaisy Senior Member United States Joined 5165 days ago 115 posts - 178 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish Studies: Swedish, Finnish | Message 49 of 119 30 December 2013 at 4:24am | IP Logged | |||||
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I have to say I haven't encountered anyone who believed learning another language was unpatriotic. Certainly there are a lot of people who just don't see the point, or that's it's too hard, or the infamous "everyone speaks English anyway". I'm sure there are some fanatics who think it is unpatriotic, but I don't think that's a widespread view.
I think the vast majority of monolingual Anglophones don't learn another language because they just don't really have to. Learning another language is hard, and most people aren't motivated to do it. It will be interesting to see how many English speaking Americans will learn Spanish as it becomes more and more useful for daily life. There are already a lot of jobs that prefer or require bilingual English/Spanish so knowing Spanish will become more and more of an asset I think. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4075 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 50 of 119 30 December 2013 at 5:09am | IP Logged | |||||
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Unfortunately I hvave heard such statements directly to me, usually who were
acquaintances, or from someone during a function such as a dinner or just passing comments, either not to me or to me. Luckily I was taught that no one should be expected to learn English from childhood. In fact, my first attempt at a language was when I received a self-teaching book for Czech when five years old during a trip to the bookstore. I barely managed to learn anything except the alphabet and its pronunciation, but this is different from some people whom I have met who will refuse to even learn to say "Hello", "Please", "Goodbye", "Where is/are...?" in other languages, even those wherein they holiday, at any age. I also remember in Anglophone countries that at times if I spoke a language other than in English in public, I was mistaken for a foreigner. Until I switch to English and they hear my accent, then they become confused and surprised. Edited by 1e4e6 on 30 December 2013 at 5:39am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4154 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 51 of 119 01 January 2014 at 6:48pm | IP Logged | |||||
To be fair though, at the end of November the thing going around Facebook was scans of US maps filled in by British students. Poor Midwestern states--nobody knows where they are! I've never actually heard anyone here say that learning other languages was unpatriotic. I've heard a lot of offensive remarks about other countries and cultures, but the one thing that nobody has criticized was my decision to learn other languages. I'm sure that attitude exists, but I doubt it's very widespread. Most people here are more likely to just not see the point in learning languages than to be outright hostile toward them. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6382 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 52 of 119 01 January 2014 at 8:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
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But if Americans expect the whole world to know their states, then Russians can expect everyone to know our 83 "federal subjects".
(on those maps some Americans marked Ukraine and Turkey as Russia) Edited by Serpent on 01 January 2014 at 8:03pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| milesaway Triglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 4116 days ago 134 posts - 181 votes Speaks: French, English*, Russian Studies: Finnish, Sign Language | Message 53 of 119 01 January 2014 at 9:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Out of curiosity, how many Russians know all the federal subjects? I know about 6 of them
I think, 10 max. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| culebrilla Senior Member United States Joined 3782 days ago 246 posts - 436 votes Speaks: Spanish | Message 54 of 119 01 January 2014 at 9:27pm | IP Logged | |||||
My ex South American girlfriend didn't know the current president of her country; there were elections like a year ago and she didn't know! I did. Exceptions exist, thankfully to the idea that Americans don't learn about foreign countries. :) But really, the most influential countries are those that people know a lot about. Like the US, European countries, China, Japan, Brazil, etc. How much did you guys know about Mali before the French intervention recently? Crickets, crickets. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6382 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 55 of 119 02 January 2014 at 12:24am | IP Logged | |||||
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And how many Americans know all the states? I don't know all the Russian federal subjects myself but I think it's very arrogant to consider knowing a big country's administrative units more important than the countries of the former USSR or former Yugoslavia or just relatively small European countries.
3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4492 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 56 of 119 02 January 2014 at 12:29am | IP Logged | |||||
I knew that its capital was Bamako and that it was under French rule. Also that most of the country was desert and that many Malinese football players play in France and Belgium. Not much, but you see, there's no reason to toot your horn that you know more than someone else. Some of us do read an atlas or go outside once in a while. I can't name all of the Russian federations, but I know roughly where the major towns and cities are. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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