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The most spoken language in 2050 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4293 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 105 of 115 28 January 2015 at 9:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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From my experience with conversations since starting Spanish in 2003, and from seeing
how Hispanophones react both near me and on television or in the media, if I had to rate Spanish speakers on a list of a gradient on the readiness to switch to English, I would put them close to last on the list, if not last, at least for European languages. No matter how poor your accent is, or low your level is, if you are A0.1 even or maximum A1, Spanish speakers tend to take the time to talk with you. Many other speakers of other languages would just automatically switch for Anglophones, or those who cannot speak their language to a B2 level. With Spanish speakers, however, even if you take 20 seconds to construct a simple sentence, they accommodate you, many times even speaking slower if they notice that you struggle, rather than just quit overall and switch to English (which is probably impossible given the generally very poor level of English, coupled with many do not want to speak it anyway). If you mean business language in that if Spanish speakers would rather conduct business in English or their own language (Spanish), I would very much say that it would be the latter. The UNASUR, CELAC, MECOSUR, and other multinational organisations in Latin America already conduct their business in Spanish. I am pretty sure that businesses in Spain would much rather conduct business in Spanish (they already do with Latin America). Addition: This is not only limited to their own countries, when Spanish speakers move abroadwards, they are also more comfortable to speak in Spanish there as well. When I live in the UK, there are quite a few Spanish, especially tapas restaurants. The staff, however, are mostly Spanish migrants, i.e. people from Spain due to the Schengen Free Movement agreement. They speak English to a certain level for the customers who are British obviously, and everything is just fine. But when I speak Spanish with them, their faces light up, and they are just happier to speak like this than just the regular English with other customers, that is at least how I felt. In the USA, there are a lot of Latin American restaurants, especially in California. They can speak rudimentary English, if they man the till, but I can see that many still cannot speak English and apparently probably have no plans to learn. But when I speak Spanish, the effect is quite noticeable that they speak much more than with Anglophones in English. They also seem happier to speak in Spanish. I am not sure if this is really a "business deal", but in terms of everyday life, I have the impression that Hispanophones prefer to do things in their own language, regardless of whether their interlocutor is native or non-native. Edited by 1e4e6 on 28 January 2015 at 11:03pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7208 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 106 of 115 28 January 2015 at 9:58pm | IP Logged | ||
I saw Planet of the Apes, and they didn't speak like that. BTW, your Ad Culum Fallacy is funny. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| daristani Senior Member United States Joined 7147 days ago 752 posts - 1661 votes Studies: Uzbek | Message 107 of 115 29 January 2015 at 7:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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Here's a recent article by a linguist on essentially the same issue, with a (very!) large number of comments:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/what-the-world-will-speak-in-211 5-1420234648 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ScottScheule Diglot Senior Member United States scheule.blogspot.com Joined 5231 days ago 645 posts - 1176 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French | Message 108 of 115 29 January 2015 at 8:01pm | IP Logged | ||
Popular article? On linguistics? I suspect the author's McWhorter... and I click the link, and lo and behold. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Mad Max Tetraglot Groupie Spain Joined 5054 days ago 79 posts - 146 votes Speaks: Spanish*, French, English, Russian Studies: Arabic (classical) | Message 109 of 115 31 January 2015 at 8:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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Besides, demolinguistics is very difficult. It is impossible to measure accurately the
number of speakers of an international language. For example,how many people speak English in India or Africa? Should we consider only people with English as mother tongue and bilinguals, or also people with a medium level of knowledge? The same with Spanish in Brazil or in the USA. A Brazilian with a basic knowledge of Spanish can understand a conversation with Hispanics. So, we can add a lot of Brazilians as Spanish speakers. It is also almost impossible to know all people that speak French in Africa, from Morocco to Congo. A lot of people from French Africa can write and speak French, but in different degrees of understanding. The language fluency changes completely the number of speakers. For instance, if we consider only people that speak English with complete competence and mastery in the language (mother tongue speakers and bilinguals), there are some 550 million people. On the opposite end of the spectrum if we consider people who know enough phrases to get around as a tourist in London, there are over 1 billion of English speakers. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Stolan Senior Member United States Joined 4035 days ago 274 posts - 368 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Thai, Lowland Scots Studies: Arabic (classical), Cantonese | Message 110 of 115 31 January 2015 at 10:12pm | IP Logged | ||
If there is someone who is so knowledgable, free from Eurocentrism, and right on, while often buying into some Eurocentric myths at the same time, it's good ol' John. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4293 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 111 of 115 17 February 2015 at 2:29am | IP Logged | ||
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I thought that this was a rather comical but true display of how [un]seriously English
is taken in Hispanophone countries and why a low priority and resistance to English plays a role in why Spanish and other languages can match and supercede English as other languages build up their own media and economic power: This is a travel programme from Spain wherein Spanish narrators travel round the world to present different countries and cities. Planeta Finito: Noruega The narrator says, which to me sounds like to impress Hispanophones about how Norwegians are good at languages, El idioma es el noruego, bastante difícil de pronunciar, y con letras que no resultarán familiares. Para entenderse, lo mejor: el inglés. En la televisión, no se doblan las películas, sólo los programas infantiles. Por eso, ¡son casi todos bilingües! in English: The [official] language is Norwegian, quite difficult to pronounce, with letters that are not similar [to Spanish]. To be understood, better to go with English. Films are not dubbed in television, only children's programmes. Because of this, almost all [of Norwegians] are bilinguals! The presenter insists on speaking Spanish whilst in Norway instead of using English (or Norwegian), and says to the camera: Pues yo en inglés como en noruego, ¡no lo entiendo ni lo hablo! EN: Well, my speaking English is like Norwegian, I do not understand it nor do I speak it! Then asks a nearby Norwegian woman: Oye, por favor, por favor, el centro, quiero ir al centro--centro--¡centro! I must add that I have witnessed things like this before. Both when I arrived at Bergen Aeroport and was in the check-in to depart, I heard Spanish tourists speaking Spanish to Norwegian officials about the directions of where their departure gates, the restaurants, how to find some free guides for tourism, etc. No Norwegian, which was understandable (well not really, I think that anyone should learn rudimentary language of the country that they visit, but that is another story), but also no English. Edited by 1e4e6 on 17 February 2015 at 2:43am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5433 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 112 of 115 17 February 2015 at 2:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think too much is being made of this idea that Spanish-speakers are resistant to other languages or are
consciously avoiding English. Whilst it's certainly true that the Spanish-speakers countries may have low levels of foreign language skills, this is because there has been little need for them. On the other hand, when the need appears, the response inevitably appears as well. In Spain today, I am quite sure that vast numbers of young people are learning English (and other languages) for the purpose of finding jobs in other countries. And what about languages to serve the many tourists visiting Spain? Sure, it's not like English in the Scandinavian countries, but I'm sure that all parents in Spanish-speaking countries want their children to know a foreign language, most likely English. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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