Languages You Can Learn at Home or/and Abroad

Guest   Wed May 28, 2008 11:59 am GMT
<<
<<Many times English (from England) movies are dubbed in America.>>

Yeah, right! Give me one link that can back that up.
>>

http://www.filmcritic.com/misc/emporium.nsf/reviews/The-Acid-House

Top of 4th paragraph.


Also, I recall seeing at least one BBC documentary rebroadcast here in the US where they've added subtitles when interviewing poor folks with very strong southern accents.
Guest   Wed May 28, 2008 12:13 pm GMT
<<
<<Many times English (from England) movies are dubbed in America.>>

Yeah, right! Give me one link that can back that up.
>>

http://www.filmcritic.com/misc/emporium.nsf/reviews/The-Acid-House

Top of 4th paragraph.


Also, I recall seeing at least one BBC documentary rebroadcast here in the US where they've added subtitles when interviewing poor folks with very strong southern accents.
Guest   Wed May 28, 2008 12:17 pm GMT
Official data of Spanish (Instituto Cervantes) and French (Francophonie):


Spanish (Español): 400 million native. Total speakers 500 million.


French(Français): 115 million native or similar. Other 60 million partial francophones?. Including second language speakers and students, 265 million total.

Portuguese: 200 million native. 230 total speakers.

Italian: 62 million native or similar level. 66 million total speakers.

Romanian: some 30 million speakers (including Moldavian).

So, Romance languages are spoken by more than 1 billion of speakers.
Xie   Wed May 28, 2008 1:57 pm GMT
This thread has gotten funny. The Chinese children only whine about verb conjugations, genders, and so on, and say both Chinese and European languages are freaking difficult.

So, they aren't motivated.

And you? You guys have been so freaking motivated to post numbers, to post matters of consequences, which is laughable to the little prince.

Are demographic figures all that important? :o)
little prince   Wed May 28, 2008 2:03 pm GMT
those arabs really are obsessed with numbers
Guest   Wed May 28, 2008 3:24 pm GMT
<<http://www.filmcritic.com/misc/emporium.nsf/reviews/The-Acid-House

Top of 4th paragraph.


Also, I recall seeing at least one BBC documentary rebroadcast here in the US where they've added subtitles when interviewing poor folks with very strong southern accents.>>

Your stupidity overwhelms me. From the same article and paragraph. "If you have spent any time around Brits or Scots from Yorkshire on up, you don’t actually need the subtitles."


<<Official data of Spanish (Instituto Cervantes) and French (Francophonie):


Spanish (Español): 400 million native. Total speakers 500 million.


French(Français): 115 million native or similar. Other 60 million partial francophones?. Including second language speakers and students, 265 million total.

Portuguese: 200 million native. 230 total speakers.

Italian: 62 million native or similar level. 66 million total speakers.

Romanian: some 30 million speakers (including Moldavian).

So, Romance languages are spoken by more than 1 billion of speakers.>>


Cervantes Institute and the Francophonie have no credibility, my friend. They include speakers who are limited to hola and bonjour. The other guy is right 350 million total!
Guest   Wed May 28, 2008 3:27 pm GMT
<<Cervantes Institute and the Francophonie have no credibility, my friend. They include speakers who are limited to hola and bonjour. The other guy is right 350 million total! >>

And what credibility do you have, poor demented?
Guest   Wed May 28, 2008 4:05 pm GMT
<<Your stupidity overwhelms me. From the same article and paragraph. "If you have spent any time around Brits or Scots from Yorkshire on up, you don’t actually need the subtitles.">>

Few Americans (United Statians) would have spent time around people from Yorkshire on up through Scotland, so they would need the subtitles.
Guest   Wed May 28, 2008 9:39 pm GMT
<<Few Americans (United Statians) would have spent time around people from Yorkshire on up through Scotland, so they would need the subtitles.>>


Again...more rubbish. Americans are exposed to a multitude of British accents through British media. Ask the Americans on this board. If they tuned in to a local radio station in Yorkshire or Edinburgh they would have no problem understanding.
United Statesian   Thu May 29, 2008 2:58 am GMT
<<If they tuned in to a local radio station in Yorkshire or Edinburgh they would have no problem understanding. >>

Radio and TV broadcasts are usually more clearly spoken that casual conversation. As a Statian, I have no problem listening to RP, or the Queen, Tony Blair, Lord Mountbatten , etc.

However, on conference calls to software developmemnt groups in the UK, I have a hard time understanding the participants at the other end whenever they chat among themselves (they're near Winchester, I think). Whenever they say something directly to us, they seem to slow down, so we can easily understand.
Guest   Thu May 29, 2008 3:47 am GMT
<<That is not true. They understand to each other perfectly because there are less differences than between American English and English English. I'm a native English speaker but can't understand the butchered English of many Frenchmen , Italians and Spaniards, not to mention Chinese or Japanese people. I can't even understand Scotish which is the same language than mine, at least in theory.>>


You are NOT a native english speaker.
Guest   Thu May 29, 2008 4:32 am GMT
<<
Yeah, right! Give me one link that can back that up.>>

The movie "Sweet Sixteen" (2003) by Ken Loach, was subtitled (the whole movie); but thats the only example I can think of.

I remember watching the movie on the Independent Film Channel and wondering "What language are they speaking?", and was shocked to find out that it was english. It was some really extreme, completely unintelligible dialect from Glasgow that I had guessed to be Gaelic or something.

I found it fascinating. Whatever they were saying didn't even begin to resemble the subtitles, so it was more than just a different accent.
Guest   Thu May 29, 2008 4:52 am GMT
THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DUBBED AND SUBTITLED!
Guest   Thu May 29, 2008 10:29 am GMT
Spanish has just 330 million native speakers and 20 million secondary/foreign speakers so the total number of speakers is only 350 million. Stop lying!
Guest   Thu May 29, 2008 12:38 pm GMT
You are right, but these data you write are from 10 years ago, at least. The new data are 400 m. native and 500 m. total speakers.

If you think that Instituto Cervantes, the University of Mexico, El Pais or the Spanish Government are lying, what can we think about the data of the Francophonie and French Government, my French mate?



Are demographic figures all that important?


Yes, Xie. The total speakers of a language and native speakers are very important. It is one of the most important properties to be considered World language.

Only 9 languages, Chinese, English, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, Russian, Portuguese, German and French are considered World languages, and only 2 of them (German and French) are not very spoken.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_language