The weakness of English language

German guest   Fri Oct 16, 2009 4:19 pm GMT
American and English people convince us everyday that English is a strong language, but it is not true.

For example, if you consider which countries have English as the majority language, not considering Lilliput countries, they are only 6.

Only USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland and NZ can be considered Anglo countries.

If you think in German, only spoken in Central Europe, it is the language of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. So, the difference (6-3) is not so big.

PD. I really would like to Know the real number of English speakers with a proficiency level (mother tongue and bilingual people). I think that they are hardly 500 million people. German for example is spoken by some 150. The difference is not so big.
Anglo guest   Fri Oct 16, 2009 4:48 pm GMT
<<American and English people convince us everyday that English is a strong language, but it is not true.>>

Obviously, nothing is as strong as Chinese, especially as you try to look out into the future.
Blanc   Fri Oct 16, 2009 4:57 pm GMT
Well, French is really spoken in 4 countries, France, Canada, Belgium and Switzerland, considering the first post. The comparison with English is 6-4, almost the same.

French is spoken by some 175-200 million people, not very different figure from the 500 million that really speak English.

French power!
PARISIEN   Fri Oct 16, 2009 5:49 pm GMT
<< PD. I really would like to Know the real number of English speakers with a proficiency level (mother tongue and bilingual people). I think that they are hardly 500 million people. German for example is spoken by some 150. The difference is not so big. >>
<< French is spoken by some 175-200 million people >>

-- In addition to those 150 million German speakers (native + expert speakers) there are probably 50 millions who have some knowledge of German. Similarly, 100 to 200 additional million people know some broken French.

But those who can use a little bad English are probably 2 BILLION pr more on planet earth!
Broken basic English is the most successful language ever.


<< France, Canada, Belgium and Switzerland, considering the first post. The comparison with English is 6-4, almost the same >>

-- Yep, except that last time I checked, the USA had a sizeably larger population than French Switzerland.
random poster   Fri Oct 16, 2009 6:51 pm GMT
"So, the difference (6-3) is not so big."

That doesn't matter. What matters is the number of people speaking a certain language. There are about 400 million English speakers and about 100 million German speakers. So, English is four times bigger than German! Isn't that "big"?

Plus, the total number of people who have at least some knowledge of English is about two billions!

(My source: Wikipedia)

"American and English people convince us everyday that English is a strong language, but it is not true."

I don't understand your logic. English isn't a strong language, because the number of German speakers is about 1/4 of the number of English speakers?

In the end, it's easy to prove that English is a strong language: you posted here in English. You didn't even think of posting in German. Only a few know German here, but everybody know English.

Englisch ist die Königsprache der Welt und Deutsch ist kleine Sprache, die man nur im Europa spricht.
Caspian   Sat Oct 17, 2009 5:41 pm GMT
So, if there were 10 countries each the size of my dining room, with only one inhabitant in each country, each of which spoke only Lithuanian, would you then say that Lithuanian is a more important language than English because there are 11 countries (including Lithuania) where Lithuanian is the majority language and only 6 where English is?
nknk   Sun Oct 18, 2009 1:38 am GMT
Number of countries doesn't matter because for example, if USA or Canada decide to divide become smaller countries like the size of Spanish countries then you will have like 30 countries.
CID   Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:36 am GMT
<<Well, French is really spoken in 4 countries, France, Canada, Belgium and Switzerland, considering the first post. The comparison with English is 6-4, almost the same.
>>

French is partial in Belgium, Canada and Switzerland, being the mothertongue only in select regions.


Countries where English is spoken are vastly larger than those where French is spoken. The comparison is further apart than this.
Homme Fatal   Mon Oct 19, 2009 12:00 pm GMT
<< French is partial in Belgium, Canada and Switzerland, being the mothertongue only in select regions.


Countries where English is spoken are vastly larger than those where French is spoken. The comparison is further apart than this. >>

But French has more secondary speakers than English 190 million for the former and just 150 million for the latter according to George Weber.

English speakers in India are not counted as secondary speakers because Hindi and other vernacular languages of India are used in the official level much often than English.
Homme Fatal   Mon Oct 19, 2009 12:05 pm GMT
In addition, Francophone Africans speak French as if it is their native language.

English Africans on the other hand speak broken English and at a very basic level. There was an instance that an individual used "mouth of the house" instead of "door" and "children of the hand" instead of "finger".

It's so clear that English speaking Africans struggle with their English while Francophone Africans are so fluent and articulate in French
Guest   Mon Oct 19, 2009 1:20 pm GMT
It's so clear that English speaking Africans struggle with their English while Francophone Africans are so fluent and articulate in French


Not true. French African speakers speak a sort of creole.
Visitor   Tue Oct 20, 2009 4:28 am GMT
<< Not true. French African speakers speak a sort of creole. >>

Oh you mean the Andalusians, Hispanic Americans, and Canary Islanders speak a Papiamento/Chamorro/Chavacano like Spanish.

At least they have switched from their vernacular languages to creaole which is closer to French as their first language. Not bad. Eventually they will switch to Standard French from Creole as their first language as opposed to Hispanic Americans from Castilian to a Papiamento/Chamorro/Chavacano like Spanish in the near future.

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Paul   Tue Oct 20, 2009 6:42 am GMT
I think statistics on language in africa aren't reliable, and french is probably far more widespread and firmly rooted in west africa then its purported to be.

I've come across too many african immigrants here in the U.S (from Mali, Senegal, ivory coast, etc) that were utterly and hopelessly francophone.
guest   Tue Oct 20, 2009 12:24 pm GMT
Canada is more of an anglo-franco country, because of its large french-speaking minority. I don't know why it is always included as a core anglo country. It is not.
Guest   Tue Oct 20, 2009 12:28 pm GMT
Spanish speaking population in USA is bigger in terms of percentage than the French speaking community in Canada.