Useful languages

Carlos I de España   Sat May 29, 2010 7:04 am GMT
Tourism in Spain is far from being helpful to the economy.
Most money remains with the tourist operators in the UK, that bulk-purchase very cheap packages.

The average British visitor that arrives in Spain has already paid for his/her lodging and meals. He/she will just spend some money on booze and the damages derived from his/her drunken behavior far overweight any possible benefits for the country as a whole.

Residential tourism is a different issue and I would generally welcome it, as long as it brings quality people more interested in interacting with the locals, learn the language, etc.
Franco   Sat May 29, 2010 7:06 am GMT
German tourists are better than the English ones. The English are inferior people.
latino   Sat May 29, 2010 7:35 am GMT
La realidad es que el orgullo no nos deja ver porque para cada uno es importante su idioma, pero clasificandolas por TAMAÑO:

-----------------------
idioma global
globish (uso de 1000 palábras básicas del inglés con gramatica raríta,mi caso es un ejémplo ya que ni siquiera me atrevo a escribir el inglés pero entiendo a otro hablando su globhish)
-----------------------
idiomas universales ( segun el hemisferio en donde estemos y dichoso del que hable las tres)
idioma de américa y más zonas " basado en la koiné del antiguo español " ( y con vocabulario portugues /español, español /portugues con el tiempo) chino mandarín e inglés
------------------------
idioma muy importantes según la zona en la que estemos:
brasilero/portugues (con el tiempo subirá de estatus al unificarse poco a poco con el español ), hindú, ruso, árabe, indonesio, alemán, francés, persa, turco y suahiri (perdon si me he dejado alguno como el tibetano por ejémplo)
Enrico   Sat May 29, 2010 8:07 am GMT
iDell where did you get that Russian has overtaken English in Poland? What a bullshit, English is a number 1 language in Poland, next to German and French. I don't know anyone speaking or learning Russian, stop talking about something unless you know it better..
Irony   Sat May 29, 2010 9:26 am GMT
Have you ever been on a fucking holiday?
Most of the money is spent in the place where you go.
Trust me, I am a fucking expert on this, my last holiday started 6 years ago and it's not over yet. Not by a long fucking way.
iDell   Sat May 29, 2010 11:06 am GMT
<< iDell where did you get that Russian has overtaken English in Poland? What a bullshit, English is a number 1 language in Poland, next to German and French. I don't know anyone speaking or learning Russian, stop talking about something unless you know it better.. >>

Recently, Russian has overtaken English of having the most number of speakers as a foreign language in Poland.

The reason? Russian is very easy for the Poles to switch into or to speak since Russian is almost identical to Polish. It's a piece of cake to them and even without a formal study of the language.

Check this out.

Last Updated: Friday, 5 January 2007, 13:21 GMT
Poles return to Russian language
By Jan Repa
BBC News

Students at a library
Students see Russian as an asset in the world of business
The Russian language - once widely despised in Eastern Europe, when it was compulsory under communism - is making a comeback in Poland, a Polish newspaper reports.

The daily Rzeczpospolita says the incentive seems to be that many Western companies are stipulating a knowledge of Russian as a job requirement.

Estimates vary, but there are reckoned to be about 145 million people worldwide for whom Russian is their first language. About 120 million others have enough knowledge of Russian to conduct a conversation.

However, the break-up of the Soviet bloc was a major blow to the status of the Russian language - identified until then with one of the two acknowledged Cold War superpowers.

In former satellite countries like Hungary or Poland, knowledge of Russian dwindled rapidly - to be replaced by English and German.

Business incentive

In the former Soviet republics the picture is more mixed. Some 60% of Ukrainians, according to a recent opinion poll, agreed with the proposition that Russian should once again be given official status.

Rzeczpospolita cites what it says are a few telling figures.

At the University of Poznan in western Poland there were two candidates for every place on its Russian language course back in 1990. Lately the figure has been five or more.

The Russian Cultural Centre in Warsaw says there has been a 35% increase in the number of people enrolling for Russian language classes over the past year.

The paper quotes one academic as saying that young Polish people looking for good jobs with international companies expect to be asked about business studies diplomas and the like.

What comes as a surprise to them is to be told that they have a year to provide proof of competence in the Russian language.

Official support

President Vladimir Putin has declared 2007 to be the "Year of the Russian Language".

Estimates suggesting that the number of Russian speakers could shrink by almost a half over the next couple of decades appear to have given a new impetus to such efforts.

In fact, as the Polish case appears to suggest, the recent strong growth of the Russian economy is providing new incentives to learn a language once tainted by its association with foreign domination.

During the Soviet era, there seemed to be a common assumption - among many Russians at least - that Russian was destined to become the language of choice for the nations of the expanding "socialist camp".

Other languages would gradually decline - eventually becoming extinct or degraded to the status of local patois.

In most cases - though with some notable exceptions like Belarus - this proved to be an illusion.

Equally, the extent of the Russian language revival - at least where Poland is concerned - should not be exaggerated.

According to Rzeczpospolita, around 6% of secondary school students in Poland now matriculate in Russian - six times more than in French, but some way behind English and German.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6233821.stm
Damian in Edinburgh   Sat May 29, 2010 11:19 am GMT
The new British Home Secretary - a Conservative by the name of Theresa May - has begun to set out plans to over turn the enormous damage the previous Labpour Government has inflicted on British society through the binge drinkling epidemic among 18 to 30 year olds in this country, and its 24 hour licensing laws enabling the unlimited sale of alcohol much of it very cheap rate and often under the guise of "alcopops".

It is the biggest social problem facing the UK right now and the British will soon find that "getting pissed for the sake of getting pissed" will no longer be an easy option and already quite draconian means of dealing with this problem are already being formulated at Coalition Government level...starting with a law which will force all licensees to pay huge sums of money to pay for any drunken behaviour and mess caused by drunken louts and loutesses (the women are every bit as bad as the men and sometimes even worse) both on their premises or out on the streets facing their establishments.

Happy Hours, cheap rate booze in supermarkets, unrestricted sale of booze to minors, the carrying of booze in public and the drinking of booze in public, unrestricted opening hours and everything else which contributed to violence and disorder caused by alcohol, all made much easier under the crass Labour Government, will graduallty become a thing of the past.....hopefully.

As for Brtits getting drunk and causing trouble in Continental Europe - one has to ask just why oh why do the bar owners there keep on selling alcohol to Brits in the first place, often when it is quite clear that they have had enough? If that is the case then the fault lies with them if all they are interested in is the money they take in from those drunken British yobs and yobesses.
Franco   Sat May 29, 2010 11:22 am GMT
The British should not be allowed to buy alcohol in continental Europe. Period.
"   Sat May 29, 2010 6:41 pm GMT
@ iDell "The reason? Russian is very easy for the Poles to switch into or to speak since Russian is almost identical to Polish. It's a piece of cake to them and even without a formal study of the language."I am a native Polish speaker and I wouldn't say that Russian is almost identical! Where did you get this? From Wikipedia? Russian is a bit difficult for us they have dark L's, hafway soft consonants and reduced vowels, where in Polish basic vowels are identical to Spanish or Italian ones (a, e,i,o,u). They are neither long nor reduced in unstressed positions. From my point of view (and probably most Poles) Czech or Slovak are the easiest Slavic languages to learn.
iDell I suggest you to visit Poland one day, choose few big cities and ask teenagers in Russian, i wonder who will be able to understand you...
iDell   Sun May 30, 2010 2:16 am GMT
<< iDell I suggest you to visit Poland one day, choose few big cities and ask teenagers in Russian, i wonder who will be able to understand you... >>

They speak Russian much better because it's easier for them since the it's very similar to Polish and even if they speak English, it's basic and halting.

Most of the poles still speak Russian though no longer compulsory in schools.

The reason why they don't speak even though they know how is because of inhibition or skeptical due to their traumatic experience of communism in which Russian language is always associated with.

Now you go to Poland and pretend that you speak just Russian and no English and Polish.