Is Italian an important language these days?

Larissa   Sat Feb 04, 2006 3:53 pm GMT
Hey,
Do you think Italian is an important language these days? Nowadays, which language do you think is more important Italian or German? In general, do you think people learn Italian just because it's a very beautiful language or because it's a useful language especially in the fashion? If I'm not wrong, I think Italian is one of the most learned languages by Americans, actually the second just after Spanish. Correct me if I'm wrong.

See ya
Franco   Sat Feb 04, 2006 10:58 pm GMT
No italian is not useful. Much less important than German. It's not particularily beautiful. Yes lots of people learn it though I can't understand why.
Viola   Sun Feb 05, 2006 12:35 am GMT
If German were beautiful, German musicist would have written operas in German. Operas in german are rare (Magic flute). They preferred Italian.

For Western civilization, Italian is more important than Spanish, Portuguese, or even German. Italian literature is the best on Earth (together with the French one), and Italian painters were one of the best...
Viola   Sun Feb 05, 2006 12:38 am GMT
Italian is the language of culture, cuisine, music and fashion.
Try Umberto Ecco, Rafaello, Laura Pausini and Versace for some recent hypes.
Dude Who Knows   Sun Feb 05, 2006 1:28 am GMT
<<For Western civilization, Italian is more important than Spanish, Portuguese, or even German. Italian literature is the best on Earth (together with the French one), and Italian painters were one of the best... >>

It seems that you're speaking from a historical perspective, otherwise I don't see how any rational person could argue that Italian is a more important language than Portuguese, German, and especially Spanish. And I may be biased, but I serious doubt that most would consider Italian literature to be the best (whatever is meant by that) or most important. It's true that Italian works had a great influence on Europe, especially during the Renaissance, but the English language has produced an unbroken chain of great authors since then. Even before that, there were important works such as "Beowulf", "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", and "The Canterbury Tales". Finally, I don't see what relevance Italian painters have to a discussion of the importance of the Italian language.
Chinese   Sun Feb 05, 2006 4:41 am GMT
In China, especially these couples of years, the relationship between China and Italy has got along very well, we communicated so much on movies, music, culture, trade and economy, and more and more people began to like study Italian to adapt themselves to the flourish Friendship.

And in Tianjin, where I've been living in, we have a famous area of Italian architecture zone, and this year, Tianjin foreign language university has increased the student quota of Italian major, everything seems delectable.

In my opinion, objectively speaking, Italian is somewhat less important than German, French or Japanese for me, but Italian really sonds more beautiful than German or French, and we don't evaluate Italian's importance only based on obtaining employment, I think Italian would be a good choice for those people who has known some Spanish, and only in Europe, Spanish doesn't play a more important role than Italian, actually, no matter on Economy and Trading, Fashion design, or science and technology. Spanish is only very necessary in USA and Latin Ameica.

And Italian sounds much easier to pronounce than French, when I come across some French words, I often needed to look up dictionary to see the phonetic symbol, but it didn't happen when I read Italian words.
Sander   Sun Feb 05, 2006 5:03 am GMT
Dutch is definetely more important that Italian.
Chinese   Sun Feb 05, 2006 5:05 am GMT
From the point of view of an Asian, the rank of important languages, from the most important to least important, details as below:

1, English
2, Japanese
3, German
4, Italian
5, French
6, Spanish & Portuguese
7, Russian
Chinese   Sun Feb 05, 2006 5:17 am GMT
Sander

<Dutch is definetely more important that Italian.>


NO, Dutch is NOT more important that Italian, though a lot of Chinese are in Holand... It's not widely spoken, in fact.
*CarloS*   Sun Feb 05, 2006 5:35 am GMT
>>>NO, Dutch is NOT more important that Italian, though a lot of Chinese are in Holand... It's not widely spoken, in fact.<<<

Chinese are everywhere, just like Arabs and Japs.
Larissa   Sun Feb 05, 2006 7:19 am GMT
Guest Sun Feb 05, 2006 7:18 am GMT
"Sander Sun Feb 05, 2006 5:03 am GMT
Dutch is definetely more important that Italian." LOL, it's definetely NOT. Personally I know few people learning Dutch.


And one more question is Italian language one of the most learned languages in the USA? (1st being Spanish of course!) Which is the 2nd language most learned by American students?

Thanks in advance

Sorry, that guest was me!
Dude Who Knows   Sun Feb 05, 2006 8:06 am GMT
<<And one more question is Italian language one of the most learned languages in the USA? (1st being Spanish of course!) Which is the 2nd language most learned by American students?>>

I would venture to guess that the top three foreign languages studied in the United States are...

1. Spanish
2. French
3. German
Larissa   Sun Feb 05, 2006 8:20 am GMT
Dude Who Knows, thanks for the information!
Chinese   Sun Feb 05, 2006 8:51 am GMT
Who can tell me the top 3 foreign languages in United Kingdom, France, and Germany? Thanks!!!
Candy   Sun Feb 05, 2006 8:54 am GMT
In the UK, French is the first foreign language taught in schools. I've heard that Spanish has overtaken German as the second. In Germany, the first foreign language is English (compulsory for everyone) then French or Latin. Maybe Spanish is taught more these days, I'm not sure.