Is Italian an important language these days?

Frank   Sun Feb 05, 2006 10:14 am GMT
Here in Belarus, Italian is not studied at schools, only in some philological universities. Still, there are quite a number of people who are learning it -- either by themselves or attending some courses. I'd say some of them are girls who have been to Italy and (or) have Italian boyfriends:))) Some people learn it for business because nowadays there are some economic relationships between Belarus and Italy (more than e.g. with France or Spain).
Personally I know many people who like Italian. Some of them know it to some extent. But as for me I tried to learn it but gave up quickly. Not that it's hard, just there's lack of interest I guess. Somehow I prefer Dutch:)))
bernard   Sun Feb 05, 2006 10:19 am GMT
in France english is the first foreign language, spanish is second nd Geman third. Italian would be fourth.
Larissa   Sun Feb 05, 2006 10:31 am GMT
Chinese, I live in France so I got the top 3 (even the top 4) foreign languages studied in France:

1. English (as everywhere else in Europe, except the UK, of course)
2. Spanish (surely because France and Spain are neighbors and because of the raising importance of Spanish in the world)
3. German (actually the number of German learners in France goes down each year)
4. Italian
CHINESE   Sun Feb 05, 2006 1:37 pm GMT
Apart from Germanic languages, only among Romance languages, do you think that Italian is the least important and least useful language, if it compared with Spanish, Portuguese, and French? Thanks!!!
Guest   Sun Feb 05, 2006 1:40 pm GMT
The Latin language with the smallest number of speakers is Romanian .
Guest   Sun Feb 05, 2006 1:43 pm GMT
the rank would be:

Spanish
Portuguese
French
Italian
Romanian


And in a lower rank the latin dialects such as: corsican, catalan, asturian
CHINESE   Sun Feb 05, 2006 1:46 pm GMT
yes, thanks, and I know Romance languages includes Romanian, but I didn't count it in my question, so I would like to know the right anwser.
CHINESE   Sun Feb 05, 2006 1:47 pm GMT
Guest

oh i see thank you so much indeed...
CHINESE   Sun Feb 05, 2006 1:50 pm GMT
And I wondered why Italian doesn't have a good popularity in Europe!
CHINESE   Sun Feb 05, 2006 1:52 pm GMT
because Italy has only less than 60,000,000 populations or what else?
Damian in Edinburgh   Sun Feb 05, 2006 3:02 pm GMT
No Language is "more important" than any other except to the native born speakers of the Language in question. To a guy from Bucharest the the most important Language is Romanian, and a Latvian lassie from Riga would plump for her own.

On the wider stage Italian definitely has and has deserved a very high level of importance....very much a Romance Language which sprang from the Latin and Latin sprang from Italy itself and Latin can reasonably called the Mother Language and a basis for the Romance Languages. All Romance Languages are very pleasant on the ear and just listening to them you have mental images of deep blue Mediterranean skies, a deep blue Mediterranean sea, cypress trees and olive groves, cool stucco villages with beige coloured houses with rust red roofs with windows with shutters and verandahs crammed with flower baskets all clinging precariously to the hillsides overlooking the sea and twisty, winding roads climbing those self same hillsides to more villages and abbey churches and monasteries and tiny wee restaurants and cafes with the wafting aroma of garlic and yummy food......all perched on the rocky summits. Sunbaked Southern Europe awash with Riomance Languages.

Germanic Northern Europe.....skies not quite so blue and the sunshine not quite so hot... the Languages a wee bit more harsh and commercial.....Romance gives way to more of the concrete greyness of the metropolitan reality and the urban myths. That's fun too, in it's way......but as for the importance of passion and romance, Italian is quite a way out in front.
Italian has opera   Tue Feb 07, 2006 2:06 am GMT
Italian is important to some because of opera, musical notation and the Roman Catholic Church. Because of opera, music and Vatican many non Italians learn Italian. Plus , notwithstanding what Franco says it is the most beautiful spoken language.
Chinese   Tue Feb 07, 2006 8:38 am GMT
As a matter of fact, within the limits of Europe, Italy has been playing a more important role than Spain or Portugal in so many respects.

But within the limits of Latin America, lacking for Italian-speaking countries put Italian at a very disadvantage position.

So if Latin American people all speak Italian instead of Spanish or Portuguese, Italian would be the most popular, important and useful one among Romance languages, at that time, Italian would be spoken worldwide, but it's just an impractical imagination.
Guest   Tue Feb 07, 2006 1:42 pm GMT
in France, the most studied is spanish
Anechka   Tue Feb 07, 2006 9:35 pm GMT
In Croatian schools, English is (obviously) the most important foreign language, and in 95% (last year's statistics) it was the first foreign language taught to children. The rest 5% were taught German as first foreign language, along with a couple of exceptions which did French.
When it comes to second foreign language, or foreign language studied in gymnasiums, it varies depending on the part of the country. In the continental part, I'd say, German (definetely) and French are somehow the most popular, followed by Italian and Spanish (which fairly recently became more popular language with students).
In the coast part, au contraire, it is indeed Italian (senz'altro ;)) and all the other languages are less popular than Italian, doubtlessly due to the fact that some parts of coastal region, such as Istria, are closely connected to Italy and have many Italian speaking people, or practically bilingual population.

But to actually answer your question (the above written just for comparison), I don't think Italian is seriously useful language unless you are somehow connected to Italy, its people or plan to go there. Personally I enjoy Italian and love it, but it'd definetely be more useful to study German (especially considering Croatia's historic relationships with Germany).
Still I think that Italian is in Croatia more popular than Spanish (which is globally very popular language), and I hope it remains that way. ;)