Arrogance and Learning English!!!

greg, I'm trying to give ammunition to the people who say that English is not a 'universal language'!!!!!! So they can say, 'look, people don't learn it in Ukraine, or Peru, or Mongolia' or wherever, and strengthen their argument!!!! For God's sake, there are at least 100 million children in the world who don't go to school at all. As long as hundreds of millions of people throughout the world are illiterate or dyslexic, OBVIOUSLY they won't be able to write English either!! But that wasn't my question, greg, was it???

FFS, it's getting impossible to discuss anything here at all without hostility or argument. I thought I'd posed a reasonable question. I've had enough of this goddamn forum.

It's just greg being a pompous, higher than holy, goody-2-shoes

[Damian hands Candy a glass of brandy - Cognac! ;-) ]

CANDY: Dinnae fret, lassie. M Greg never misses an opportunity to be negative about either the English Language.... or of the country that gave birth to it. The gentleman merely demonstrates typical Gallic Anglophobia. LOL

Come on Candy, sip your brandy and chill......il vraiment n'importe pas du tout!

M. Damian d'Ecosse, "il vraiment n'importe pas du tout!" should be "ca n'est vraiment pas important".

"ça"

To Mxsmanic

"It amazes me that anyone would be arrogant solely on the basis of language. Language is just a tool for communication"

I don't agree with you in this point. Language is much more than a tool for a communication. The way of express our humour sense is very different from one language to other, for example, and our feelings can be expressed in a different way as well. I can express cetain feelings in Spanish but I cannot in English or French.

Cognac received and enjoyed, Damian (it's a bit early in the day, but what the hell!) :-) And you even picked my favourite drink, clever man!

Georges: Damian has a very endearing habit of writing rather inaccurate, somewhat anglicised French which is easily understandable to English speakers (well, to me anyway!) I still cherish the memory of 'work out' translated as ' travailler hors'! :-)

"ca n'est vraiment pas important".
ça -> ce

"I don't agree with you in this point. Language is much more than a tool for a communication. The way of express our humour sense is very different from one language to other, for example, and our feelings can be expressed in a different way as well. I can express cetain feelings in Spanish but I cannot in English or French."

Javier,
You mean language is more than just a tool in a cultural context.

<<FFS, it's getting impossible to discuss anything here at all without hostility or argument. I thought I'd posed a reasonable question. I've had enough of this goddamn forum.>>

Now, this is getting ridiculous, I will be glad to tell you (Candy) that you will never win an argument over here and "goddamn" is just the beginning. I should also mention that so far, "I OPPOSE EVERYTHING YOU'VE SAID ON THIS TOPIC."

Need another drink?, maybe this time a VODKA.

GEORGES: As my friend Candy says, I translate literally.....I always guess it will be wrong in the eyes of native French speakers...but maybe it makes you chuckle? Anyway, thanks for pointing my error out to me.......it's noted mentally.

I enjoy reading errors made in English by non native speakers...eg notices in English displayed in hotels outside the UK in non English speaking countries. I will try and find some on the net....can't think of one at the moment except the classic in a French hotel: "There is a French widow in every bedroom".

Candy...it's not often I'm called endearing as far as I'm aware but it's nice! Thanks! Danke! Merci! Grazie! Gracias! Diolch! Tak!

Candy : il n'y a de l'hostilité que dans ma maladresse ou ton imagination.
:)

Damian en Ecosse : tu pourrais changer de leitmotiv car répéter la même antienne ne constitue pas un argument. On reste dans le Pavlov (puisqu'on parle de vodka...).
:)

greg, I'm not bothering to read any more non-English posts in the 'English' section.

Stan: << I should also mention that so far, "I OPPOSE EVERYTHING YOU'VE SAID ON THIS TOPIC." >>

Yeah, I got that, honey. That alone tells me I'm right to think the way I do. I deem it an honour and a privilege to be disagreed with by people like you - I presume you're the same Stan as on langcafe. People like you are the reason I hate this forum sometimes. It's only the nice and sane ones like Damian and Uriel (HI GUYS!) who make it worthwhile.

BTW, by saying you disagree with EVERYTHING I've said here, you mean that you disagree with my statement << I have never said anywhere (nor do I believe) that everybody in the world speaks English, needs to, or even should. I live in Germany and I know lots of people who don't speak it, or only a few words, because they don't need to. And why should they? >> on page 3 above. But if you'd actually read my posts, instead of lashing out at what you *presume* my views are, you'd know that, wouldn't you?

<<Need another drink?, maybe this time a VODKA. >>
From you? Nah, it would taste far too bitter. I only accept drinks from friends.

"Estimates of how many people speak a language can never be completely precise and therefore vary considerably. However, EnglishEnglish.com, together with World English, have come up with the following figures: Mandarin Chinese (837,000,000), English (370,000,000), Spanish (300,000,000), Bengali (189,000,000), Hindi/Urdu (182,000,000), Arabic (174,950,000), Portuguese (170,000,000), Russian (170,000,000), Japanese (125,000,000), German (98,000,000), Javanese (79,000,000), French (75,000,000)"

Dear Candy, I suppose you will agree with me that Mandarin Chinese is the language spoken by a majority of the world's population. Even though the British Council puts the estimate of the speakers of English (to a tolerable extent) at 750,000,000 people, it still doesn't match up to the Mandarin Chinese (which is also going up).

The number of people believed to speak English as a second language is around 375 million (included in the 750 million of the British Council). More than a Billion people are in the "process" of learning English.

The real issue everyone should focus on are the reasons over a billion people are in the process of learning English, I believe this will put to rest the arguments once and for all.

If anyone concludes with the full approval of his/her conciense that they are morally justifiable reasons, then I rest my arguement (I shall speak no more of the issue). It seems I'm the only one who is scared of the prospect of having a universal language and its consequencies, more like a universal president and its ramifications.

that posting was from me, forgot to put my name. What do you all think?