Why the french prefer spanish instead of english

Mucamba   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 18:16 GMT
Spanish is becoming more and more effective actually. Many french use spanish and have more opportunities in their professionnal life. Will the englsih be useless?
John   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 21:34 GMT
Maybe it's quite possible.
JJM   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 22:19 GMT
Dream on!
bernard   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 22:40 GMT
in southern Europe english is useless, in latin america too. In most african countries english is completly useless.
JJM   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 22:43 GMT
As I said - dream on!
peter   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 22:53 GMT
I agree ! Nobody speaks english in Southern Europe mostly Spanish, Italian,French...

English is a good tool in Scandinavia and globally in general after Spanish
Cro Magnon   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 23:07 GMT
English is still the most useful language in the world. However Spanish is probably #2, it's growing rapidly, and it's easier for a Frenchman to learn than English.
bernard   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 23:12 GMT
" As I said - dream on! "

You are dreaming that english would be spoken everywehere in the world, and that this language would be the second language for everyone. This is FALSE.

it is amazing to see the northern european tourists in the mediterranean regions being completly anable to communicate with locals. The smae occurs in latin America.
Travis   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 23:19 GMT
Of course, you could view things the other way around, and say that the Mediterranean region and Latin American aren't the whole world either.
JJM   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 23:20 GMT
You are dreaming if you conflate the importance of Spanish worldwide with the importance of English.
Travis   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 23:20 GMT
That should be "Latin America" in my previous post above.
Kirk   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 23:31 GMT
<<in southern Europe english is useless, in latin america too>>

Haha. You have no idea what you're talking about. Have you been to Latin America? I heard Latin Americans speaking English and desiring to practice it all the time while I was living in Argentina and traveling around the Southern Cone. I speak Spanish so I didn't need to use English, but I was surprised at the places English sometimes showed up. I think I've mentioned before on this forum where one time I went into a convenience store in Buenos Aires and the (Argentine) lady behind the counter was lecturing Argentine schoolkids on the nature of English phrasal verbs...all in English. Or sometimes I'd be on the bus in Buenos Aires and hear two Argentines practicing their English together. The sheer preponderance of English language institutes and ads all over the place encouraging people to improve their English are evidence enough that English is not considered "useless" there. Now, it may not be like places like Sweden, where almost anyone has a great knowledge of English, but English isn't "useless" at all in many places in Latin America.
bernard   Saturday, June 04, 2005, 23:32 GMT
" You are dreaming if you conflate the importance of Spanish worldwide with the importance of English. "

I don't speak necessary of spanish. I didn't say that spanish is spoken worldwide. I just said there is a lot of places in the world where english is not speoken or ver few spoken. English is not the the "second" language of every country everywhere. Expecting that english should be spoken in countries that already use others languages as second language is seen as very arrogant and deeply unrespecfull. It is important for anglosphones and northern european peoples to understand that latin-europe is not northern europe.
Riko   Sunday, June 05, 2005, 00:27 GMT
English unfortuneatly has Castilian/Spanish stomped on effectively. I live in Finland, and I can say that English has virtually become the 3rd national language after Finnish and Swedish. Anything dealing with 'international' events or ideas is usually presented entirely in English. All 'international' degree programs at universities and polytechnics are done in English. Castilian is still very popular though, after English and German it is probably the most popular, especially because Finns can pronounce Spanish with virtually no accent whereas when the speak in English they sound like shit.

A language that is spoken by 600 million people is far from being worthless. Castilian is the second national language of the United States, the world's only superpower, but the disconnect between the Spanish speaking community in the USA, European Spanish, and Latin American Spanish is a a chasm that has yet to be reached. You can't have an effective language if its base is unstable, and Spain is obviously the base of Spanish, and still to this day unstable. With all the regions (catalonia, basque country, galicia, asturias) wanting to tear themselves apart and turn Spain into the Yugoslovia of the 21st century. It also doesn't help that for all the potential of Latin America there is still immense poverty and inequality in all those countries. There is also no francophony, CPLP, or commonwealth to bring together all Spanish speaking countries, from the US to Equatorial Guinea.

These problems don't exist in the English speaking world, so I think English will remain the lingua franca of humankind.
Kirk   Sunday, June 05, 2005, 01:03 GMT
<<It also doesn't help that for all the potential of Latin America there is still immense poverty and inequality in all those countries.>>

What does that have to do with anything?! Your socioeconomic status does not mean your status or capability as a Spanish speaker is any less.

<<Finns can pronounce Spanish with virtually no accent whereas when the speak in English they sound like shit.>>

I've met Finns with impressive English.

<<but the disconnect between the Spanish speaking community in the USA, European Spanish, and Latin American Spanish is a a chasm that has yet to be reached.>>

What "disconnect?" Do you mean culturally? Or are you implying they can't understand each other? What do you mean??

<<You can't have an effective language if its base is unstable, and Spain is obviously the base of Spanish, and still to this day unstable.>>

Why is Spain the "base" of Spanish and why is it "unstable" regarding the language anyway? Your arguments make little sense.