Languages You Can Learn at Home or/and Abroad

Guest   Tue May 27, 2008 9:38 pm GMT
1 out of 5 people on earth speak English as a first or second language and that number grows by the day. Latin pidgins aren't even considered competition...

False. English is butchered by non natives. Have you ever heard people from developed countries like France speaking English? Most of them are far from fluent, so you only can consider native English speakers plus a few millions of non natives in Holland and Sweden, but they are 20 or 30 at most. The rest of non native English speakers speak butchered English. On the other hand 2 out of 5 people on Earth can speak a Romance language.
Guest   Tue May 27, 2008 9:46 pm GMT
<<On the other hand 2 out of 5 people on Earth can speak a Romance language. >>

So 2.7 billion people speak a romance language fluently or almost fluently?
Guest   Tue May 27, 2008 9:53 pm GMT
It's not a secret that people who learn Romance languages take them more seriously that English. In Arabic countries people speak French better than those who speak English do. World is satured with English and prefers Romance languages. Don't expect then that 90% of English students (those millions that you add up to reach to 1000 millions) speak more than badly butchered English. Even the Japanese say that Spanish is easier for them because Spanish and Japanese phonetics are very similar. A Japanese who studies both Spanish and English will pronounce Spanish better by far.
Guest   Tue May 27, 2008 10:09 pm GMT
Where do you come up with this rubbish? As a native English speaker, I've spoken to 2nd language speakers from every single continent and yes the accent is some times a little rough, but still very understandable. I think this is one of the many strengths of English. You can speak it really badly and use completely incorrect grammar and still be understood.

All you're saying could be said about the Latin based pidgins too. French people have enormous difficulty understanding non-native French speakers. The Latin based pidgins are also less standardize. There is a world of difference between Argentinian Spanish, Cuban Spanish and the Madrid standard. A lot of times they don't understand each other very well. It's even worse with French. The French spoken in Africa verges on creole.

You whine about the lack of perfection amongst foreign English speakers, but you Latins have trouble understanding other natives!
Guest   Tue May 27, 2008 10:21 pm GMT
<<A lot of times they don't understand each other very well. It's even worse with French. The French spoken in Africa verges on creole. >>

That is not true. They understand to each other perfectly because there are less differences than between American English and English English. I'm a native English speaker but can't understand the butchered English of many Frenchmen , Italians and Spaniards, not to mention Chinese or Japanese people. I can't even understand Scotish which is the same language than mine, at least in theory.
Guest   Tue May 27, 2008 10:36 pm GMT
<<They understand to each other perfectly because there are less differences than between American English and English English.>>

You are obviously not familiar with the different Spanish dialects...
Guest   Tue May 27, 2008 10:39 pm GMT
Yes I am but you are not familiar with the different English dialects. Many times English (from England) movies are dubbed in America.
Guest   Tue May 27, 2008 10:42 pm GMT
<<Many times English (from England) movies are dubbed in America.>>

Yeah, right! Give me one link that can back that up.
Guest   Tue May 27, 2008 10:49 pm GMT
K. T.   Tue May 27, 2008 11:18 pm GMT
Some comments:

"It's not a secret that people who learn Romance languages take them more seriously that English. In Arabic countries people speak French better than those who speak English do."

If one speaks or writes French poorly he/she won't be respected very much. I saw a very talented artist speak in French and the interviewer kept getting distracted by little errors in French the artist made.



"Even the Japanese say that Spanish is easier for them because Spanish and Japanese phonetics are very similar. A Japanese who studies both Spanish and English will pronounce Spanish better by far."

Of course. Then again, it ain't easy for Japanese to wrap their tongues around many languages. There aren't many sounds in Japanese and most Japanese are introverts, so you can see how difficult it is for people of this island country to master other languages even though NHK spoonfeeds them English at various levels and many, many languages are offered on TV and on radio. It's candyland for language lovers.
Guest   Wed May 28, 2008 12:21 am GMT
<<Then again, it ain't easy for Japanese to wrap their tongues around many languages.>>

You know, most educated native English speakers avoid "ain't" like the plague. Perhaps I set too high a standard...
Guest   Wed May 28, 2008 12:33 am GMT
Bush uses ain't as well.
K. T.   Wed May 28, 2008 12:40 am GMT
"You know, most educated native English speakers avoid "ain't" like the plague. Perhaps I set too high a standard..."

I use it for fun and to add a bit of regional colour. I live in the South.
Antonio Bandiere   Wed May 28, 2008 10:12 am GMT
<< European cities with biggest Muslim communities:

Marseille - 25% (200,000 of 800,000) (*), PACA region - 20% (0.7-1.0 million of 1.5 million) ( *)
Malmo - ~25% (*)
Amsterdam - 24% (180,000 of 750,000) ( *), Greater Amsterdam - 12.7% (*)
Stockholm - 20% (>155,000 of 771,038) ( *)
Brussels - ~20% (some say 33%) (*)
Greater London - 17% (1.3 million of 7.5 million) ( *)

Madrid doesn't appear. >>

Yeah but almost all Spanish have muslim or arab blood.
Guest   Wed May 28, 2008 10:15 am GMT
<< Spanish has less than 400 million native speakers and there is now way it has 100 million second language speakers. 450 million total max! It's probably more like 425.

French only has like 70 million native speakers and perhaps a 100 million 2nd language speakers. >>

Back off beaner!
Spanish is the native language of just 330 million and 2nd langauge of just 20 million.

On the other hand French is the mother language of 115 million people including those in Sub-Saharan Africa plus the secondary langauge of 250 million and the acquired language of 150 million people.