Anglophones' Linguistic Preference

Gue$T   Wed Aug 13, 2008 10:25 pm GMT
I have made a little chart to determine which is the most useful language (between French and Spanish) to learn for the English-speaking countries around the world.

Canada: French (because of Quebec and the rest of French Canada)

South Africa: French (because of French Africa)

UK: French (because of the physical and linguistic proximity)

Australia: French or Spanish (No preference)

USA: Spanish (because of former Spanish colonies and immigrants)
Guest   Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:44 pm GMT
I wonder how the hispanics will justify this one, it makes total sense to me.
Gue$+   Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:59 pm GMT
Australia might as well go for French since the UK, Canada, and South Africa all prefer to learn French instead.

There is a natural and obvious tendency for Anglophones to learn French, it has FAR more cognates and similar words than any other latin language. For example:

EN: Civilization
FR: Civilization

But...

ES: Civilización
IT: Civilizzazione
PT: Civilização


Also, in some grammatical aspects, English resembles French so much more than other latin languages. For example:

EN: I think.
FR: Je pense.

But...

ES: Pienso
IT: Penso


That's not to mention the historical rivalry between the two countries and the colonies they have once shared (simaltaneously or not). For example:

Egypt
Canada
India
Mauritius
Cameroon
USA
St. Vincent and the Grenadines

... etc.
Guest   Thu Aug 14, 2008 12:25 pm GMT
<<I wonder how the hispanics will justify this one, it makes total sense to me. >>

I suppose they could point out that the US is bigger than the other 4 countries, so a good portion of anglophones end up learning Spanish these days.

BTW -- I suppose you could add Ireland and New Zealand to this list.
Guest   Thu Aug 14, 2008 1:24 pm GMT
<<I wonder how the hispanics will justify this one, it makes total sense to me. >>

It is also very important the tendencies in UK, for instance. French decreases in the number of students every year. Spanish increases the number of students every year.

So, French is more studied than Spanish in UK, but how many years?
Guest   Thu Aug 14, 2008 1:44 pm GMT
At the same time, in some areas of the English Canada, Spanish is more studied than French. That is the tendency also in Ireland, Australia and NZ.
Guest   Thu Aug 14, 2008 3:06 pm GMT
<<I wonder how the hispanics will justify this one, it makes total sense to me. >>


And when the French fanatics say that nobody speaks Spanish in Latin America, How can you justify this?

They would like to see Latin America like west africa where nobody speaks French as their mother tongue, but unfortunately for the French fanatics, this is not the case.
Guest   Thu Aug 14, 2008 3:12 pm GMT
<<It is also very important the tendencies in UK, for instance. French decreases in the number of students every year. Spanish increases the number of students every year.>>

Yes, BBC and British government say the same (Chinese and Arabic are growing too)

<<So, French is more studied than Spanish in UK, but how many years?>>

I don't Know, it is very difficult to predict but not more than 5 years for sure.
Dawie   Thu Aug 14, 2008 3:46 pm GMT
Being an anglophone South African myself I can tell you that South African English speakers don't give a toss about French or French Africa. We already have 11 official languages in South Africa and most South Africans can speak 2 to 3 languages fluently.
Guest   Thu Aug 14, 2008 4:33 pm GMT
What's the matter with French in Africa?
Guest   Thu Aug 14, 2008 6:36 pm GMT
<<USA: Spanish (because of former Spanish colonies and immigrants) >>

Spanish is not important in parts of the US because of former colonization--no one today is concerned with that. For instance, a person in California doesn't learn Spanish because California used to be part of Mexico.
It would be due to immigrants and shared borders/close proximity to shared borders only.

Also, Spanish is only the choice in *certain regions* of the US--not the US as a whole. Only the SouthCentral and SouthWestern regions and Puerto Rico favor Spanish.

MidSouth and Northeast, and parts of the UpperMidwest would favor French.

Other regions of the US favor other languages, like German in the Midwest and North, Asian languages in the West, Eskimo and Native Indian languages in Alaska and Hawaiian in Hawaii.

The US is just too big to make broad sweeping generalizations about.
Guest   Fri Aug 15, 2008 12:13 am GMT
"At the same time, in some areas of the English Canada, Spanish is more studied than French. That is the tendency also in Ireland, Australia and NZ."

Can you please tell us which area of English Canada is Spanish studied more than French?
No university in Canada has a bigger Spanish department than a French one...



Also, Ireland mirrors the UK in that aspect, if not more...
In fact, some radical Irish diplomats would actually prefer to speak French than English, in order to distinguish themselves from their long time enemies and subjugaters, since they can't speak Gaelic.

Here's a quote from David Graddol's book, "The Future of English?", quoting one Irish diplomat addressing the audience in the United Nations:

"I can’t speak my own language, and I’ll be damned if I’ll speak English."
Guest   Fri Aug 15, 2008 12:44 am GMT
French is still most preferred in Australia, as far as I'm concerned. But like in other countries, the number of French learners is decreasing year by year and Asian languages are getting of more interests these days, especially Chinese, Japanese and Arabic. The Spanish department in my Uni is awfully small so it seems to me people aren't interested in Spanish.
Gue$+   Fri Aug 15, 2008 12:45 am GMT
"Being an anglophone South African myself I can tell you that South African English speakers don't give a toss about French or French Africa."

Let's be honest, being an Anglophone, you don't give a toss about any other language, French or otherwise...

You don't even care about Afrikaans or Zulu or the other languages spoken right in your backyard... because you're an Anglophone and generally, you (pl.) will forever remain monolingual, if you weren't forced to learn another language... or at least, prefer to stay so.
Guest   Fri Aug 15, 2008 3:50 am GMT
<< And when the French fanatics say that nobody speaks Spanish in Latin America, How can you justify this?

They would like to see Latin America like west africa where nobody speaks French as their mother tongue, but unfortunately for the French fanatics, this is not the case. >>

And when the Hispanic fanatics say that nobody speaks French in Francophone Africa, How can you justify this? Ib the first place they were the ones who started this.

They would like to see Francophone Africa like hispanic america where nobody speaks Castellano Spanish as their mother tongue, but unfortunately for the Hispanic fanatics, this is not the case.