Usefulness of Languages

Lim   Thu Aug 28, 2008 12:23 pm GMT
汉语(Mandarin): my native language.

英文(English): a must. no doubt.

德语(German): very important in Europe.

法语(French): very important in Europe & Africa.

西班牙语(Spanish): very important in Latin America.but sounds less melodious than Italian.

意大利语(Italian): sounds beautiful and melodious, & very attractively.

葡萄牙语(Portuguese): mainly spoken in a large country, Brazil. but less important than Spanish.

日语(Japanese): very useful for Chinese people, & sounds pleasant and syllabically.

韩语(Korean): not as important as Japanese, and it sounds a little unpleasant sometimes.

俄语(Russian): fairly important in Eastern Europe & parts of Asia, sounds moderately.

阿拉伯语(Arabic): very important in Arabic-speaking world, and getting more popular recently, perhaps I'll learn it next year.

荷兰语(Dutch): less important than English & German, but still a good choice, if you live in Netherlands or Belgium.

印地语(Hindi): almost useless, because Hindus speak English as their official language every day.

粤语(Cantonese): if you want to live in Hongkong & Macau, it's a good choice for you, and some Chinese overseas also speak it.

泰语(Thai): sounds cute and feminine, if you want to travel around Thailand, it's perhaps a good choice.

越南语(Vietnamese): sounds a little similar to Thai, but still has a lot of difference.Maybe Thai is more useful than Vietnamese, if you don't go to Vietnam.

希腊语(Greek): Koine Greek seems more important than Modern Greek,if you don't live in Greece, probably modern greek can help you nothing, I'd rather learn Koine Greek if I were a Christian.

希伯来语(Hebrew): Israel, old testament, Jew, are all the reasons why you choose it to learn, though it's not widely spoken in the world. if you like it, do learn it then.

波斯语(Farsi): If you have something to do with Iranian, and it has a great history and culture as well, it's a good choice for you if you live in Iran.

土耳其语(Turkish): If you have something to do with Turkish, it's a good choice for you.But I know a lot of Turkish speak German very well.
Guest   Thu Aug 28, 2008 12:28 pm GMT
FUCK OFF WITH THESE KIND OF TOPICS
Guest   Thu Aug 28, 2008 12:31 pm GMT
When you curse others, you also curse yourself.
Guest   Thu Aug 28, 2008 1:03 pm GMT
en......I agree with most of them, but not all.
Guest   Fri Aug 29, 2008 6:52 am GMT
Guest 12:28 was crude, but he has a point. This stuff is completely subjective and all these topics are becoming irritating.
Guest   Fri Aug 29, 2008 6:57 am GMT
Usefulness of your mother: good for a fuckathon, not good for much else.
Guest   Fri Aug 29, 2008 8:06 am GMT
Who gives a shit. Keep it to yourself because it only matters to you.
Guest   Fri Aug 29, 2008 10:23 am GMT
<< 西班牙语(Spanish): very important in Latin America.but sounds less melodious than Italian. >>

Latin America => A land area approximately 250% the size of mainland China.

It is claimed that in America, more people speak Spanish than English.

Spanish and English are the world languages.
Guest   Fri Aug 29, 2008 10:42 am GMT
<<德语(German): very important in Europe.>>

There is only 1 important language in Europe: English.



The usefulness of German WAS important when in Central and Eastern Europe nobody studied English.

Nowadays, English is studied from Spain to Russia. So, the usefulness of German is overvalued. In my opinion, German in Europe (Germany, Austria and half Switzerland) is like Korean or Thai in Asia, a regional language.

I think that Russian is more useful in Europe (in Russia, Ucraine, Belarus and Moldova) almost nobody speak English.

At the same time, there are 3 other big areas where English is not very spoken: Arabic World, Latin America and China.

I agree with this expert in languages: English, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and Russian are very useful

http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/000145.html
Guest   Fri Aug 29, 2008 10:47 am GMT
<< 英文(English): a must. no doubt. >>

Being spoken to in English, is very unsettling and very uncomfortable.
It gives one the impression that the person speaking to you thinks that you only know one language.
Guest   Fri Aug 29, 2008 10:51 am GMT
Conceptually, Lat. America is not a nation, it includes about 20 countries approximately.

And the largest nation of Lat. America is Brazil and Brazilians speak Portuguese, not Spanish, but China, at least (let's leave Taiwan alone), Mainland China is an independent country which has over 9.6 million sq km territory, while the largest nation of Lat.America, "Brazil" (speak Portuguese, not Spanish), has 8.5 million sq km territory.
Guest   Fri Aug 29, 2008 10:53 am GMT
Regions where Spanish is spoken enough to be an useful language (it may be official or not):

Europe: Spain, Andorra. In Portugal people understand Spanish easily. In Southern France you can find many people who speak it as a second tongue.

Africa: Canary Islands, Ceuta, Melilla, North Morocco, Equatorial Guinea, Western Sahara

Asia: Philippines, Guam, Israel.

South America: the whole continent because in Brazil almost everybody understands Spanish and many of these speak it.

Central America: all countries. In Belize and other English speaking Central American countries Spanish is widely spoken too.

North America: North Mexico and USA.

Antarctica: Chilean an Argentinian Antarctica.
Guest   Fri Aug 29, 2008 10:54 am GMT
<Latin America => A land area approximately 250% the size of mainland China.>
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Conceptually, Lat. America is not a nation, it includes about 20 countries approximately.

And the largest nation of Lat. America is Brazil and Brazilians speak Portuguese, not Spanish, but China, at least (let's leave Taiwan alone), Mainland China is an independent country which has over 9.6 million sq km territory, while the largest nation of Lat.America, "Brazil" (speak Portuguese, not Spanish), has 8.5 million sq km territory.
Guest   Fri Aug 29, 2008 11:41 am GMT
The good news about Portuguese-Spanish that they are mutually inteligible more or less. You need to learn the basics(6 months) and Woala! you know two langauges.
Guest   Fri Aug 29, 2008 11:53 am GMT
<< Europe: Spain, Andorra. In Portugal people understand Spanish easily. In Southern France you can find many people who speak it as a second tongue. >>

On the contrary French is very much spoken all over Sapin and you can here lots of therm speak French even in an isolated placesd like Canary.

<< At the same time, there are 3 other big areas where English is not very spoken: Arabic World, Latin America and China.

I agree with this expert in languages: English, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and Russian are very useful

http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/000145.html >>

There you go again glorifying Spanish again.

English is very much studied in China today and there is even a predictin that it would surpass India in speaking in quality and quantity.

English is spoken by hispanic countries fluently from Mexico to Argentina and French too.

I don't agree with the opinion of this crap blog http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/000145.html but rather English, French, Russian, and Arabic are useful not Chinese and Spanish because few foreigners speak it despite the huge number of foreign speakers.

the 0ig areas where English is not very spoken: Francophone and Russian speaking worlds.