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French or German. Which language is the most useful?
<< 97% of German physicists use English as their main language. >>
Did you know that 78,3% of percentages are nonsense and the rest 21,7% are miscalculated? Anyway, your 97% is rubbish.
The Spanish candidate for the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics made his career in Germany. So I would say that it's true: If you are interested in science , German may be the best option.
" I'm from southern Spain indeed (37 º) and both France and Germany are very distant countries, one more than the other but once you take the plane 15 minutes more does not make any difference."
Todos los espanoles no viven en el sur de Espana... y Francia no se resume a Paris! (afortunamente para el sureno que soy)... Paris, que esta ubicada muy al norte en relacion con el resto del pais. Aparte de Paris, Francia tiene una mayoria de sus grandes ciudades en la mitad sur del pais); algunas muy cercas de Espana: Tolosa (la cuarta ciudad de Francia) esta ubicada a solo 90km de la frontiera Espanola; Burdeos (sexta ciudad) 180km; Marsella (seconda ciudad de Francia) solo 200km, Montpellier (9) 150km, etc. Del otro lado, mayores concentraciones de poblacion en Espana (y de dinero tambien), estan ubicadas a proximidad de Francia: Pays Vasco, Catalunia: Barcelona, la segunda ciudad de Espana esta ubicada solo 100 km de la frontiera francesa (y los catalanes usualmente hablan muy bien el francès). Madrid (que esta bien representativa del centro geografico de Espana) esta ubicada a 350km de Francia y... 1200km de Alemania... En cuestion de distancia entre las grandes capitales Europeas, Madrid esta ubicada a 1000km de Paris, a 1300km de Roma, a 1900km de Berlin (quasi el doble que Paris!!). Yo no diré que se trata solamente de una minor pequena diferencia de 15minutos de avion! " When I think about Paris and Berlin they come to my mind as equally northern and gray cities. I don't know what you mean. " Yo no veo igualmente lo que quieres decir. "ciudades grises"? estas hablando de la arquitectura, o del color del cielo? Si eres realmente espanol debes saber que los paisajes grises no son una especialidad de los paises muy al norte, pero son mas una cosa del clima Atlantico (que concerna una gran parte de Espana), y eso es verdad que Paris tiene un clima Oceanico, como lo tienen ciudades Espanola como Vigo, La Coruna, San Sebastian, Bilabo, etc.. (pero Berlin no tiene ese clima) Si te refieres a la architectura, es verdad que Paris sea una ciudad de colores grises/blanco con techos azules; pero no es el caso de una gran mayoridad de ciudades francesas. (y no es el caso de Berlin tambien, o de las ciudades del norte de Europe que tienen generalmente bastante mas color que muchas ciuades francesas o Espanolas. Muchas ciudades Espanolas son bastante grises, de piedra tambien, o de brica en las afueras. http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/38216.jpg http://www.galiciaguide.com/pics/vigo-old-town-plaza.jpg http://cache.virtualtourist.com/2723461-Vigo_street-Vigo.jpg http://fotos0.mundofotos.net/2008/24_09_2008/mundo_imag1222277733/palacio-astorga-leon-espana.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_GTAGnCdzuMU/R1KDsm97X5I/AAAAAAAAARk/RbRzPeXN5k8/s1600-R/IMG_3244.jpg esas fotos podrian ser en Espana or Francia, mucho mas dificilmente en Alemania. "Then only because French culture is somewhat closer to mine I must choose French?. Assuming your reasoning, I should study Portuguese instead. " No! Albsolutamente no. Nunca hé dicho eso. El Portugues evidentemente es mas parecido al Espano que el Francès. Lo que hé dicho es que deberias estudiar el idioma y la cultura que te atrae mas, porque ambas idiomas (frances y aleman) tienen sus puntos buenos y puntos negativos. Si te gusta o te atrae mas el idioma aleman, aprendelo! En este cas lo unico que dijé es que va a ser muchissomo mas difficil, pero la dificultad no es el mas importante, porque cuando a uno le gusta un idioma, uno la aprenda mas rapidamente.
Todos los espanoles no viven en el sur de Espana... y Francia no se resume a Paris! (afortunamente para el sureno que soy)... Paris, que esta ubicada muy al norte en relacion con el resto del pais. Aparte de Paris, Francia tiene una mayoria de sus grandes ciudades en la mitad sur del pais); algunas muy cercas de Espana: Tolosa (la cuarta ciudad de Francia) esta ubicada a solo 90km de la frontiera Espanola; Burdeos (sexta ciudad) 180km; Marsella (seconda ciudad de Francia) solo 200km, Montpellier (9) 150km, etc.
provincial cities...
Hi. I'm the one who opened this thread. Finally I decided to start learning German. After four two hour lessons, my initial impression is that this language is extremely difficult to pronounce, at least for a Spanish speaker. I don't remember that English was so hard when I was a beginner in this language. I 'm unable to pronounce most of the words our teacher told us so far. And these are "easy" short words, not those composite words that abound in German. Our teacher is very enthusiast and encourages me to keep on trying. Grammar on the other hand seems hard compared to English, but I can deal with it. I studied Latin for 2 years so declensions are familiar. Perhaps 8 hours are not enough to judge this language but my first impression is quite pessimistic. I 'll continue and see what happens this year. After that I'll consider switching to French.
You could try "Pronounce it Perfectly in German". It's inexpensive and breaks down the sounds for you.
<<-- This is pure plain BS. German physicists use primarily English for their publications, just like in any other country.
But if you want to enter a German research team without speaking any German, I wish you good luck. >> Actually I know three people who did precisely that and they spoke English. A lot of people go to Germany from all over the world and they speak English. Most German research teams look like this: 8 Germans, 2 Russians, 1 Eastern/Central European, 1 British, 1 Indian, 1 French, 1 Scandinavian, etc. Also, did you know that in many European countries ALL postgraduate courses in hard sciences are given in English. Can't remember if Germany is one, but it's likely. Germany has been able to become such a science power in part thanks to giving up using German as a language of science. It's not a bad thing, remember that for these people the science is much more important than the language. If they have to give up using their language to improve the science they will gladly do it.
As a language of science only. Once they realize your arrogance, they'll become less willing. Always has been with languages becoming dominant, don't think English is different.
In a not so remote past, (Neo-)Latin was THE science medium. It even served a major purpose as THE international medium. This has been replaced by vulgate (modern languages) later on as education improved and now finally it's English.
The people still think in their mother tongue and use it 95% of the time and English remains a foreign language was, for now, feels neutral. Once they see English is JUST as IMPERIALISTIC, people will look for another language to serve this purpose. There's still time to decide which language, so it doesn't have to be Esperanto or (Neo-)Latin (which are too Eurocentric IMO, even though Esperanto has some simularities with Chinese).
<<You could try "Pronounce it Perfectly in German". It's inexpensive and breaks down the sounds for you.
>> Thanks K.T. I'll give it a try.One of the words I struggled with was curiously "Französische". It's damn difficult.
I'm not naive. Neutral languages don't exist or must be lifeless at the very least. I guess it will remain the "eternal struggle" in maintaining an "equilibrum".
Once they see English is JUST as IMPERIALISTIC, people will look for another language to serve this purpose. There's still time to decide which language, so it doesn't have to be Esperanto or (Neo-)Latin (which are too Eurocentric IMO, even though Esperanto has some simularities with Chinese).
As long as English is useful people will continue studying it. They will not say "wait, since native English speakers are becoming too arrogsant we should stop using it. Let's switch to Chinese instead". In fact USA has been imperialistic for more than a century (invasion of Cuba, Philippines...) yet the importance of English has not declined at all.
There's a world of difference between using a language as science medium and replacing it as the lingua franca of an entire country. I don't see the pressure of English outside the academic life. I DO see influences coming from English, that I see.
And Chinese, I never proposed that... (China is not a neutral country). Anyway, I'm not a fan of Esperanto, most people even find it an ugly language. If they however make it compulsory in schools and use propaganda to make it popular, eventually they'll switch to that language.
But heck, isn't happening. I just want to tell you that people don't prefer to speak English above their mother tongue (and if course if you look after exceptions you'll find those people, that's why some people make these claims). Even anglophones adapt as other immigrants (obviously, otherwise they'll remain foreigners). |