Useful languages

Carlos I de España   Wed May 26, 2010 8:27 am GMT
French-speaking people can understand Spanish, they just pretend not to.
But if you yell at them loud enough, they come to their senses and become "polyglots" in no time.

They can also understand Italian, although they will also deny it.

The reason why Spanish be understood by Italians, Portuguese, and French, but not the other way around, is because Spanish was artificially created to be understood by most people, even lower classes, a kind of post-Roman European Esperanto.
As opposed to Italian, Portuguese, French or even English, that just evolved (or degenerated, depending on who you ask) out of Latin.
iDell   Thu May 27, 2010 3:18 pm GMT
<< Russian has been becoming increasingly unpopular among those countries of former Soviet Union (Eastern Europe). Russian would also turn into a REGIONAL language which is only spoken in Russia itself. >>

Russian is a native language not just in Russia but also in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus. It is official in those countries except Ukraine and also in Kyrgistan. It is the lingua franca of former Soviet Union.

Russian is also widely spoken in Cuba and the number 1 foreign language in Mongolia, Bulgaria, and it has overtaken English in Poland. It is also competing neck to neck in most of Eastern Europe with English.

The number of people who study it in Finland will triple while French will just double.
Franck   Fri May 28, 2010 11:35 am GMT
Learn French. Since Frenchh is the only economy that is able to keep up with China, it makes sense to learn French. You can even go to the Vietnam and practice your French. Although, and learning French will allow you to communicate with people in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, UK, Italy, and Spain since it is so widely studied in Europe and a working language of EU along English and German.
Language Admirer   Fri May 28, 2010 11:48 am GMT
Well, we can say which languages are NOT useful:

-Hindi: it is not useful because English is official in India. Hindi is overshadowed by English. Besides, English is used in business and diplomatic relations.

-Portuguese: it is not useful because it is overshadowed by Spanish in Latin America. In Europe is not studied because Portugal is a small country of 10 million people.

-German and Japanese are REGIONAL LANGUAGES spoken in Central Europe and Japan respectively. They will be less spoken because Germany and Japan have less population every year.

- Spanish: this language is spoken in Castilia, and Hispaanic. Thanks to Hispanic America is considered a supra-regional language, but this language is only important in Spain where the lingua franca is Castilian and Latin America where the lingua franca is Portuguese.

We can see this powerful international organizations the 2 most useful languages:
EU - English, French, and German
NATO - French and English
UN Secretariat - English and French
ECOSOC - French, English, and Russian
International Court of Justice - French, and English
European Court of Justice - French and English

You can also see in these regions which languages are the most spoken:
North America - English
South America - Portuguese
Africa - French
Europe - Russian
Middle East - Arabic
Asia - Chinese and Hindi
Oceania - French and English

So, only English, French, Russian, Portuguese and Arabic are really USEFUL.
Charles de France   Fri May 28, 2010 11:51 am GMT
Spanish-speaking people can understand Frenchh, they just pretend not to.
But if you yell at them loud enough, they come to their senses and become "polyglots" in no time.

They can also understand Italian, although they will also deny it.

The reason why French be understood by Italians, Portuguese, and Spaniards, but not the other way around, is because French is a great source of terms to be understood by most people, even lower classes, a kind of post-Roman European Esperanto.

As opposed to Italian, Portuguese, Spanish or even English, that borrowed terms (or swamped by foreign terms, depending on who you ask) out of Latin.
tick-tock   Fri May 28, 2010 11:59 am GMT
Russian is now boring and outdated in China, because Russia is almost nothing but a grey bear without teeth and paws.
Carlo d'Italia   Fri May 28, 2010 12:19 pm GMT
<< Granted that it is much easier to be understood by Italian and Portuguese speaking Spanish than the other way around, which lead us to the conclusion that Spanish is the most useful language both in Europe and the Americas, since French-speaking people can also understand Spanish, but not the other way around. >>

Of all the Romance languages, Italian is the one that is readily understood by its sister languages particularly by hispanics, lussophones, Catalonians, and even Romanians/Moldovans.

Spanish copied so many features from Italian like nouns that end in "o" is usually masculine. During the days of Latin masculine nouns ended in "us". Two or three centuries later after the fall of Roman Empire, the Romance speech of Iberia, "us" became "u" and that of Italy became "o". It was only at the latter years middle ages that Spanish and Portuguese adopted "o" because of contact with Toscana, the region where the standard Italian was based. At the time Toscana, transmitted so many cultural influences to all other European countries most particularly those that has something to do with music and arts.

I suppose that when Castilia and Aragon merged to prepare for reconquista, their rulers where contemplating to revive the defunct Roman Empire palnning to merge with regional states like Spanish states, Portugal, and Italian states such as Toscana, Sicilia, Sardegna, Venezia, Naples, Genoa, etc. and the one that was on their minds was to choose the speech of Toscana as the basis for the "would be" standard speech of "would be " revived Roman Empire. That's why the Castilians and to a lesser degree the Portuguese began to adopt many Toscan features in their speeches. But the plan didn't materialize because Toscana was unwilling to join the "would be" union because they wanted to retain their independent status.

As a result, Castilian became a half-baked, raw-cooked, Italian wannbe language. Haven't you noticed that Aragonese, Asturians, and Leonese are much more similar to Catalan and Occitan than to either Castilian or Portuguese which are more similar to Tuscan Italian?

Don't claim that title because it belongs to Italian. If you're not convinced then asked the Romanians and Moldovans which is more easily understood by them Italian or Spanish. Definitely they would choose Italian.

Italian speakers can be understood by Hispanics even if they speak so fast while in order for the Italian speakers to understand Hispanics, the latter have to speak slower.

So it's more likely that Hispnics understand Italians than the other way around.
boom boom   Fri May 28, 2010 1:27 pm GMT
Spanish is now boring and outdated in the US, because Hispanic America is almost nothing but Spanish Lynx almost extinct.
boom-boom   Fri May 28, 2010 1:28 pm GMT
Spanish is now boring and outdated in the US, because Hispanic America is almost nothing like Spanish Lynx almost extinct.
Damian in Edinburgh   Fri May 28, 2010 3:47 pm GMT
Here in the UK the most useful language is English. Without it life can be very difficult here to say the least, in fact impossible, and hand gestures and meaningless shouting at the top of your voice will get you nowhere. So for anyone thinking of visiting Britain.....make sure you have a fair smattering of the language as the absolute rock bottom minimum. The last thing you want to do is to upset and confuse any of the officials from the UK Border Agency and immigration control, the majority of who are monoglot English speakers anyway....they could refuse you entry to the UK. ;-)
Carlos I de España   Fri May 28, 2010 6:34 pm GMT
<< they could refuse you entry to the UK >>

Yeah, sure,

but then Spain would have to repossess over a million British houses and deny entry to over a dozen million British citizens on the grounds of language incapacitation.

Are you a Twat, by any chance?
Jorjor   Sat May 29, 2010 4:51 am GMT
depends on location. I live in Los angeles county where English and Spanish are top dogs. Probably 25% of the students in my school are bilungual, pretty much always english/spanish combo.
Irony   Sat May 29, 2010 5:39 am GMT
Really Carlos?
Spain would be prepared to destroy its own economy over a language difference?

Are you sure?
Franco   Sat May 29, 2010 6:07 am GMT
Tourism is only 10% of Spanish economy.
tick-tock   Sat May 29, 2010 6:34 am GMT
Even Persian (Farsi) is also useful if you need to talk with Iranians.