I like the language in this video.
I guess it's Cantonese.
It is very warm and mellow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg-TjDV9m28
I guess it's Cantonese.
It is very warm and mellow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg-TjDV9m28
Will Spanish and Chinese overcome English?
People have said that there are more Spanish mother-tongue speakers than English, may be yes, may be no. It doesn't matter because even if there are in fact more English speakers it would only be marginal (as I think there are because a fair number of so-called "second language speakers" (more than $400 million extra people) can end up speaking more English in a day than they do their "mother-tongue be that Malay, Hindi, Tagalog, Swahili, Tamil whatever) .
The main difference is that English is spoken all the way around the world and is supportrd by an absolutely enormous back-up in the form of the internet, technical books, pop, business know-how, science, aircraft controllers etc.... It's absolutely nothing to do with it being a better or worse, more easy or less easy language. It just is there and helps me to speak to more in the world than just the people in the kampong from which I came.
With respect to Spanish in the US. It should be noted that the great influx of Latin Americans into the country over the last 35 years is the cause, rather than Americans taking up the language. The locals are very monoliginual and resistant to other tongues.
If the, say, 30 Million Spanish speakers in the States weren't speaking Spanish there then they would be speaking Spanish from whatever country they originated from. In such a scenario Spanish isn't growing in overall numbers, it means the opposite: 30 Million Spanish speakers are needing some sort of English capability that they wouldn't need to such a degree otherwise. A very large percentage will certainly be at least bi-lingual in English and Spanish within a generation. Some might only be speaking English.
With respect to growth. Spanish in South/Central America and Mexico grew when it displaced the languages of the original inhabitants over a couple of hundred years. Those languages just weren't as useful as the language the Conquistadors used and left behind. Sad but true.
You can see the same thing happening in Africa right now. But in this case it's English, French, Portugese and Spanish in that order.
It is not too difficult to foresee that English for instance, will be spoken by at least another 300 Million as a more or less first language in Nigeria within 100 years. Then add another twenty similar countries.
French will receive a boost from this factor also. Portugese is a bit under threat from English in Mozambique however with their close ties to South Africa and being a member of the Commonwealth. Angola however will grow.
Spanish will increase in numbers but only very little in comparison to English and teh other three.
I haven't mentioned Chinese as I feel most people have already written very sensibly about how difficult it will be for it to displace English.
The Chinese are a very bright people in general and sellers of made products par excellence. More than 200 Million Chinese are learning some level of English right now. A German shoemaker (not the racing driver) once said. "If I want to sell shoes I speak English. If I want to buy leather I speak German."
The main difference is that English is spoken all the way around the world and is supportrd by an absolutely enormous back-up in the form of the internet, technical books, pop, business know-how, science, aircraft controllers etc.... It's absolutely nothing to do with it being a better or worse, more easy or less easy language. It just is there and helps me to speak to more in the world than just the people in the kampong from which I came.
With respect to Spanish in the US. It should be noted that the great influx of Latin Americans into the country over the last 35 years is the cause, rather than Americans taking up the language. The locals are very monoliginual and resistant to other tongues.
If the, say, 30 Million Spanish speakers in the States weren't speaking Spanish there then they would be speaking Spanish from whatever country they originated from. In such a scenario Spanish isn't growing in overall numbers, it means the opposite: 30 Million Spanish speakers are needing some sort of English capability that they wouldn't need to such a degree otherwise. A very large percentage will certainly be at least bi-lingual in English and Spanish within a generation. Some might only be speaking English.
With respect to growth. Spanish in South/Central America and Mexico grew when it displaced the languages of the original inhabitants over a couple of hundred years. Those languages just weren't as useful as the language the Conquistadors used and left behind. Sad but true.
You can see the same thing happening in Africa right now. But in this case it's English, French, Portugese and Spanish in that order.
It is not too difficult to foresee that English for instance, will be spoken by at least another 300 Million as a more or less first language in Nigeria within 100 years. Then add another twenty similar countries.
French will receive a boost from this factor also. Portugese is a bit under threat from English in Mozambique however with their close ties to South Africa and being a member of the Commonwealth. Angola however will grow.
Spanish will increase in numbers but only very little in comparison to English and teh other three.
I haven't mentioned Chinese as I feel most people have already written very sensibly about how difficult it will be for it to displace English.
The Chinese are a very bright people in general and sellers of made products par excellence. More than 200 Million Chinese are learning some level of English right now. A German shoemaker (not the racing driver) once said. "If I want to sell shoes I speak English. If I want to buy leather I speak German."
I dont know why i saw all these eagerness from my chinese brothers in this thread of chinese being the international language. I mean not matter how hard or say how different the language is from his native tongue, he will learn it as long as it's widely used, commercially or anything, as is the case for english now. You guys learned it anyway despite of all the difficulties from the start, didn't ya? I totally understand your pride in our language and culture, cuz i take pride in it too. But all those blinding arguments were just nonsense. Because if you think about it, the thoughts of using characters are REALLY overwhelming to westerners, cuz its more unorthodox like the other phonetically-based languages on their views. That's just cultural differences and thats alright.
And for the point of chinese being the biggest language in the world, i'm really not sure. cuz chinese should be dealt as a language group instead of a single language. mandarin as a tool of communication is a domestic lingua franca, but a lotta chinese or say most chinese dont speak it in everyday life. Probably the younger generation are using mandarin on a more frequent basis. But all the other dialects or languages should be preserved as well. cuz mandarin aint the mother tongue of most of us after all.
peace
And for the point of chinese being the biggest language in the world, i'm really not sure. cuz chinese should be dealt as a language group instead of a single language. mandarin as a tool of communication is a domestic lingua franca, but a lotta chinese or say most chinese dont speak it in everyday life. Probably the younger generation are using mandarin on a more frequent basis. But all the other dialects or languages should be preserved as well. cuz mandarin aint the mother tongue of most of us after all.
peace
<< French is dead. And will stay dead, that's
a fact. Sorry greg. >>
Sigma, French is not dead. Yes its importance in the international scene is surpassed by english but it is still far more important than spanish.
For your information, spanish is important only internationally in business because of large spanish speaking population in Latin America for profitable reason. Spanish is not and it will never be imporatant in science, technology, medicine, and even space exploration because no hispanic country performed well in these catgories. I'm sure that francophone world is at top five in the categories mentioned. I challenge you, can you name a invention accomplished by a hispanic?
Look at the philippines, it was colonized by spain for 300+ years and the status of spanish language is very low. Statistics shows that only 2,000+ speak it as a native language. It's obvious that chinese is more apparent there. Spanish language situations in guam and marianas are even worse because it's spoken there in its pidgin form.
On the other mauritius colonized by france in early 18th century until early 19th century which was tranferred to britain, the french language is persistent. Don't tell me that creole is more widespread, true. But the fact is more and more creole speakers are switching to french even though franco-mauritians numbers only just 2% of the entire populations. English maybe the official language ther but is rarely used therefore the "de facto" officil language is french. Even indo-mauritians use french much more often.
Now compare and asses the situations on those areas.
One thing more a number of spanish speaking countries speak a bastardized form of spanish that they even refuse to speak in standard spanish. I hope that it will not eventually end up as separate languages so stop bragging.
Even if spanish has one of the largest number of speakers it will never become the dominant world language because it is less prestigious than english and french.
Try talking in spanish to a german child and the first thing that would come inside that you're talking to him italian. In other words italian is more widely known in europe. .
Oh by the way italian would have been more important internationaly than spanish if it happens to be that there were 2 italian speaking countries outside italy the size of colombia or peru because if we're going to talk about "productivity" or ideas contributed to human civilization, if you know what I mean.
a fact. Sorry greg. >>
Sigma, French is not dead. Yes its importance in the international scene is surpassed by english but it is still far more important than spanish.
For your information, spanish is important only internationally in business because of large spanish speaking population in Latin America for profitable reason. Spanish is not and it will never be imporatant in science, technology, medicine, and even space exploration because no hispanic country performed well in these catgories. I'm sure that francophone world is at top five in the categories mentioned. I challenge you, can you name a invention accomplished by a hispanic?
Look at the philippines, it was colonized by spain for 300+ years and the status of spanish language is very low. Statistics shows that only 2,000+ speak it as a native language. It's obvious that chinese is more apparent there. Spanish language situations in guam and marianas are even worse because it's spoken there in its pidgin form.
On the other mauritius colonized by france in early 18th century until early 19th century which was tranferred to britain, the french language is persistent. Don't tell me that creole is more widespread, true. But the fact is more and more creole speakers are switching to french even though franco-mauritians numbers only just 2% of the entire populations. English maybe the official language ther but is rarely used therefore the "de facto" officil language is french. Even indo-mauritians use french much more often.
Now compare and asses the situations on those areas.
One thing more a number of spanish speaking countries speak a bastardized form of spanish that they even refuse to speak in standard spanish. I hope that it will not eventually end up as separate languages so stop bragging.
Even if spanish has one of the largest number of speakers it will never become the dominant world language because it is less prestigious than english and french.
Try talking in spanish to a german child and the first thing that would come inside that you're talking to him italian. In other words italian is more widely known in europe. .
Oh by the way italian would have been more important internationaly than spanish if it happens to be that there were 2 italian speaking countries outside italy the size of colombia or peru because if we're going to talk about "productivity" or ideas contributed to human civilization, if you know what I mean.
francophilippe
<Try talking in spanish to a german child and the first thing that would come inside that you're talking to him italian. In other words italian is more widely known in europe. .
Oh by the way italian would have been more important internationaly than spanish if it happens to be that there were 2 italian speaking countries outside italy the size of colombia or peru because if we're going to talk about "productivity" or ideas contributed to human civilization, if you know what I mean.>
I completely agree with what you said. No matter if Spanish like it or not.
If Italy ever had such a few colonies as Argentina or Brazil, Italian would certainly replace the status of Spanish, strongly in many respects.
<Try talking in spanish to a german child and the first thing that would come inside that you're talking to him italian. In other words italian is more widely known in europe. .
Oh by the way italian would have been more important internationaly than spanish if it happens to be that there were 2 italian speaking countries outside italy the size of colombia or peru because if we're going to talk about "productivity" or ideas contributed to human civilization, if you know what I mean.>
I completely agree with what you said. No matter if Spanish like it or not.
If Italy ever had such a few colonies as Argentina or Brazil, Italian would certainly replace the status of Spanish, strongly in many respects.
ZhongGuoRen
Brazil does not speak Spanish but rather Portuguese.
That is like saying if Italy had colonies such as Argentina and the US.
Brazil does not speak Spanish but rather Portuguese.
That is like saying if Italy had colonies such as Argentina and the US.
Latinate:
In fact I know that Brazilian speak Portuguese (Br. Portuguese) everyday.
and what I said in above post is just give an example to show my opinions.
Thanks!
In fact I know that Brazilian speak Portuguese (Br. Portuguese) everyday.
and what I said in above post is just give an example to show my opinions.
Thanks!
Latinate:
In fact I know that Brazilians speak Portuguese (Br.Portuguese) everyday.
What I said in above post is just giving an example to show my opinions.
Thanks!
In fact I know that Brazilians speak Portuguese (Br.Portuguese) everyday.
What I said in above post is just giving an example to show my opinions.
Thanks!
Oh okay, I see what you were trying to say.
If Italy had a big colony in the past and Italian was still spoken in it, then Italian would be more popular then Spanish.
Well I don´t know if that would be the case, it realy would depend were this colony would be and it´s population size. At this point in time it´s the US that to a certain degree is projecting the "world languages" through it´s media, mostly through it´s films. If Mexican was a language, it would be one of the most projected languages of the world, yet on a global bases it wouldn´t realy be a very importante language because it would be very localised.
A good example is China with over 1 billion people, because it is localised the world hasn´t rushed to learn Mandarin, yet economically it is the opposite situation and who isn´t in China? Still Mandarin by sheer numbers alone it is a importante world language and could turn into one of the globel languages but not right now.
If Italy had a big colony in the past and Italian was still spoken in it, then Italian would be more popular then Spanish.
Well I don´t know if that would be the case, it realy would depend were this colony would be and it´s population size. At this point in time it´s the US that to a certain degree is projecting the "world languages" through it´s media, mostly through it´s films. If Mexican was a language, it would be one of the most projected languages of the world, yet on a global bases it wouldn´t realy be a very importante language because it would be very localised.
A good example is China with over 1 billion people, because it is localised the world hasn´t rushed to learn Mandarin, yet economically it is the opposite situation and who isn´t in China? Still Mandarin by sheer numbers alone it is a importante world language and could turn into one of the globel languages but not right now.
<Because if you think about it, the thoughts of using characters are REALLY overwhelming to westerners, cuz its more unorthodox like the other phonetically-based languages on their views. That's just cultural differences and thats alright. >
So you are saying that english is not REALLY overwhelming for asians or other non-english speaking people??? For example, the Japs or koreans have learnt english for years, but many still cant speak proficently in it. Chinese is unorthodox??? lol. If a language if useful, no matter how hard it is, people will learn it. Of course, many people on the net dont think chinese would become the next international language since the net is dominated by english speakers. Just like nobody would have imagine English could possibly overtake french in the past.
<but a lotta chinese or say most chinese dont speak it in everyday life>
A lot of chinese dont speak mandarin in their everyday life in china?? I think you are mistaken. Most chinese definitely speak mandarin in formal settings and even in informal settings, the northern chinese do speak mandarin.
Actually mandarin has the most number of native speakers among chinese dialects, definitely more than english speakers! Mandarin no matter with or without other chinese dialects consitute the largest number of speakers in the world. Please go and check up on the figures! There are over 800 million people who speak MANDARIN as first language and another 200 million as second(mainly southern/overseas chinese who learn it in school). PLEASE read carefully, it writes MANDARIN chinese, not just CHINESE which can include other chinese dialects!
http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/mandarin.htm
<cuz mandarin aint the mother tongue of most of us after all. >
Thats true to a certain extent, but since it is the national language, of course all chinese should learn mandarin and they are. Just like how france imposes french language as the one and only national language ignoring the minority who do not speak french. In britain too, languages other than english are in danger!
http://www.cafebabel.com/en/article.asp?T=T&Id=4080
http://www.eblul.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=29&Itemid=37&lang=en
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_policy_in_France#Endangered_languages
So you are saying that english is not REALLY overwhelming for asians or other non-english speaking people??? For example, the Japs or koreans have learnt english for years, but many still cant speak proficently in it. Chinese is unorthodox??? lol. If a language if useful, no matter how hard it is, people will learn it. Of course, many people on the net dont think chinese would become the next international language since the net is dominated by english speakers. Just like nobody would have imagine English could possibly overtake french in the past.
<but a lotta chinese or say most chinese dont speak it in everyday life>
A lot of chinese dont speak mandarin in their everyday life in china?? I think you are mistaken. Most chinese definitely speak mandarin in formal settings and even in informal settings, the northern chinese do speak mandarin.
Actually mandarin has the most number of native speakers among chinese dialects, definitely more than english speakers! Mandarin no matter with or without other chinese dialects consitute the largest number of speakers in the world. Please go and check up on the figures! There are over 800 million people who speak MANDARIN as first language and another 200 million as second(mainly southern/overseas chinese who learn it in school). PLEASE read carefully, it writes MANDARIN chinese, not just CHINESE which can include other chinese dialects!
http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htm
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/mandarin.htm
<cuz mandarin aint the mother tongue of most of us after all. >
Thats true to a certain extent, but since it is the national language, of course all chinese should learn mandarin and they are. Just like how france imposes french language as the one and only national language ignoring the minority who do not speak french. In britain too, languages other than english are in danger!
http://www.cafebabel.com/en/article.asp?T=T&Id=4080
http://www.eblul.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=29&Itemid=37&lang=en
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_policy_in_France#Endangered_languages
<< French is dead. And will stay dead, that's
a fact. Sorry greg. >>
I don't know who tell this but I advise him to see this site (in French)
http://www.voxlatina.com/vox_dsp2.php3?art=1965
a fact. Sorry greg. >>
I don't know who tell this but I advise him to see this site (in French)
http://www.voxlatina.com/vox_dsp2.php3?art=1965
<< French is dead. And will stay dead, that's
a fact. Sorry greg. >>
I'm sorry but it seems that the one who posted the message above does not the definition of a dead language.
For your information an example of a deadf language is latin because nobody is speaking it as a native language. Aramaic is not yet dead even though it is spoken by a very few people in certain pars of Middle East.
Your message shows that you really abhor anything that is french.
a fact. Sorry greg. >>
I'm sorry but it seems that the one who posted the message above does not the definition of a dead language.
For your information an example of a deadf language is latin because nobody is speaking it as a native language. Aramaic is not yet dead even though it is spoken by a very few people in certain pars of Middle East.
Your message shows that you really abhor anything that is french.
...it will never happen for as long as English is the language of bussiness and it seems that it will stay like that in the future too...
If Hindi abstained from anglophone policy,it would overcome Spanish,Chinese and English