Will Spanish and Chinese overcome English?
Are you a Chinese? How did you know that Tan is a Min-Nan rendition of Chen? I am intrigued. You might not have explicitly said it, but I could read between the lines.
As for why French has been viewed as a language of prestige for so long, a belated welcome to the perceptions of the English-speaking world! Or at least, what the English-speaking world used to think of French anyway. The seat of the English-speaking world's oldest university, Oxford, did not teach French until the early 1930s, in fact. It was assumed as a matter of course that all educated men would already know a smattering of French, thus making instruction in that language wholly irrevelant.
And as I've declared in my first post, there is no need to take umbrage at Greg or anyone else posting in French. You can choose to ignore it -or whip out your dictionnary to unravel its contents.
The gauntlet is lying at your feet.
Yes i am a chinese! You still haven't anwered my question:"Why say that an educated man ought to have at least a passive reading knowledge of French, isn't that biased toward other languges. What about Chinese, Spainish or German or any other languages? " You get what i mean?
"French has been viewed as a language of prestige for so long" as to that comment, i think it is an opinion not a fact!
Do you agree that we must have a medium language of communication?
'For example, 'two children' in Chinese is '两个孩子' (two child), 'two child' is correct in Chinese because the number 'two' has already indicated that there are more than one child. There is no need to cerate plurals for nouns in Chinese'.
I'm a bit curious about the formation of plurals in Chinese then. I can see that 'two child' would indicate the number of children, but what about if you wanted to say just 'My children' as opposed to 'my child'? How would you show it was a plural then? Then again I can see 'my children' in English only indicates that you have more than one child, and after that, not whether you have two or ten.
我的孩子 my child
我的孩子們 my children
"French has been viewed as a language of prestige for so long"
French language is seen as language of "prestige" only in English-speaking countries and northern European ones.
In France, french is the language of everyday, the language with which we love, we hate, we buy, we deal, we sing, etc.
We don't see any prestige in that. We are not attached to it because it would be a sort of "prestige" as some of you may think but just because it is with french that we express our thoughts and souls.
Will Spanish and Chinese overcome English? Probably.
I really doubt it. English is easier than Spanish and waaaaaaay easier than Chinese.
« I really doubt it. English is easier than Spanish »
Although one might dispute that assertion, that really has nothing to do with it. The current domination of English is not because of any intrinsic quality of the language itself, be it its aesthetic appeal or its apparent simplicity. It has everything to do with the fact that the United States, a largely English-speaking country, has been the dominant world superpower for most of the 20th century, and to a lesser extent because of the British Empire in the 19th century and early 20th century (although this part only really affects those places that were former British colonies).
If the United States has ended up being a German-speaking country, as it might well have done, German would probably be the dominant world language now.
I believe the answer for this question is pretty simple and will
follow more what is practical, than how many people speak one
or another language.
English is today established as the number one language used
in business, that gives it's strength.
The problem with Spanish is that it's mainly spoken in relatively
poor countries, and by poor people. Personally I think it's a
pretty easy language to learn, for both Americans or any European.
Which both are important in todays business world. EU will push
for speaking English as a common second language, and from
a European point of view it would be insane to start learning e.g.
Chinese. So there will be some europeans who do, and business
can go on. Some few interpretors, you could say. That's all that
is needed.
In general about Chinese you can say the same as of Spanish,
the wast masses who speak it are relatively poor.
What is practical will decide and practical in the future will be English,
even though it might be a difficult language.
Money rules the world, and language is no exception from that.
<<If the United States has ended up being a German-speaking country, as it might well have done, German would probably be the dominant world language now. >>
I doubt it a lot.
To greg:
He needs to learn English. That's it!
To others supporting French or speaking in behalf of French as
a language. So you should know that French is originally the poor
mans version of latin, and yes French was great as a language
at one point somewhere in our past, but so was also Latin.
As a world language, French is dead. And will stay dead, that's
a fact. Sorry greg.
And as a proof of this serves the fact, that each and everyone of
us has to pick up the dictionary to understand the first thing
about what greg is trying to say.
<<English is today established as the number one language used
in business, that gives it's strength. >>
You are discovering things!!! go on...
<<In general about Chinese you can say the same as of Spanish,
the wast masses who speak it are relatively poor. >>
Oh yes!! you are right. I love the pretty face of rich people so I decided to learn English by myself. I like the German as well so I will wait until the Germans be quite rich. How rich do you think the Japaneses are ? do you think that is a good option ? it's a difficult language.
By the way, some idea where I could get an income list by country ? I want to learn another language. Thank you.
And as a proof of this serves the fact, that each and everyone of
us has to pick up the dictionary to understand the first thing
about what greg is trying to say.
Eso es absolutamente mentira, yo no tengo que tomar un diccionario para comprender lo que greg dice. Yo puedo entender perfectamente lo que greg dice en sus post en Francés, aún si mi gramática Francesa es terrible.
To greg:
He needs to learn English. That's it!
Y tu Jim necesitas urgentemente dejar de ser un Anglo-Sajón arrogante que cree que el centro del mundo es el Inglés. Debes darte cuenta de la diversidad con la que cuenta el mundo.
French is dead. And will stay dead, that's
a fact. Sorry greg.
Si el Francés esta muerto, entonces dime ¿por qué hay un número creciente de estudiantes de Francés en los paises Hispanohablantes?
To Jimi:
In fact, Greg speaks/writes excellent English. But this is a **Languages** forum. He can write in whatever language he likes. And what you say about French being 'dead' as a world language is complete nonsense. It's the second most learnt language in the world, as far as I know. And by the way, *I* don't need to pick up a dictionary to understand what Greg writes in French (only the occasional word)
« I doubt it a lot. »
Why? What do you see as the main reason for why English has become the dominant world language if it's not because the United States has been the main world superpower for most of the past century?