English, Chinese and Spanish: languages of the future

John   Tue May 29, 2007 1:23 pm GMT
Well, I think that the languages of the future are Chinese, English and Spanish. There are several points to support that:

1. More spoken languages: Chinese, Spanish, English

2. Most important languages economically: English, Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese

3. Languages of the future (David Graddol): English, Spanish, Chinese and Arabic

4. Internet users by language: English, Chinese and Spanish.
Ornella   Tue May 29, 2007 4:53 pm GMT
You are right. The languages of the XXI century are English, Chinese and Spanish. Perhaps, Arabic and others too.
Guest   Tue May 29, 2007 4:57 pm GMT
You Hispanic Fanatics are hilarious. Spanish is not a language of the future, unless you're talking about the future underclasses of the world!

Spanish is a rotten and slimey language, spoken by trash. No sense in learning it. English and French will remain more important languages.

Just because a lot of people speak a language does not mean it's important.
Guest   Tue May 29, 2007 5:15 pm GMT
You are wrong about French. The economic power of Chinese and Spanish is a reality. All experts say the same. French will be 6th economic language by 2010 (after English, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, and German)


http://unicode.org/notes/tn13/



French is a language spoken by 65-78 million people as first language, and 128 as total speakers. At this moment it is 18th, after Tamil. So, a medium size language, like some Asiatic languages (Urdu, Tamil, Korean, etc). French is not in the top ten languages, and French will never be again.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers - 251k - 28 May
Hispanic Fanaticism   Tue May 29, 2007 5:48 pm GMT
<You are wrong about French. The economic power of Chinese and Spanish is a reality. All experts say the same. French will be 6th economic language by 2010 (after English, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, and German)>

Again, your language relies only on sheer numbers. But Spanish is not as important as English in North America or Portugese in South America.

<French is a language spoken by 65-78 million people as first language, and 128 as total speakers. At this moment it is 18th, after Tamil. So, a medium size language, like some Asiatic languages (Urdu, Tamil, Korean, etc). French is not in the top ten languages, and French will never be again.>

Again, if quantity mattered more than quality, you would have a point. But French is still learned all over the world as a mode of communication for people between cultures. Spanish is spoken in one part of the world by people of one culture, and they are born into the language, they didn't choose to learn it. Just because you breed like rabbits doesn't mean your language is important.

Everyone who speaks Spanish looks like this:

http://www.natlauzon.com/images/vote4pedro.jpg
Ornella   Tue May 29, 2007 6:22 pm GMT
That´s not right.

The number of speakers is also very important. It is an important factor that you can not underestimate. You want to underestimate this factor because French is 18th. THERE ARE 17 LANGUAGES MORE SPOKEN. FRENCH IS A MEDIUM SIZE LANGUAGE (like Korean, Vietnamese, Tamil, Urdu, or Telugu in India).

You want to undervalue also the economic power of Chinese and Spanish. The reports don´t lie: English, Chinese and Spanish are the ECONOMIC LANGUAGES OF THIS CENTURY (and Japanese). French is ONLY 6th.

Spanish is studied in a lot of countries, like French: United States, Brazil, Senegal, Trinidad & Tobago, France, Germany, England or Sweden are a good example.


Perhaps you like this man, but I prefer the Antonio Banderas photos


http://www.publispain.com/antoniobanderas/04.htm
Hispanic Fanatic   Tue May 29, 2007 7:55 pm GMT
<That´s not right.>

Yes it is.

<The number of speakers is also very important. It is an important factor that you can not underestimate. You want to underestimate this factor because French is 18th. THERE ARE 17 LANGUAGES MORE SPOKEN. FRENCH IS A MEDIUM SIZE LANGUAGE (like Korean, Vietnamese, Tamil, Urdu, or Telugu in India).>

No, actually French is the 11th most natively spoken language. But like I've argued time and again, it's not who speaks the language natively, it's the total number of speakers, and including those who learn it as a second language.

<You want to undervalue also the economic power of Chinese and Spanish. The reports don´t lie: English, Chinese and Spanish are the ECONOMIC LANGUAGES OF THIS CENTURY (and Japanese). French is ONLY 6th.>

Based on what? Did a little fairy give you that information? If you're assuming that Hispanic South America will grow, you can't forget that French-speaking Africa will, as well.

<Spanish is studied in a lot of countries, like French: United States, Brazil, Senegal, Trinidad & Tobago, France, Germany, England or Sweden are a good example.>

I can tell you with certainty that although a lot of Americans take Spanish, very few ever come close to being able to speak the langauge. Most forget what they learned by the time they reach their 20s. As for the other countries, English is still the most important and most studied second language in the world.
Guest   Tue May 29, 2007 8:59 pm GMT
"Based on what? Did a little fairy give you that information? If you're assuming that Hispanic South America will grow, you can't forget that French-speaking Africa will, as well."

English, Chinese and Spanish (and Japanese) will be the most important languages economically. You can read this web.

http://unicode.org/notes/tn13/

French is 13th, not 11th according to this Ethnologue web. So, FRENCH IS NOT IN THE TOP TEN LANGUAGES AND NEVER WILL BE THERE. IT IS A MEDIUM SIZE LANGUAGE LIKE TAMIL OR OTHER INDIAN LANGUAGE. It was an important language, but it´s loosing a lot of importance, like Latin.

http://web.archive.org/web/19990429232804/www.sil.org/ethnologue/top100.html

It doesn´t matter. You´ll be able to live with that.
Guest   Tue May 29, 2007 10:00 pm GMT
To all those who think that quantity is the decisive factor, as opposed to quality
... and that native speakers are more important than foreign learners...


According to your logic, the following languages are more important than French:

Bengali
Wu
Tamil
JaVanese
Marathi
Telugu

Ask yourself the following question ~
How many books were published in these languages as opposed to French?
How many websites were launched in these languages as opposed to French?

I can guarantee you that French was responsible for publishing and launching more books and websites than ALL these languages combined.


... and ask yourself another question ~

If Spanish or Chinese or Arabic are indeed more important than French, then why are they not used in international organisations like the United Nations or NATO?
Guest   Tue May 29, 2007 10:07 pm GMT
<English, Chinese and Spanish (and Japanese) will be the most important languages economically. You can read this web.>

Yes, in 2010, Spanish could be ranked 4th. But if you look at the trends, Spanish is losing ground to not only French, but also German.

<French is 13th, not 11th according to this Ethnologue web. So, FRENCH IS NOT IN THE TOP TEN LANGUAGES AND NEVER WILL BE THERE. IT IS A MEDIUM SIZE LANGUAGE LIKE TAMIL OR OTHER INDIAN LANGUAGE. It was an important language, but it´s loosing a lot of importance, like Latin.>

Again, you keep repeating the same dumb comment over and over. Trying to compare Tamil to French is utterly ridiculous. Sure French is losing importance to English, but so is every other language on the planet. French still sits safely as the second-most important language in the world. You won't hear anyone speaking Spanish in the secretariat of the U.N., or in the halls of NATO, or over the loudspeaker during the Olympic Games, or during G8 talks, or during important EU meetings. French has a special mystique because no one really knows just how many people actually speak it. Its numbers are underestimated because it, like English, is so widespread.
Guest   Tue May 29, 2007 10:09 pm GMT
Are you stupid?

Spanish, Chinese and Arabic are official languages of the United Nations (English, French and Russian too).

When China, Arabic countries, and Latin American countries will become official member of NATO, their languages will be official.

The number of speakers (as mother tongue and as second language) is an important factor, but not the only one.
Guest   Tue May 29, 2007 10:14 pm GMT
... shithead, the United Nations has only two WORKING languages, English and French.
Guest   Tue May 29, 2007 10:26 pm GMT
English and French are the working languages of the Secretariat of the United Nations.

English, Spanish and French are the working languages of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations

English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese are the official and working languages of the Organization.
Guest   Tue May 29, 2007 10:32 pm GMT
So why is it that the Secretariat decided to adopt English and French as official working languages, and not Spanish or Arabic or Russian?
Guest   Tue May 29, 2007 11:38 pm GMT
>>Are you stupid?

Spanish, Chinese and Arabic are official languages of the United Nations (English, French and Russian too).<<

Read more closely next time.

>>When China, Arabic countries, and Latin American countries will become official member of NATO, their languages will be official.<<

I highly doubt that. First of all, I doubt any of those countries will ever be invited to join, especially not China or Middle Eastern countries. The only country from Latin America that might join would perhaps be Mexico, but even then Spanish won't receive status. Spain is already a member, they didn't change anything when it joined.

>>English, Spanish and French are the working languages of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations<<

What's that? Some arbitrary and random unit of the U.N. that you chose to use an example because it had Spanish as an official language? Different branches of the U.N. can choose to use different languages. The ones that matter most are the Security Council and Secretariat, which both use English and French as working languages.