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Old 12-09-2004, 02:06 PM   #11
Lady Sedai
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I find languages other than English to be very beautiful.

I took German for three years and still try to speak/write/read it as much as possible to keep up with it.

I think Asian languages are musical. I love the sound of Russian, etc. I think French is berry nize. And, though it looks absolutely NOTHING like what it sounds, I'm enamored of Celtic/Gaelic languages. I've listened to Nordic language being spoken and want to learn that, too.

I think it would, on one hand, be more convenient if every person in the world spoke one language, but feel, on the other, it would be a terrible tragedy to lose individuality by completely eradicating other languages.

I think it also reflects a horrible "laziness" that we should feel the whole world needs to learn English instead of English speaking nations learning other languages.
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Old 12-09-2004, 02:22 PM   #12
Vaskez
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It's not a bad thing, as long as languages don't die out - that's what makes the world interesting - the diversity. It would be extremely boring (and boredom leads to frustration) if everyone just spoke the same language.

Just wondering, why and how is German set to expand, esp. in Asia????

As for there being a backlash against the spread of english and a reassertion of national languages - damn right! If hungarians and how they feel about their national language is anything to go by, all other countries would rather be destroyed than have their own language die out. Heh, it's funny to see how people who move to Hungary, often try and get by just with english or german - some manage, but in the end you get them all learning - I've seen blacks, chinese, arabs, all speaking hungarian and it is pretty funny and wierd, but cool.

One thing a global language is very good for, is research - if everyone published in different languages, then the rate of progress would be crap! People would just end up reinventing the wheel, being unaware that what they're doing has already been done in another country, and the sharing of ideas would be much less.

[ 12-09-2004, 02:40 PM: Message edited by: Vaskez ]
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Old 12-09-2004, 03:25 PM   #13
Thoran
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While it's probably true that a lot of people will learn English as a second or third language... I don't think we'll see other languages die out because of it.

I'd guess that within the next 5 to 10 years we'll start seeing speech recognition and translation technology that will allow people to speak their own language and be understood by someone speaking a different one.

It will eliminate the current driver that's pushing the world towards English as a common language... just don't let your batteries go dead! [img]smile.gif[/img]
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Old 12-09-2004, 03:55 PM   #14
Aelia Jusa
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Quote:
Originally posted by Larry_OHF:

I am sad to see that so many of what we call "successive business men and women" cannot take the time to learn another language when they deal internationally...and instead expect the international community to learn English instead. I know that it is more difficult to learn a new language once you are older, for the neurons in your brain are not able to handle such processes as well as a child could...but I have a father-in-law in Argentina right now learning Spanish very well. He also speaks Mandarin and Japanese, since he was in the war and stuff. My mother-in-law, on the other hand...is also living in Argentina, but has no concern for learning the language. She has already convinced herself that she cannot do it.
I agree that it's a real shame that people in English speaking countries don't value bilingualism more. I think it's a problem with schooling more than laziness of adults, though. As you pointed out, it is much more difficult for adults to learn new languages than children, and also adults will almost never be able to speak without an accent if they learn as an adult, whereas a child can learn a different language and speak it perfectly. Also, your father-in-law is in a very good position to learn Spanish - living in a Spanish-speaking country. It is much easier to learn a language when you are immersed in it and there is a real necessity to learn it, rather than just when you are sometimes in contact with people who speak a different language but live in an English-speaking country. And there is little incentive to learn a different language because the people you come in contact with speak good English anyway.

Schools I think need to be more consistent with teaching other languages and there needs to be more congruency between lower and upper schooling so that kids learn one other language well rather than pointless spatterings of a number of different languages. The problem in English-speaking countries is, though, there isn't a clear obvious second language to teach, so schools end up offering a number of different languages, or the language taught at primary school is not the same as the one taught at high school. In non-English speaking countries, there is a much more clear choice for a second language.
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Old 12-09-2004, 04:10 PM   #15
Blunderbuss
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I'm in Year 10, which is the first year of the two year GCSE course. I was already learning German but I wanted to take up a second language (French) for GCSE. I was at first told I wouldn't be able to do a second language. Eventually, they agreed that I could, however, I only have one lesson a week, instead of three. Not only this, but I have to have it in addition to my other GCSE choices and the one lesson is after school.

It seems to me, that if we are to get more children to learn foreign languages, schools should put more effort into encouraging them.

[ 12-09-2004, 04:11 PM: Message edited by: Blunderbuss ]
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Old 12-09-2004, 04:14 PM   #16
Spelca
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Quote:
Originally posted by Vaskez:
One thing a global language is very good for, is research - if everyone published in different languages, then the rate of progress would be crap! People would just end up reinventing the wheel, being unaware that what they're doing has already been done in another country, and the sharing of ideas would be much less.
I agree, it would be very good for research, but, unfortunately, very bad for other languages. If you'd have researchers publish only in English, for example (which is more and more common to do), other languages would not develop in those parts of the vocabulary. Already you have researchers in Sweden who're not able to express their ideas in Swedish, because they're publishing in English, researching in English, and also partially taught in English. It's sad that some languages will become obsolete in these different areas... And if that happens, then they also won't be used in these areas that often. But I do see how it's good for science. It's just bad that languages would have to suffer because of it.
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Old 12-09-2004, 04:16 PM   #17
Q'alooaith
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Maybe an asian language for english school's would be interesting, that or go back to teaching latin..

It'd have to be a unified effort on the part of school's in any given country though, and seen to be done correctly.

The french teacher (who was also the science teacher, and a good one too) at my school knew very little french.. He had a phonetic phrase book which he used to give us some basics but beyond that nothing..


Linguistic studys should be like any other, not ignored and put on the back burner like they are so often..


Lastly, there is already at least one profession which you have to learn english for.
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Old 12-09-2004, 04:17 PM   #18
Lady Sedai
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Quote:
Originally posted by Blunderbuss:
It seems to me, that if we are to get more children to learn foreign languages, schools should put more effort into encouraging them.
Here here! *applauds*

I know when I was in High School, you were only "required" to take one year of one language.

I purposefully completed courses ahead of schedule each year just so I'd have "room" to take German for year 2 and 3. I also took Spanish in 7th grade because I *wanted* to. I got a special dispensation for it from the school because I was BORED in my other classes, LOL. But that was also only because I had a very high GPA. I don't think someone with an average GPA would ever be given an opportunity to learn another language, but it should be allowed.

Life is more than advanced mathematics and history. It's also culture which includes arts and languages. [img]smile.gif[/img]
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Old 12-09-2004, 04:24 PM   #19
Aelia Jusa
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Quote:
Originally posted by Spelca:
quote:
Originally posted by Vaskez:
One thing a global language is very good for, is research - if everyone published in different languages, then the rate of progress would be crap! People would just end up reinventing the wheel, being unaware that what they're doing has already been done in another country, and the sharing of ideas would be much less.
I agree, it would be very good for research, but, unfortunately, very bad for other languages. If you'd have researchers publish only in English, for example (which is more and more common to do), other languages would not develop in those parts of the vocabulary. Already you have researchers in Sweden who're not able to express their ideas in Swedish, because they're publishing in English, researching in English, and also partially taught in English. It's sad that some languages will become obsolete in these different areas... And if that happens, then they also won't be used in these areas that often. But I do see how it's good for science. It's just bad that languages would have to suffer because of it. [/QUOTE]While I agree that it is useful to be able to access all the research that is out there, and not be constrained by what language it is written in, Spelca also makes a good point. I think there are ways to get around the problem of research being written in different languages such that people wouldn't be doing the same stuff again and again - it is already occurring. For example, in psych there are a number of journals written in other languages. However, they have abstracts written in English (and other languages - I use one journal that has abstracts in English, French, German and two Asian languages) such that you can see from databases what research has been done.
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Old 12-10-2004, 05:01 AM   #20
wellard
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Quote:
Originally posted by Aelia Jusa:


Schools I think need to be more consistent with teaching other languages and there needs to be more congruency between lower and upper schooling so that kids learn one other language well rather than pointless spatterings of a number of different languages. The problem in English-speaking countries is, though, there isn't a clear obvious second language to teach, so schools end up offering a number of different languages, or the language taught at primary school is not the same as the one taught at high school. In non-English speaking countries, there is a much more clear choice for a second language.
I had not thought of that before Aelia, but it is so true. Maybe this is an underlying reason for English speaking people being lazy in taking up the challenge of a foreign language. What should I choose as a language for my kids down here in Australia? Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Indonesian or ??? There is no obvious choice as you say. [img]graemlins/1ponder.gif[/img] Not an easy choice is it?

As posted by Grojlach "On a similar note, linguists predict that by the end of this century, 75 to 90 percent of the 5000 current languages will have died out." I have heard this before and I believe many of those languages are Aboriginal and Papua New Guinean languages. This really makes me sad, If it was my culture I would be angry about it.

Is it a form of imperial arrogance? Do members of this forum get annoyed that it is English based or so many films and TV and music for that matter, or just accept it as given without a second thought?
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