What language should English native speakers learn?
People say that English people are lazy when it comes to learning languages, and that when foreigners coming to England speak English, English people should return the favour. Fair enough! I think this is true, but what language should English people learn? Europe is linguistically quite diverse, so even if everyone in England spoke fluent German as well as English, no doubt the French and Spanish would think that we were unwilling or lazy for not learning their languages. But, no doubt it won't be long before the international language changes again. Only 100 years ago, Latin and French were important languages, 50 years ago, English and Russian, and now only English. It is only a matter of time before another language takes over the role of international languages, and at this rate it looks like it will be Mandarin!
Sent by: James
Comments
Every 5th person in the world is Chinese. Asian languages are greatly underestimated and disregarded because they involve more work in learning. And statistically speaking, you'd be able to communicate with a clear 20% of the world's population by learning the Chinese language.
What language should an English native speakers learn?
Catalan of course!!
The English are worried. Now after years of imposing their language upon others (over 300 million people speak the language) and building an empire that became "British" they now find that within certain areas of England - English is not the FIRST language.
It's a pity this new found understanding and importance of peoples' language didn't exist when in 1549 the English imposed their English Prayer Book onto a Cornish speaking nation. The Cornish were part of a group of people that existed in Briton long before the Anglo Saxons arrived and the term "Angloland" had not come into being.
And so it goes on today. Cornish history isn't taught in Cornish schools and the school curriculum is based on an Anglosaxon perspective and our history has been air brushed away.
As they have sown so shall they reap.
Kernow bys vyken! Cornwall forever!
This a comment to James, you asked the question: what language should the English learn? My answer is English for starters! The main problem is that the younger generation such as myself have cut so many corners to the English languange that we no longer use the wider vocabulary that currently is available. I am ashamed to say that my English is very simple and to my amazement, when learning French at A level, there were many words in French that are similar to those in English, if only I knew what those English words meant in the first place!
Just a quick question to Carl Kewley: Do you speak Welsh?
Not all Britons are lazy and unwilling to learn other languages - there are simply not enough resources out there for us to do so. For instance, I would go out and spend time learning Gaelic, so that I could better understand my grandparents' heritage, if I knew somewhere that taught it.
You would be surprised by how many Brits try to learn new things on holiday - I went on a trip to France with my class and we were all asking for things in French, same as I heard from the German trip that went the next year.
Also -- just one, final point. Please don't group us all together. Especially if you're going to exclude your British self. Some of us don't have the luxury of visiting/living in other countries often - if ever. You're lucky that you get to visit these places, and yes, it's good that you are willing to learn. But please, don't put yourself on a pedestal for us all to aim for. We're not as ignorant as you think.
Ok. I am from the United States. Besides being labeled as lazy, we are also rude and cocky. This I do not agree with at all. I am currently attending two different schools. One is for a degree for a future job and the other is a language school. I am learning French. I think anything is possible and it's not a set of people that is lazy it's individuals of all nationality.
Sorry, George of Australia. I am a native Indonesian, yet we can speak your English language as well as studying German at high school and take an interest in Japanese and Spanish. It would be wonderful if you Aussies could show more interest in foreign languages. Now in New Zealand high school students have a good knowledge of Japanese as well as French and Indonesian (at some high schools in the north of Auckland).
I think English people could learn Spanish, German or French if they want do. I mean, even if everybody in this world spoke English, it wouldn't only be the English people that wouldn't speak French, German and Spanish. No one accuses, for example, Norwegians if they don't speak any other languages than Norwegian, so why should English speaking people be accused for not being able to express themselves in any other language than their mother tongue. People all around the world have it just the same ... But on the other hand, if they get bored, they're more than welcome to learn Norwegian, mabye that would be the next international language :P
I think English as a global language nowadays will certainly be the most useful one throughout the world. But a second language would surely increase your self-esteem and give you access to other cultures that is definitely interesting and significant. So there are generally two ways of choosing a language to learn. For culture and entertainment and for practical and business reasons.
Comment
Have your say
Send to a friend
© MMIX
For adult English-speakers who have never studied another language, I recommend Spanish because it's pronounced exactly the way it's spelled, its grammar is highly regular, and much vocabulary has close cousins in English (via French). For children any foreign language will be fine if they start learning it young -- no later than age 10, which is when their brains begin to be fixed in their native tongue's thought-patterns. I began learning foreign languages at age 9 (5 years of conversational French) and later kept acquiring new ones -- Latin, Spanish, German, Italian, Arabic, Hebrew (so far). My teachers all marveled at how quickly I picked up the new tongue, even well into my 30s, until I told them how early I'd started. They told me how great it was to get an early start (well, early for an American, anyhow) and how they wished more kids could learn at least one other language while in elementary school, because that makes it much easier to learn ANY new language as an adult.
Flag this comment