Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > World Forums > Europe
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 10-31-2017, 06:51 PM
 
26,732 posts, read 22,409,968 times
Reputation: 10023

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by oh-eve View Post
can you elaborate?


The German language is spoken (a little bit) in many countries also because Germans travel everywhere. Wherever you go, and it could be the tiniest country in the world, you'll find some German tourists. Anyway, to accommodate them and make money, a lot of people in foreign countries in tourist areas learn a little bit of German.


It may be the same with English. People want to make money, so to communicate, they learn the language of the people they want to have business with.
While it's true that "Germans travel everywhere" ( I've heard German speech nearby during each and every trip I made internationally, be that Canada or Italy lol,) but in case of Russia German was widely taught in schools pre-1941 ( and even still later) because it was a practical language to know in tech. field first of all.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 10-31-2017, 07:31 PM
 
5,428 posts, read 3,470,300 times
Reputation: 5031
Quote:
Originally Posted by forgotten username View Post
noone in Paris spoke English a decade ago ? Right.
He was using a hyperbole.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-01-2017, 08:52 AM
 
Location: Slovakia
140 posts, read 151,027 times
Reputation: 204
I would say this is trend over the last few decades.

With EU and globalized world position of English is just more important than ever. Also I would say French, German, Russian declined for various reasons, while English position strenghtened over those languages. While 10 or 20 years ago Lithuanian with Ukrainian would speak Russian, Dutchmen with Swiss German German or Portuguese with Frenchman French this is not the case today/ I mean statistically speaking/ now English could be used in such conversations.

With the EU and globalized world we have so many foreign companies in every country and English is the preffered option/or only option/, there are also so many immigrants/not every one can speak immediately Swedish for example but can speak English for first few years in new country/.

There are also many multicultural companies, you can Skype with your boss in Canada or Dubai obviously in English and so on.

Thanks to Schengen and before that fall of communism you can travel with easy Europe by cheap train, plane or by car, no borders in most countries.

Education - German, French or Russian or Spanish are learned as 2nd foreign language, but English is the dominant 1st foreign language.

Culture, music, films and so on everything is English dominated.

Obviously there are some exceptions like France, Russia, Spain or Italy which are large countries and if you work on local level and spend your life in your country English is not so important. Also those countries have dubbing, are proud of their language and other factors involved why English is not so popular there.

Than you have most of European countries when films, music, culture is ENglish dominated, you have many tourists and foreign companies and English is a MUST for most positions.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-01-2017, 09:10 AM
 
Location: Florida and the Rockies
1,970 posts, read 2,222,899 times
Reputation: 3318
Quote:
Originally Posted by botticelli View Post
I think it has nothing to do with culture. They learn English to make money.

Note that it is not just Americans who speak English in Paris. Almost all non-French speakers do as well.
Correct. What changed, in an over-simplified, one-word answer, is China. China became the most important group of foreigners everywhere in the world, and they don't speak small languages. They speak Mandarin, maybe Cantonese, and English. Your French company (or Slovak company, or Turkish company) wants to sell to China, you speak in English.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-01-2017, 09:43 AM
 
2,639 posts, read 1,986,917 times
Reputation: 1988
If I understand everyones' comments correctly, English use passed a threshold and has become more and more useful as a lingua franca.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-01-2017, 11:44 AM
 
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
10,931 posts, read 11,692,733 times
Reputation: 13170
I've only been here 20 years. I do see a change in France. But in all frankness, this is both more of an an urban-rural thing and age-related, as well. Also, most Americans only travel to tourist places, where English is important. In rural Jutland, English skills vary a lot.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-01-2017, 03:44 PM
 
Location: Bologna, Italy
7,501 posts, read 6,260,999 times
Reputation: 3761
Quote:
Originally Posted by Frihed89 View Post
I've only been here 20 years. I do see a change in France. But in all frankness, this is both more of an an urban-rural thing and age-related, as well. Also, most Americans only travel to tourist places, where English is important. In rural Jutland, English skills vary a lot.
yeah, that too. My father speaks English because he has to do business in various countries, but my mother who used to be a high school science teacher does not know anything more than basic english words (I think). Me and my sister can speak correct english.

Most of the people under, say, 40, can survive in an english environment much more than people under 40 in the 1980s. At least that's my impression.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-01-2017, 04:29 PM
 
Location: Paris
8,161 posts, read 8,711,947 times
Reputation: 3547
Over here some 20 yo people still don't even have a basic grasp of English. Middle school English courses are of no use if you have no interest in learning the language.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-01-2017, 04:44 PM
 
Location: Finland
24,144 posts, read 24,735,183 times
Reputation: 11103
The magic word is WWII. Before that in Northern Europe the main foreign language was German, and around the Mediterranean French was the foreign language of choice. In all of Europe within diplomacy French was the lingua franca.

What happened after WWII was the agreement of creating new international organisations like the UN. As German had for obvious reasons fallen out of fashion, and two of the major victors in WWII were English-speaking, it was obvious that English is becoming the new lingua franca. French remained for a generation the main language of diplomacy, but English eventually overtook it there as well.

With mass media, more international trade and the world shrinking, European countries (especially smaller ones) realised that learning English is essential for the future. And in the West you cannot deny the massive effect of the Cold War, which played in English's favour.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-01-2017, 05:57 PM
 
Location: Østenfor sol og vestenfor måne
17,916 posts, read 24,269,567 times
Reputation: 39032
My simplified impression:

Mid 19th century - WWII - most advanced textbooks were in German or French (replacing the former multi-century champion, Latin)

Post-WWII - most advanced textbooks were in English, with French rapidly receding, and German absent except in hard sciences where it dominated well into the 1960s at least according to my father's generation.

In short, at the very least a command of written English became more important to succeed in academia and thus the higher posts of society.

Add British and American pop culture exports in the era of broadcast media (radio and television) to the mix and you had a good ground for English to become an important lingua franca in both the academic and popular culture spheres. Set that ball rolling and by the 1980s English had solid footing in most countries as a second or third language.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:

Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > World Forums > Europe

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 05:26 AM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top