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Many seem to have learned some French, but it is not really widely used in this country.
China has become a super power, but I don't see people being enthusiastic about learning the language, probably because it is too difficult.
I mean AFAIK they don't have official language so any language is foreign there? I guess you'd argue english is the de facto one given America's unconditional love for everything British. Chinese or Spanish are very likely the next lingua franca worldwide, hardly before 2060+ though.
I mean AFAIK they don't have official language so any language is foreign there? I guess you'd argue English is the de facto one given America's unconditional love for everything British. Chinese or Spanish are very likely the next lingua franca worldwide, hardly before 2060+ though.
Those (bolded) are a couple of bizarre statements.
But, moving right along, Spanish vastly outnumbers all other foreign languages taught in US schools.
French is still second, but declining all the time, as are German and Latin. I think Chinese might be more popular if there were enough teachers and if the public perception of China were more uniformly positive.
On another note the problem with Arabic and Chinese, as growing as they are, is how complex they are compared to Spanish. From what I know even the Japanese don't know "their own" Kanji (aka Chinese alphabet...) since the letters are so difficult. I'll definitely like to see a world where English is used far less (and I pray it's not French, nor Russian who substitute it) but only Spanish has a chance to replace it as the world's most popular.
Chinese or Spanish are very likely the next lingua franca worldwide, hardly before 2060+ though.
English is the lingua franca of the world. If a Pakistani wants to trade with a Chinese partner they both speak in English. All international airline pilots communicate in English. If you want to be successful in world trade you need English.
Also, when we say "Chinese" I assume we mean Mandarin, which is the language of Beijing but one third of native born Chinese citizens do not speak Mandarin at home.
On another note the problem with Arabic and Chinese, as growing as they are, is how complex they are compared to Spanish. From what I know even the Japanese don't know "their own" Kanji (aka Chinese alphabet...) since the letters are so difficult.
Totally agreed. I tried studying Japanese and gave up. Pure memorization since it's a totally different linguistic branch. It gave me a deep respect for people who learn languages that are from a different branch. I'm very patient, for example, with people whose first language is an Asian one if they don't speak English all that fluently.
Yes, French is probably next. I wish students in the US started earlier and with more options besides Spanish. I took French in HS and German in college ad just listened to podcasts in both this morning- but I'm a travel enthusiast.
I mean AFAIK they don't have official language so any language is foreign there?
English is the de facto U.S. language. It's hardly foreign. And many countries have official languages that are not spoken by most of the population (ex: German, one of Belgium's official languages, is spoken as a first language by less than 1% of the populace, though some 20% can speak some German as a second language). Also, numerous countries have no official language; in addition to the U.S. there's Mexico, the United Kingdom, and many others. And there's nothing foreign about the Lakota spoken in South Dakota or the Navaho spoken in Arizona, to name just a couple of hundreds of indigenous languages spoken here.
Also, there are official languages in the United States, just not at the federal level. Most states have one or more official languages - ie, English, Spanish, Hawaiian, etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by euro123
I guess you'd argue english is the de facto one given America's unconditional love for everything British.
It is the de facto language, just like English is the de facto language of Australia and New Zealand.
Quote:
Originally Posted by euro123
Chinese or Spanish are very likely the next lingua franca worldwide, hardly before 2060+ though.
Not Chinese. It has the numbers but neither the range nor the orthography. Spanish could, perhaps, but it doesn't have the power. English became the global language because of part of one island off the northwest coast of Europe that had but a tiny fraction of the global population. They had the power - political, military, commercial, cultural - and it so happened that the global power that followed them spoke the same language. It's the power, not the range.
And, frankly, no one knows where the global power will be a hundred years from now.
Finally, it should be noted that English's great advantage, in addition to the ones I have already cited, is that it happened to come into a position of dominance at a time when the world was integrating. This allowed it to permeate deeply. Now, a Russian pilot flying into Tokyo speaks to local air traffic control in English. A Swede or Korean or Namibian physicist publishing a paper does so in English in order to get it read. Commerce between businesses in Lithuania and Vietnam are mostly conducted in English, because English will be far more understood in Lithuania than Vietnamese, and English far more understood in Vietnam than Lithuanian. Someone learning IT in Mumbai or Sao Paulo or Athens needs to know English because that's the language of most of the instructional materials and the components and the jobs.
It's like the QWERTY keyboard. Once it's there, it's damn hard to dislodge.
On another note the problem with Arabic and Chinese, as growing as they are, is how complex they are compared to Spanish. From what I know even the Japanese don't know "their own" Kanji (aka Chinese alphabet...) since the letters are so difficult. I'll definitely like to see a world where English is used far less (and I pray it's not French, nor Russian who substitute it) but only Spanish has a chance to replace it as the world's most popular.
I doubt that last part. English is currently and has been for a long time the defacto and dominant language of both science and business.
English is the de facto U.S. language. It's hardly foreign. And many countries have official languages that are not spoken by most of the population (ex: German, one of Belgium's official languages, is spoken as a first language by less than 1% of the populace, though some 20% can speak some German as a second language). Also, numerous countries have no official language; in addition to the U.S. there's Mexico, the United Kingdom, and many others. And there's nothing foreign about the Lakota spoken in South Dakota or the Navaho spoken in Arizona, to name just a couple of hundreds of indigenous languages spoken here.
Also, there are official languages in the United States, just not at the federal level. Most states have one or more official languages - ie, English, Spanish, Hawaiian, etc.
It is the de facto language, just like English is the de facto language of Australia and New Zealand.
Not Chinese. It has the numbers but neither the range nor the orthography. Spanish could, perhaps, but it doesn't have the power. English became the global language because of part of one island off the northwest coast of Europe that had but a tiny fraction of the global population. They had the power - political, military, commercial, cultural - and it so happened that the global power that followed them spoke the same language. It's the power, not the range.
And, frankly, no one knows where the global power will be a hundred years from now.
Finally, it should be noted that English's great advantage, in addition to the ones I have already cited, is that it happened to come into a position of dominance at a time when the world was integrating. This allowed it to permeate deeply. Now, a Russian pilot flying into Tokyo speaks to local air traffic control in English. A Swede or Korean or Namibian physicist publishing a paper does so in English in order to get it read. Commerce between businesses in Lithuania and Vietnam are mostly conducted in English, because English will be far more understood in Lithuania than Vietnamese, and English far more understood in Vietnam than Lithuanian. Someone learning IT in Mumbai or Sao Paulo or Athens needs to know English because that's the language of most of the instructional materials and the components and the jobs.
It's like the QWERTY keyboard. Once it's there, it's damn hard to dislodge.
Great post.
It reminds me of a day I was drinking coffee outside a little shop in Zug Switzerland (gotta be one of the world's most beautiful cities). Anyway two men nearby, best guess one was Swiss, but I've never heard another Swiss sound like him, and the other French or Austrian, were conversing in a rolling-mix of Swiss-German, Swiss, French and English but the conversation was clearly going nowhere. Somehow they switched to Italian a little English and it was all good!
I was also amazed to see how common it is for Swiss to curse in English.
Finally, it should be noted that English's great advantage, in addition to the ones I have already cited, is that it happened to come into a position of dominance at a time when the world was integrating. This allowed it to permeate deeply. Now, a Russian pilot flying into Tokyo speaks to local air traffic control in English. A Swede or Korean or Namibian physicist publishing a paper does so in English in order to get it read. Commerce between businesses in Lithuania and Vietnam are mostly conducted in English, because English will be far more understood in Lithuania than Vietnamese, and English far more understood in Vietnam than Lithuanian. Someone learning IT in Mumbai or Sao Paulo or Athens needs to know English because that's the language of most of the instructional materials and the components and the jobs.
It's like the QWERTY keyboard. Once it's there, it's damn hard to dislodge.
Yes to all of this. I think French was at one point used as a "lingua franca" for diplomacy and the sciences. But this was at a time before the world was really connected in the late 1800s and into the 1900s. I worked in aviation for a bit as a flight planner. We honestly had it good being able to communicate with someone from any country and knowing they'd speak English (maybe not well). FBOs in Japan? English. Hotel for the pilots in India? English. Tower in Kuwait? English. Eurocontrol office in Brussels? English. The actual filed flight plans themselves are really more of a code but it's all "English based" I'd say.
I'll add to the list, counting systems. We use decimal/base 10 but that's just one of many bases we could use. Really I wish a long time ago we had switched to base-12 entirely but that won't happen.
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