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If you don't learn the local language while living somewhere, and if you are not a tourist, not in a short-term job and not a loner, then you are a jerk. First you can't integrate if you don't speak the language, you wouldn't understand local news, local culture, etc. And you wouldn't be able to speak with a significant part of the population, and only have low-level kind of conversation with a huge part of the rest of the population.
English is of course the first needed language. But it allows only short interactions (between non-native English speakers). You are quickly restricted by your lack of vocabulary, it's quickly irritating, you can hardly have serious conversations. And it's exhausting in the long run.
Really fluent non-native English speakers are still quite rare (and most were raised in an English environment), people mostly speak global English.
If I had to speak only English with non-native speakers I'll quickly become dumb.
Ok what is up with all these foreignors using American curse words?
Anyway, I agree but I disagree with you forcing your opinion down anyones throat. That is your opinion, you are allowed to do what you want, I personally think it is a tad rude not to learn the local language.
I do not take it well when Pakistani people etc come here and refuse to absorb into our culture.
Linda, but as far as I know many foreign expats in the Netherlands (and some other countries) manage to live there for years and decades without even speaking Dutch.
What if international mobility will increase in future? Look, the better people speak English all over the world, the easier it will be for them to move to another country. And they won't really be motivated to learn a local language since "everyone speaks English anyway".
So, there will be more and more English-speaking "bubbles" such as international schools, universities, or jobs where the working language is English and it's enough. Why bother learning a local language if you're in a multicultural environment and it's easier to get by with English?
That may be a threat to any national language I guess. Or am I wrong? I wanna be wrong!
Yes, but expats don't speak the language of their destination's country.
Point two, what you described is how English is today: a tool of communication with foreigners, nothing else.
Learning English is now necessary but learning other important European languages is far better than just knowing English.
I can speak Italian as native language but also English and French to a advanced/upper-intermediate level, German and Hungarian to a intermediate level and, thanks to Italian, I can be understood (and viceversa) by Spaniards.
Being capable of speaking these languages allows me a far better and deeper interaction with those speakers, I can resort to them whether my interlocutor doesn't speak English well.
Obviously, it's more convenient to learn English than minor languages like Czech or Estonian, yet knowing another language always gives you an edge towards those who don't speak them.
Ok what is up with all these foreignors using American curse words?
Anyway, I agree but I disagree with you forcing your opinion down anyones throat. That is your opinion, you are allowed to do what you want, I personally think it is a tad rude not to learn the local language.
I do not take it well when Pakistani people etc come here and refuse to absorb into our culture.
Don't get me wrong. Of course everyone is free to do whatever they want. Freedom is more important than the language imo.
But I would also understand why a country would send back home the immigrants refusing to learn the local language.
So many languages were lost in France because the government refused to teach any other language during centuries in public schools and made French mandatory in every public institutions. Some of my grand parents were even ashamed to speak their patois (but still Langue d'oïl). In some way it helped France to catch the British and German economically because it increased communication and movement in the country. But it left a mark on people, that's a reason why French are quite careful about foreign languages.
A funny fact : while French was the lingua franca in Europe, less than half the French population spoke fluently French (including dialects which are sometimes much more different than Quebecois/Modern French is).
Being an European, it´s very usefull that one language serves to talk with the rest of the world. English is fairly easy, and most kids in Portugal starting learning it when they are young, so that´s great (our tv is not dubbed which helps). They don´t make a realeffort to learn it, unlike spanish or french.
Other thing, noone in Europe talks in English with ppl from the same country. Unless it´s an "English Club" whose aim is exactly to experience english talking between your pairs.
In Portugal it´s "obligatory" to know Moderate English at least, altough many ppl have advanced level. If you are young and you don´t know it, it´s a bit of "shame" and embarrasment.
But you have more "level" if you can talk fluentely spanish (easier) or french (intelectual language). Few ppl here know German, mostly those who want to emigrate fro this country, like enginners.
For example I am learning Russian in University, and everyone must know English to learn Russian, because there´s no material in portuguese to learn russian. So English is a fundamental tool for almost everyone over 40 here
Interestingly, English-language programs on TV are at times of the day when few people watch, like after midnight or Saturday afternoon when the Portuguese tend to go shopping big time. English-language programs are never shown at prime time or other times when a lot of people are watching. At those times of the day we rather watch Brazilian programs than American ones. The same mother tongue is an, maybe THE, most important tool that unites people within and across the borders of a country. Thus English will never be anything but an auxiliary language here.
English is just a standard pick-up truck, whereas one's mother tongue is a Ferrari or Bentley so to speak
Some people curse in English because those words are short and because they don't mean anything. I can say f*ck just like that, there is no emotion or association, it is just a word. If, however, I used the word that means the same thing in my mother tongue, it would be embarrassing and vulgar, and someone might be offended.
Don't get me wrong. Of course everyone is free to do whatever they want. Freedom is more important than the language imo.
But I would also understand why a country would send back home the immigrants refusing to learn the local language.
So many languages were lost in France because the government refused to teach any other language during centuries in public schools and made French mandatory in every public institutions. Some of my grand parents were even ashamed to speak their patois (but still Langue d'oïl). In some way it helped France to catch the British and German economically because it increased communication and movement in the country. But it left a mark on people, that's a reason why French are quite careful about foreign languages. A funny fact : while French was the lingua franca in Europe, less than half the French population spoke fluently French (including dialects which are sometimes much more different than Quebecois/Modern French is).
Only half spoke French fluently? That's interesting. I know that Brittany used to have its own language, Breton. Also there is the Basque country. And there is (or were) Dutch, German and Italian speaking areas in France but still half is very surprising.
Do you know Portugal and Spain are different countries?
Actually, it's uncommon for a young Portuguese not to have a decent level of English.
It's a generational thing. In both countries the older generations don't speak English, some older people even have problems reading and writing in their own language because attending school was not important half a century ago in rural areas.
I somehow doubt that. In Spain nobody speaks English in the towns.
Well, in Spain they dub everything. In Portugal they use subtitles.
That probably makes the difference.
On the other hand, if we look at the latest Eurobarometer survey, both countries rank low in terms of English proficiency and are actually not far apart. In Portugal, only 27% claim to speak English, in Spain 22%.
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