Thread: Should I learn Spanish?

Originally Posted by EvBladeRunnervE

link please? I don't think there are more than 1.2 billion speakers of it(the amount that speak Mandarin)

Damn, I allways forget about that.
Ok, so I'll just say it's in the top-5. It's been a long time since I've seen any statistics so I have no idea exactly where it is. The post was based on some really old data I had.

You of course have to take into consideration that not everyone speaks only one language, but still, you can never say for sure...

>Its odd to find a person that put all the accents.

I just got used to writing properly

Originally Posted by EvBladeRunnervE

well number one language overall is English(as this is like 1.7 billion speakers, since every country pretty much requires the people to learn english), then Mandarin, then Spanish.

I sure hope you got that from somewhere respectable, because I didn't know we got over half a billion english speakers in the past five years....

If you did make that up, like I suspect, then you are most definetely wrong. What do you mean, "since every country pretty much requires the people to learn english"? If you believe that, you have a pretty distorted idea of foreign peoples. There are some buisness people that learn english in foreign countries, but as a whole, Spain, France, Israel, Germany, much of Africa, Greece, and many other countries want essentially nothing to do with it. Many do not want a language with such complex pronunciation rules - if every people started learning it today in those countries, we wouldn't have very many understandable english speakers until about 2 generations, when the kids are taught proper english in schools and by parents.

"since every country pretty much requires the people to learn english"? If you believe that, you have a pretty distorted idea of foreign peoples. There are some buisness people that learn english in foreign countries, but as a whole, Spain, France, Israel, Germany, much of Africa, Greece, and many other countries want essentially nothing to do with it.

uhm, I have friends from China and Israel, and I can definitely tell you they require English in their public school systems. In Israel, it is part of most High Schools graduation exam.

I will admit my figure is quite wrong, I consent defeat to you:

http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=ENG

however, spanish is number 3:

http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=SPN

we wouldn't have very many understandable english speakers until about 2 generations, when the kids are taught proper english in schools and by parents.

That is pretty damn racist of you to say. Every person I know that was born in China and came here before their 30s knows and speaks English just as good if not better than a lot of native speakers.

English might be a dirty language, but English is actually one of the easier languages to get away with mispronunciation and still get your point across.

I wasn't trying to be racist, I was being true. English is a hard language to learn. Yes, kids not yet at puberty pick up languages in a heartbeat, but it takes years for an adult to learn a language fluently, and if they are not interested in the language itself, they will most likely have a bad pronunciation. When you have someone who really WANTS to learn the language, they can pick up a fluent, native pronunciation.

EDIT: Most Americans who don't truly want to learn a language would not be interested in pronunciation, and end up with a bad dialect of their own. I'm talking about people learning languages in general, not just Americans, especially when they are as grammatically hard as English or other similar languages.

EDIT: Most Americans who don't truly want to learn a language would not be interested in pronunciation, and end up with a bad dialect of their own. I'm talking about people learning languages in general, not just Americans, especially when they are as grammatically hard as English or other similar languages.

exactly, like for example Arabic, it is a real pain in the butt to learn; however, if you really want to learn it, you can fool even native speakers(like John Walker Lindgh did)>

Originally Posted by Jimbob1989

I find that when you learn another language, its nice to speak now and again but after a while, it gets really boring.

Jimbob

Specially when you need to speak it so you can get food, clothes, a place to live, work... :P

It depends on what you do with the language. You could use it just to get more money/a better job, but it is also a part of a whole other culture, and people need to see other cultures (even if just a hint) to really understand that there are other people and other cultures and that you need to respect them.

If you really want to learn a lanuage you need to go to a country where people speak it (and I mean as a mother-tongue). You can still have a pretty decent level if you don't, but it becomes easier in the country (that's what I gather from personal experience).

Oh, and Lurker, in Spain you are required to take English untill you finish, which is at 18 (or 20 in some cases) , that is, if you are still there (it's only compulsore untill 16).
Really, we're only required to take _a_ foreign (sp?) language, but unless you live in a place where there a lot of people that want another language you don't stand a chance of getting that other language, and since Spain is basically composed of small towns and/or villages, not many people have the oportunity to study other languages seriosly (you can get french as an option, but that's 2 hours per week, which is absolutely crap for a language).