non-english speaking countries

Language is a tool for communication. I am a mechanic and have found it a great advantage to have a large variety of tools in my tool box to fit the many different needs so many manufactured devices require for their repair. How foolish it would be for me to throw away the many tools it took me years to gather and retain only one tool, the adjustable wrench, which is a descendant of the famed monke wrench, which in theory could replace all tools because it is so adjustable. My limited exposure to languages gives me a bit of the view of some incredible abilities one gives up if you do not have the variety available for their very particular ability in certain areas. For example, nothing sounds sexier to me than the Romance languages, nothing seems more technically descriptive than some of the Germanic expressions, so why get rid of things that have such special attributes. It would be better to learn how to use each one of those and it is totally possible...... if it were presented to all of us at a very young age.....we already have the studies that prove that that is true. Perhaps those in parts of Europe where many languages are spoken can join in and tell some of these advantages. Perhaps we are too old but let not our own preferences cripple the future for our youngsters where all things are more possible......just my 2 cents thrown in.

 

There are areas of Scotland with thick dialects even I can't understand, and I've got a pretty broad accent.
Might have told this story before, but I remember years ago down in the New Forest I met two girls from Walsall in the Midlands, whose accents were even worse than mine. We had to resort to speaking like 1950s BBC newsreaders to have any kind of conversation, and it about killed us.
British comedian Harry Enfield used to do sketches where he sent up the 1940s British middle classes and their accents, and I'm still convinced he was sitting in the pub behind us that night listening. Might sue him for stealing my intellectual copyright.
One girl was called Julie, no idea what the blonde was called; she had four attempts at telling me, then I gave up and just called her Effie for the rest of the night. Didn't complain, so I might even have been right.

 

Don't worry I don't understand them all either. However I feel extremely close to the Scottish accent. The prononciation of the "r" is similar to Dutch.

 

I live in Kent (south-east England). I commute to France most days. Most French speak some English, but not many speak English any better than I speak French. I also speak German and have lived in Germany. It is very easy in Europe, as was said, to travel a sort distance and find yourself in a completely different area linguistically. Most Europeans speak English, in some parts to avoid speaking certain other languages (especially Belgium where the country is essentially divided along linguistic lines, as is Switzerland..). My daughter-in-law is with us in England for the Christmas holidays. She's Mexican and has fluent English, learnt both from us and US TV series and films which I believe are broadcast mostly undubbed in Mexico..

 

wow....you mean they can speak English?? they speak the native language with each other, correct?? I must say, I salute all of you for your language skills...!

 

Well, many of us on this forum are not native English speakers. I believe the Proportion of Anglo Saxons (USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New zealand etc...) would be around 50%, to which should be added 40% of Europeans (Germans, Dutch , French, Italians, slovenes, Luxembourgers etc...) then 10 % others (Asians, South Americans etc....). Africans are missing.

 

Like the word "verdomme".

 

My country is so small that if I'm not carefull enough while driving I can easily end-up in a foreign country. Regarding language my choices are limited. Skip is in similar position in Benelux and I guess he speaks even more (useful) languages than I do.

First, as a kid when I lived for almost a decade in the western part of my country, almost at the Italian border, I have spoken Italian with my neighbours' children.I still can understand Italian but due to lack of practice my Italian is rather poor now.Then came interest for German language when the family returned to the east, here at the Austrian border. In primary school I have decided for English as the most of kids did. I also speak language of our southern neighbours - Croatian.

Knowledge of different anguages may be crucial in some cases. An Austrian colleague of mine speaks also Slovene language. He has made great success as a salesman arround here with his Slovene language with tick Austrian accent.

Regarding Austrians: they speak German language as a native language but, according to them, no good Austrian speaks real German language. They speak with very thick accent. To my taste Vienese is the best Austrian variant of Austrian-German. Vienese sounds good. In Germany, some Austrians are subtittled. The most prominent among them is former Formula One champion Gerhard Berger who originates from Tyrol. The Germans could have used Tyrolean German instead of Enigma during the WW2. That language could have been much more difficult to decypher than the Enigma.

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I know I learned more about English in my high school German class than I did in my English class. Haveing something to compare to is very useful.

IMO one reason we are so weak in the foreign language department is that you can drive from New York to Chicago stopping at every town along the way and not hear another language but English. I believe the equivalant distance in Europe could take you from Madrid to Moscow. I have no idea how many languages you would run across on that journey.

A friend of mine spent a couple years working in German a while ago. In the day care center his kids went to they spoke 7 languages.

 

My school only has Spanish, Franch and Latin classes. the one class that I pray that they will have one day is German. It's the one foreign language class that I would love to take and also Germany is my family's country of origin. I hope one day to have a course/class for German.

 

In Europe we have so many languages, so it makes sense to learn 1 or 2 foreign languages atleast, with english being the main one of course.

 

At times I suspect it is difficult for those who were not born in the US to understand why we here do not learn many new languages but we can see and live in a variety of climates and conditions while still living in the same country with the same language.

I myself have lived in central Louisiana, gulf coast Florida, southern West Virginia, south western Pennsylvania, south eastern Ohio, northern Illinois and south eastern Texas.

Each area has its own inflection and sub dialect, with words and phrases all their own. Anyone in Europe who made such distant moves would be looking usually at a completely new language with each location. Further where most American's travel outside the US, English is quite common. My two trips outside the US were to Canada and Mexico, where I had little trouble communicating with the natives.

Considering the nations that have English as a first language, those that use it as a second primary language, use in media, science and air travel, its ability to absorb seamlessly words and phrases from other languages, it seems more and more likely than ever that it will at some point in our future become humanities default language. Certainly other established languages will remain, but as we become ever more interconnected the need for a 'standard' spoken/written language will be necessary.

Years back some thought Esperanto would become this, some Sci-Fi works speculated a mish-mash of English-Mandarin, but it seems far more likely English will be it.

This may be the great legacy of the British Empire-Pax Americana.

 

so very interesting, and a topic/subject very unknown here in the US....I salute all of you....for Americans, it's hard to imagine the closeness of Europe/etc

 

When you belong to a minor language group like mine, for example norwegian, you have to learn other languages to get ahead in life.
I have taken classes in english, german, french, swedish and even russian. But the thing is if you don't use it, you lose it.
For example, I took classes in french for a year and a half, and since then I have barely used it. Today I can hardly read a french newspaper or magazine and understand what it says.
However, the best thing is to learn a language from the natives. Way back in the seventies and eighties I worked with a canadian mining company and learned english the hard way. There were also a lot of miners from Quebec-Montreal area, and they spoke french. That's how I got into the french language in the first place. But they could hardly speak any english at all, it was mostly the four letter words!

Anyway, since then I have worked at international corporations where the corporate language is english. Reports are written in english so that they can be read by anyone in any country worldwide. At least that is the intention, but I have seen some reports written by some indian and south american employees that are pure mumbo-jumbo. It is simply impossible to understand what they are trying to say!

 

There is an ability for many Europeans to recognize a nationality at sight (not just the look ,but the way you move, you dress etc....) . When I am in Belgium people will talk to me in Dutch but in French to my wife. In Denmark a German tourist started talking to me in German even though he had heard me talking French to my wife . He just knew I would understand .

 

Especially those of us who live in tourist magnets.

 

And Finnish too.

Finland is officially a bi-lingual country with two national languages (Finnish 89,3 % and Swedish 5,3 %). Other official minority languages with certain privileges are Sami languages (3), Romani, Karelian and Finnish sign language.

Since only abt 6 million people in the world (abt. 5+ M in Finland) can speak Finnish we have to learn also other languages. Every pupil learns at least two other languages. First foreign language, often English, starts normally from the third grade (age of 9), but there are also special day care centers where they use also one foreign language. The second foreign language is the so called second domestic language (Swedish for Finnish speakers and v.v.), which starts from the 7th grade. One can also take third foreign language from the 8th grade, but also optionally as early as from the 5th grade.

So everybody gets two-three foreign languages, but in the high school one can study as many as four (AFAIK), depending on school.

Personally I have studied and speak Finnish, English quite well, Swedish acceptably and German tolerably. I also know some words of Italian and Russian to survive in some situations.

In most parts of Europe one gets by with English but not everywhere. Especially in Eastern Europe the elder people do not speak it. Also in Southern Europe the ability to speak English is often poor.

Having films and tv-programs in original languages with subtitles is a major factor. The countries which use subtitles are normally clearly more advanced in learning of foreign languages. The countries which use dubbing do worse. Also learning languages already from the early ages is another important factor.

 

When I was in Finland the mayor of the town who welcomed our delegation spoke, Finnish, Swedish , Russian and German. No English. I translated German into English.

 

Interesting. I mean we learn English in school as our first foreign language, at least that was when I was in school. Our second language is Swedish to learn and then we have multiple choices to take like Russian, German,etc depending on where we live. Anyway, I have been to England twice on a language course and our teachers said that Finnish sounded like Japanese...Anyway, we are parted with the Hungarian people hundreds of years ago when our common ancestors left fro somewhere in mid-Russia I think. We went north and the others southwards creating Hungary.