English as a First Language? Don't Learn Another Language Then.

[Dis]

Can you write it? I certainly cannot. but I can write Spanish and French easy enough- and I don't even know French.

[St Leo]

Can you write Russian or Greek? They are quite practical in their written form and their alphabets aren't that different.

You can? Fine. How about Navajo or Hebrew?

[mrmitchell]

The universal language should be Basque.

It shows no similarities between any other language in the world IIRC and has an incredibly complex sentence structure.

[David Floyd]

First of all, English is a far more significant language than Chinese. Just because a billion people speak a language doesn't mean it's the most important or significant language - Mandarin is not all that widely spoken or learned outside of China, whereas English is on both counts.

I don't see why I have to learn another ****ing language, seeing as how I already speak the only language that I'm ever going to need. Pisses me off - I could be learning something useful.

[Shi Huangdi]

An MNC naturally drives up the price of labor when it enters a country. By increasing the Demand for labor, the price of labor is pushed up.

[Dis]

The fact is chinese is a difficult language to learn and write.

I think the official language should be one of the easiest languages in the world that have at the very least hundreds of millions of speakers.

Spanish fits this category.

I vote for Spanish as the official world language.

[Ned]

Originally posted by Odin
I must disagree. What if you want to ask a person on the street and he/she doesn't know english? Your view is so Anglocentric that I don't think you care about other people. People in a forgien country perfer to speak in thier native language.

Alright, Odin, how much Japanese do you know? And yet, if you go to Japan, you will be able to get by just fine because many Japanese know English and have embarked on mandatory English in all schools.

I could probably say the same thing about every country in the world.

English is also the common language of science and engineering.

There really is no need to learn any other language.

[Urban Ranger]

BD,

"An MNC naturally drives up the price of labor when it enters a country."

How? You aren't answering the question, just asserting your own point.

Originally posted by Dissident
Can you write it?

Why, of course. What kind of question is that?

[Solly]

Originally posted by mrmitchell
Bah. There are 6000 languages, but most are small ones that are dying off all the time. We already are working toward a universal language (sadly).

Sadly??

There is no reason at all to keep artificial divisions between peoples.

[Solly]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
BD,

"An MNC naturally drives up the price of labor when it enters a country."

How? You aren't answering the question, just asserting your own point.



Why, of course. What kind of question is that?

Because it can. A MNC offering Western wages in an undeveloped country would completely wreck and distort their economy.

[Seeker]

My job is teaching English to people who want to learn it.

I think Bod has drastically overestimated the importance of English in many parts of the world.

Most Koreans still don't speak English at a proficient level beyond hello, goodbye, etc.

If all 'educated' people spoke English I would be out of a job.

I wouldn't dismiss China. More and more Koreans are learning Chinese again, because it is where the jobs are.

If you want to work in another country, or do business with that country, you still really need to know the langauge and culture (with the exception of some wacky European countries)

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Boddington's
Because it can. A MNC offering Western wages in an undeveloped country would completely wreck and distort their economy.

You aren't making any sense, Boddie. What can what?

[Zero]

Originally posted by Seeker

I wouldn't dismiss China. More and more Koreans are learning Chinese again, because it is where the jobs are.

If you want to work in another country, or do business with that country, you still really need to know the langauge and culture (with the exception of some wacky European countries)

agreed. It used to be easy to see learn japanese for business books but now learn chinese for business is more frequent.

Anyway, how about emphasizing the importance of learning language simply to broaden your horizon? Alot of the reasons why people think differently is because of language. besides its just interesting that in japanese they rarely use the word "you", and if you use that word, it can be really offensive or polite... or even married to the person that ur using it.

[Dis]

Also another thing to discuss is the U.S. and the U.K. will not be major powers for much longer. The downfall of the U.S. is upon us and the U.K. is really nothing like they used to be anyways.

I don't know who the next superpower will be but I doubt they will speak English. So in 50 or 100 years this same discussion will occur but will focus on another language.

[Ned]

Originally posted by Dissident
Also another thing to discuss is the U.S. and the U.K. will not be major powers for much longer. The downfall of the U.S. is upon us and the U.K. is really nothing like they used to be anyways.

I don't know who the next superpower will be but I doubt they will speak English. So in 50 or 100 years this same discussion will occur but will focus on another language.

Huh? Why do you believe the downfall of the US is upon us? Are you actually suggesting that Al Qaida will be successful?