We in the english world are so privileged

[Brian Ashton]

Here I am sitting in a cafe overlooking the Danube in a small town north of Budapest… We're surrounded by Serbs, Hungarians and a nice fellow from Uzbekistan… We're all hold outs from the lunch rush, drinking honey palinka and slowing getting to know each other… When I lived in Australia, I had a house near the university and would take in students from all over the world, China, Germany, Greece, Japan, Korea, Somalia… And the only thing we all had in common, besides being human, was english… The fellow from Uzbekistan couldn't speak a word of Hungarian. The hungarian he has been collaborating with for years on a business project couldn't speak either russian or what ever the Uzbekistan's native tongue was… So again their common language was english. My wife and I used to sit around the dining room table in house house in Australia doing puzzles with the various students and our only thing in common was english…

We are so fortunate in the english speaking world, or probably should be grateful for the power exerted by the economic might of the US (And I mean that in a very nice way), that the single most learned language in the world is english. But it's a double edged sword, because I meet so many people from all sorts of origins that have 3, 4, 5!, and 6! languages… And I only have one, and a few words of gibberish at that. I should be so proud that I can say cya later in 10 different languages, whoopty friggin doo!

I love being the fly on the wall where people are meeting together. To watch the dynamics taking place as people feel each outer out and the only way to communicate is with hand gestures and english - it's absolutely fascinating to watch. If nothing else it motivates me to be not so ignorant and learn other languages.

[Grant Wilkinson]

You certainly have the right attitude towards learning other languages, Brian. That's a huge part of being successful. I was lucky to have been given French language total immersion training in the mid 70's. I went into it eager to learn, and did so. I regret only having two languages, but there is still time.

[Chuck Wintle]

I recently visited prague and in that city it was difficult to find someone unable to speak or understand some english. As an english speaker myself i found this to be incredible. And the same for Berlin Germany, english is widely spoken although americans have been in germany since the last war. In the Czech republic I always tried to start the conversation in Czech with a few words of hello or information please. But they quickly switched to english for my sake. In germany it was English only everywhere.

[Eduard Nemirovsky]

It is always nice to find a common language to communicate, unfortunately prevalence of English's speaking is a history. It is more people on Earth speak Mandarine ( at least twice over English) and this language is more difficult to learn.:(
Ed.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

In our wanderings last spring, we were at a hosted dinner at a Mauri cultural center in Rotorua, NZ. There were a little over 100 people at the dinner. The host welcomed people and then carried on minor conversation in 33 different languages. We were amazed!

[Wade Lippman]

We are so fortunate in the english speaking world, or probably should be grateful for the power exerted by the economic might of the US (And I mean that in a very nice way), that the single most learned language in the world is english.

Nonsense! We are gifting the world with a common language. Bizarrely they often resist, but we continue to be generous.

[Frederick Skelly]

Nonsense! We are gifting the world with a common language. Bizarrely they often resist, but we continue to be generous.

Wait a 100 years and that common economic language may be Mandarin!

[Pat Barry]

Nonsense! We are gifting the world with a common language. Bizarrely they often resist, but we continue to be generous.
Now if the rest of the world would just learn from our language and covert to our units of measure the world would be a very nice place.

[Wade Lippman]

Wait a 100 years and that common economic language may be Mandarin!

40% of Chinese don't speak Mandarin.
All the Chinese learning English.
Almost no one is learning Chinese.
Already many companies in non-English speaking countries are adopting English as their company language, rather than the indigenous language.

Forget about 100 years; in 20 years all commerce, science, finance, and engineering will be in English.

It would be nice if we could show equal wisdom and go metric. But that's not going to happen.

[Rick Potter]

Sometimes we forget that, not too long ago, the sun never set on the British Empire. The rest of the world got a pretty good head start speaking English, well before the US became very involved in world affairs.

[Brian Tymchak]

40% of Chinese don't speak Mandarin.
All the Chinese learning English.
Almost no one is learning Chinese.
Already many companies in non-English speaking countries are adopting English as their company language, rather than the indigenous language.

Forget about 100 years; in 20 years all commerce, science, finance, and engineering will be in English.

It would be nice if we could show equal wisdom and go metric. But that's not going to happen.

That's interesting. One of the goals of the local school system is to expand Mandarin classes because there is demand for it.

[Rod Sheridan]

Now if the rest of the world would just learn from our language and covert to our units of measure the world would be a very nice place.

LOL....................Now that was funny...........Rod.

[Wade Lippman]

That's interesting. One of the goals of the local school system is to expand Mandarin classes because there is demand for it.

Sure. It is now as important as French or German, so it is taught in HS. Which is say, not very. When it is required for college graduation in the US, as English is all over the world, it will be evidence it is important.

[Chuck Wintle]

Now if the rest of the world would just learn from our language and covert to our units of measure the world would be a very nice place.

I grew up with feet, inches, gallons and miles. Then our leader in the 1970's Mr. Pierre Elliot Trudeau thought its a good idea to use the metric system so it became meters, liters, centigrade and kilograms. For woodworking I still use feet and inches because it makes more sense. For temperature, now it only makes sense for me to use the Celsius scale for mass kilograms. I guess its just what one is used to.

[Lee Schierer]

I speak two languages, with my fluency in the second declining rapidly from lack pf use. Whenever I have traveled t any foreign country I have always made and effort to learn a few phrases, like " Good Morning, Good afternoon, Good Evening, Thank You, excuse me, how to ask for my key at the desk, pay my bill etc." It has offered many opportunities and never has caused a problem except that they sometimes think you know more of their language than you do and start talking rapidly.

The "ugly American" image is widespread and we as individuals should do our best to show what we are really like as a people at every opportunity when we encounter foreigners at home or abroad.

[Scott Brandstetter]

We as Americans often feel bad because we only speak English and many overseas speak multiple languages. I never understood until I recently started traveling overseas for business. Get out a good old map and look at the geography in Europe and compare it to the USA. In Europe you could travel very little and run into all kinds of different languages. Here, in the US, you either go to Canada to try out a bit of French or go south to speak Spanish. We don't have the daily influence of languages to interact with like Europe. I have learned a bit of Spanish over the years but if you don't use it, you know, you lose it. Makes no sense, unless you travel monthly to try and learn, retain another language. I do have amazing respect though, for my business counterparts, who have multiple languages in the mind.

[Wade Lippman]

We as Americans often feel bad because we only speak English.
I would be shocked if 5% of Americans agreed with that.
As a practical matter, unless you spend an awful lot of time in a particular foreign country, there is little point to knowing a foreign language.

[Chris Padilla]

I don't understand East Coast English. They speak funny English. :D :p

[Lee Reep]

I don't understand East Coast English. They speak funny English. :D :p

East Coast English doesn't seem so hard to understand ... at least compared to trying to understand the guys on the reality show "Swamp People". :D

[Frank Drew]

I would be shocked if 5% of Americans agreed with that.
As a practical matter, unless you spend an awful lot of time in a particular foreign country, there is little point to knowing a foreign language.

Wade,

No disrespect intended, but you're aggressively pushing a very narrow-minded viewpoint. IMO, you need to get out more. Of all the things I learned in school, through college, the most useful, in a practical sense, have been languages.

[Wade Lippman]

Wade,

No disrespect intended, but you're aggressively pushing a very narrow-minded viewpoint. IMO, you need to get out more. Of all the things I learned in school, through college, the most useful, in a practical sense, have been languages.

Please elaborate, how have they been useful? Perhaps you need them for your occupation, but other than that...
I speak 3 languages but find them to be a complete waste.

[Lee Schierer]

Please elaborate, how have they been useful? Perhaps you need them for your occupation, but other than that...
I speak 3 languages but find them to be a complete waste.

I recently helped a very frantic woman who spoke only Spanish that was trying to get directions to get to a local hospital where a close relative had been taken as a result of an accident. Numerous people in front of me had tried to help, but then walked away in frustration because they could not understand her, I was in my own hometown. When I have traveled, I have also found my second language useful and have gotten better prices and better meals because of it.

[Mel Fulks]

I will take Wade and Frank at their word. It is possible for one to learn languages quickly and yet not find much practical for
them. Affinity is a factor. In a restaurant my wife loves to overhear a different language from a neighboring table....and it is the fastest way for me to get a headache.

[Wade Lippman]

I recently helped a very frantic woman who spoke only Spanish that was trying to get directions to get to a local hospital where a close relative had been taken as a result of an accident. Numerous people in front of me had tried to help, but then walked away in frustration because they could not understand her, I was in my own hometown. When I have traveled, I have also found my second language useful and have gotten better prices and better meals because of it.

And the other stuff you learned in school was less useful than that?!

I once came across a Korean woman in an oriental food store, trying to communicate with the Japanese clerk. They both spoke English, but couldn't understand each other, so I "translated."
These things happen even without speaking any foreign languages.

But yes, if I lived somewhere in the US that Spanish was widely spoke to the exclusion of English, I would learn Spanish. But it is extremely sad that such places exist.

[Frank Drew]

Mel,
What is it about hearing people speak another language that gives you a headache?

[Dave Anderson NH]

Re Mel's comment. A funny story. SWMBO and I were in Treasure Island FL about 3 years ago in November sitting having lunch under a beach umbrella on the deck at Sloppy Joe's. There was a couple a table away from us having a heated discussion in French. He was about 45 and she was about late 20s or 30. As they got up to leave and the guy walked out first with the woman following my wife gave the woman a big thumbs up. The woman sheepishly smiled back. I asked my wife what that was all about since I have absolutely Zero French excepting of course the few curse words that are occasionally used on me. The long and the short of it was that she was his mistress and complaining that he hadn't made good on his promises to take her to Spain on vacation nor had he left his wife as he had promised many times. It was time for him to put up or they were through.

[Mel Fulks]

Frank, I love foreign films so I guess the restaurant headaches are caused by the other diner's lack of sub titles.

[Frank Drew]

Heck, I had to switch on the subtitles for an English movie I was watching last week!

[Brian Ashton]

I would be shocked if 5% of Americans agreed with that.
As a practical matter, unless you spend an awful lot of time in a particular foreign country, there is little point to knowing a foreign language.


Not everything is about practical matters. The world is becoming extremely small, wouldn't you like to be able to converse with others that come from other parts of the world, or at least try. I've spent most of my life now in other places than where I was born. Without exception the memories I retain the most have to do with the people I have met. If you get around enough geography tends to blur and look the same everywhere, one of the more common statements either my wife or myself make when we end up somewhere is "it looks like (insert some place you've been before here) but people are all different and all have a different story… Some are absolutely gripping, others maybe not so, but still interesting because they all different… And to at least be able to attempt to converse with someone in their tongue, to me, always puts a smile on their face and gives me an ever lasting memory. One of the first encounters I had was with a couple from Fiji, Setay and Lysa, some 30 years ago. I don't have any recollection of their house or the town, Lautoka in Fiji, but I can remember implicitly sitting in their living room, wearing a sulu for the first time, and laughing and talking the night away. Or standing at the side of the house while Setay prepared the bbq and we talked, or at least we tried to… Or more recently sitting and trying to converse with Luza and Dannie, she being Hungarian and he Serbian/Hungarian in their apartment in Budapest last week. Hungarian is no easy feat but we all enjoyed the fun of it. The Budapest, more specifically the castle hill sky line, will fade in my memory but just hanging out with them will not, and maybe the friendship will continue...

And if that weren't enough, learning a language will, in your later years help to keep your mind sharp...

[Rod Sheridan]

I don't understand East Coast English. They speak funny English. :D :p

Chris, whenever I go to the USA I notice the same thing, you guys speak something similar to english.

Of course my wife being Engish claims that we colonials don't speak English either. :-)

[Rod Sheridan]

Agreed Brian, it also helps generate an understanding and appreciation of a culture.

Language conveys information.............Rod.

[Brian Ashton]

Chris, whenever I go to the USA I notice the same thing, you guys speak something similar to english.

Of course my wife being Engish claims that we colonials don't speak English either. :-)

Wait till you end up in Australia… you'll wonder what language they're speaking. I now say I can speak one language and interpret another… native is english and I can understand australian, but for the life of me can bring myself to speak it… Australia, they say it's english but it's nothing like I've heard before. Botox every muscle in your face involved in speech and you have something resembling australian speak.

['Jacques Malan']

In our little workshop in South Africa we have 15 people.

I asked around and we have 8 different mother tongues, and speak 22 different languages.

Even had one incident where a guy got his thumbed whacked by a pneumatic clamp due to a dialect misunderstanding.

[Rod Sheridan]

Thanks Brian, I'll keep that in mind for our trip........Rod.

[Frank Drew]

Agreed Brian, it also helps generate an understanding and appreciation of a culture.

Language conveys information.............Rod.

Exactly, language is communication; how can that be wrong?

[Chuck Wintle]

Exactly, language is communication; how can that be wrong?

its my opinion that complex ideas need a language that can adequately convey the material in a way that is understandable.