International Language?

Discussion in 'Linguistics' started by Giambattista, Feb 26, 2007.

  1. Avatar smoking revolver Valued Senior Member

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    German is still the language to know if you are studying law, especially in continental Europe.
     
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  3. The Devil Inside Banned Banned

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    as long as you can make any idea understood through use of the language, that counts as functionally fluent in my book. i debate politics, and have changed a few minds with my "functionally fluent" flemish. i would say that one could make a contribution.
    disagreed.

    i think you are nitpicking here....english is simple, without getting into the guts of the system that is.
    however, i agree.

    yep.

    i dont know about this, though...im learning russian at a much faster rate than i learned my flemish, and the two languages have little in common.
    tentatively disagreed.
     
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  5. spuriousmonkey Banned Banned

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    Learning is all about motivation and ability. :crazy:
     
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  7. Ripley Valued Senior Member

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    But in all practicality, English is kinda the international language, and should one be embraced wholeheartedly around the world, English should be that one. Why? Because English is already established in the infrastructure -- and we can't afford loosing time starting all over again: in this day and age where travel and intercommunication are fast-paced and absolutely essential, where politics and commerce and whatnot need to carry on without a hiccup, where environmentalists, human rights, and animal rights must dispatch their observations to those who matter, all that's really left outside the infrastructure is for the cultural impasse to tie the knot and give their blessing -- like the Pope.
     
  8. The Devil Inside Banned Banned

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    i would say 95 percent of it, yeah.
    linguistics involves alot of repetition, also.
    luckily, my tongue is made of wacky meat, so im able to mimic fairly well.
    still forget my RRRRR's sometimes though.
     
  9. Athelwulf Rest in peace Kurt... Registered Senior Member

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    That's pretty much right, I believe.

    Mandarin has many more speakers than English, but they're concentrated in China. Save for the scattered communities of Chinese people around the world (a lot of whom speak Cantonese anyway), Chinese is not an international language. Spanish, however, is a fair competitor.
     
  10. TruthSeeker Fancy Virtual Reality Monkey Valued Senior Member

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    WOO HOOOOOOOO!!!!!

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    :bravo:
     
  11. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    Expect that to change before long. "Language follows the coin, not the flag." Japanese never made much of a dent because it's just too dadgum difficult to learn. Mandarin does not have that handicap.
    These days most of the younger expats speak Mandarin as their primary language and virtually all Chinese under 50 speak it fluently as a second language, even in Xiang Geng (which was once known as Hong Kong

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    ).
    As is Arabic, in its own region. The number of speakers is comparable.
     

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