English as an international language

Hi !

Although we all know English IS an international language (isn't it ), we still can doubt of its rightness.
Do you think an international language is needed, and that English is a nice choise ? Tell me what do you feel about this
As I've got facilities to speak/write English, I'm pro-English, but I'd like to know your opinion on the topic.

By the way 1 : this would help me to argue some English tests
By the way 2 : this is a nice way to end the happy-birthday-spree, isn't it ?

Dunedunely.

i think 1 international language is rly nice
english isnt that hard 2 read understad and speak
so hink its ok
but german would be bit nicer

Why do you think german would be better ?

home field advantage^^

This ain't an argue... everyone could say same
I ask you something objective, howeevr if you tihkn your language is the best... please explain, and bring a shield for my reply

German nearly got the international language I think.

I don't care which is the international language. The essential is that it won't change.

well yes English is really easy and it's spoken on every continent. So it doesn't matter where you are, somebody speaks English =).
My second choice would be Spanish cause it's easy too.

3. French (not easy but spoken in many countries)
4. German (most spoken language in Europe and language of books)
...
?. Russian (doesn't use the Latin alphabet)

I don't like the Asian languages cause of the lettering (very ineffective)


@sheep: what do you mean? Oo
Of course there is a huge German diaspora but most time the second generation doesn't speak German any more cause they become integrated.

I think Sheep made a mistake (haven't noticed by the way ^^)

I don't care which is the international language. The essential is that it won't change.

According with you, a crucial point is that this won't change, but do think this is a nice thing ? People, mostly old ppl think we're loosing a part of our history, of our culture.
And you don't care which... I don't agree with this... a language such as french or chinese would be really bad... french because it's really verbous and chinese cause, as said blobby, they are very ineffective ; and an international language must be short, simple, and adapted to computers.

English is easy for an european but for a chinese ? I think chinese is a good language because china is the language for tomorow. But this language is hard... And it's an other alphabet

Yes there are 1,3 billion people who speak Chinese, but as I said their lettering is very very very ineffective. And as I said the Chinese Lettering is extremely bad. Even for the Chinese it's hard to learn. What Dune says is right (like always^^). Imagine that Chinese would be the international language from now on, English would still be the language for software.

If you compare 1,3 billion people using the Chinese Lettering and the people of Europe, North- and South America, Australia and most parts of Africa the Latin Alphabet is predominant.

Maybe I misunderstood something. I thought you meant English as an international language like it is. Not that everybody is just speaking 1 Language (native). Because I think it works. Otherwise we wouldn't be able to discuss about this .

Well, German nearly got the language in the USA (actually the US has no official language!). If it was the official language in the US it maybe would be the international, too:o

Yes, I wouldn't care if it was Chinese. Then I have to learn Chinese. And btw Chinese has a "normal" writing, too. Pinyin. Actually it isn't that hard as everybody think. I learnt a bit before I went to China.

nerd

Sheep wrote:Well, German nearly got the language in the USA (actually the US has no official language!). If it was the official language in the US it maybe would be the international, too:o

lol? where did you got that information? 95% US-Americans speak English, 12% Spanish and just 1 million speak German. 1 million of 300 million = 0,4% wow there's a huge chance ...

*** Spoken Chinese is distinguished by its high level of internal diversity. There are between seven and thirteen main regional groups of Chinese (depending on classification scheme), of which the most spoken, by far, is Mandarin (about 800 million), followed by Wu (90 million), Cantonese (Yue) (70 million) and Min (70 million). Most of these groups are mutually unintelligible *** ...

And yes I know the other lettering cause there are Chinese classes in my school too, but it didn't become accepted till yet (in China). Besides There are very few countries with Chinese as official language.

there was a vote for the main language in the USA. german nearly won, it was close

Yes but that is like you would say that Latin would have been the international language, if the Imperium Romanum hadn't collapsed.

*** Despite the latest rehearsal in Ann Landers' advice column of the myth that German had once come close to replacing English in the United States, Americans have never had a legally-established official language. The so-called German vote did not take place in 1776, and it had nothing to do with privileging German over English. The legend that it did, which has gone around since at least the 1850s, was spread initially by propagandists celebrating German contributions to American culture. It has since been taken over by those who claim that the English language in the United States is an endangered species. The story of the German Vote is occasionally trotted out by ELA supporters to demonstrate the power of ethnic groups to subvert national unity and to warn Americans that although the German threat to English has been defused, the Spanish one has not. ***

I didn't know anything about this "German vote". Thank you Blob for this lightning.
Mhh I never studied Chinese, and don't even know how to say Yes/No/I love but it seems to me there are many "sublanguages", a traditional one, an official one, and many differences into several traditionals alternatives... is it right ?
If it is, then the true Chinese isn't spoken by 1,6 billion people....

Furthermore, I'd like to remind you there are 1,1 billion Indians...

Yes Dune you're right, that's exactly what I've written. Except for the "German vote" (maybe I misunderstood you). It was Propaganda --> not real.

Dunedune wrote:
Furthermore, I'd like to remind you there are 1,1 billion Indians...

Yeah I thought about India too. I dunno why most people forget this country. But it's the same problem. Different "dialects" and moreover the lettering is different (Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati).

Dunedune wrote:Yes/No/I love

yes = shì
no = bù
I love you = wǒ'àinǐ

but shì does also mean:
*generation
*epoch
*job
*happening
*accident

and bù does also mean:
*quay
*drapery
*gangway
and finally
*kick

and what do you want to say with that?

Just an example (sry for german words(; ):
cool does mean:
cool
kühl
toll
geil
ruhig
abweisend
frisch
frostig
bedächtig
dreist
gesammelt
gleichgültig
krass

yes but it's in a very little interval.
kühl - fröstig = synonym
toll - cool - geil - krass = synonym
abweisend - kühl - cool = synonym
bedächtig- ruhig - gesammelt = synonym


but shì does also mean:
*generation
*epoch
*job
*happening
*accident

and bù does also mean:
*quay
*drapery
*gangway
and finally
*kick

every word has nothing to do with the other words.

so cool means 4 words, shì 5 and bù 4? Not a big difference.

of course cool means 3 - 4 different words but it's a smooth transition in a very little interval.
There is no link between accident and generation.

well, but actually it isnt bad if theres no link between two different meanings. so its easy to get the right meaning out of the context.

Yes but just if you know every meaning of the word. Its easier when the words are linked trust me =)