The Language Barrier

Communication is vital, I agree, but I always thought that language was given importance, as much as it can be. At my school it was compulsory to study a language up until the age of sixteen, but after that, there is no way that anyone can be forced to take up a language. And anyway, some people just aren't good at it, and to push it onto people would be unfair, when there are so many ways to communicate with otherr languages and cultures, even if it means interpretation software or translators. I agree that being able to speak the language is better, but to many, it would be very very difficult, and I feel that skills in the chosen area of expertise are much more vital than pushing these asde to learn maybe 10 languages you may rarely need. There is also, always time to learn, when a person chooses to, and companies can offer these courses if they feel they are being held back by their staff's lack of language skills.

More exposure on a daily basis couldn't hurt though, I agree!

Re: The Language Barrier


Well, I don't know where you live, but in most European countries you learn at least two languages - in my state (Northrhine-Westphalia, Germany) from English from primary school onwards, at grammar a second foreign language is compulsary (with the possibilty to coose more).

Even my father, who left grammar school more than 60 years ago, learnt three foreign languages at school.

Ah, but we English have no need to learn foreign languages as every single person in the whole entire world, even penniless African peasants speak English fluently. Or so most people assume, even when this obviously isn't the case. We then proceed to complain that people don't speak our language well enough for us to understand.

I agree that it is important to learn other languages and am disgusted that it's no longer compulsary to study a language up to the age of 16. Still, means more jobs going for me when I leave university with a degree in German and Spanish!

Actually, that's a good point. I suppose it would be different if I spoke a language which was only spoken by very few people. I think it's easy to go anywhere and speak english, as you say, everyone speaks it practically!

I was thinknig of doing a degree in German. I got a buzz from the language when I was at school and picked it up very quickly. I might now, based on that!

Yeah. If, for example you were a Luxumbourger (hehe, makes me chuckle!) you'd speak Luxembourgish as your first language, but as only about 5 people live in Luxumbourg you'd then be fluent in either French, German or both. And maybe some Dutch.

If you enjoy and are good at German I'd say go for it! I love learning languages and chose to do my degree for precisely that reason. It does help that language graduates are in such high demand, no unemployment for me! (touch wood)

travelbug

If these five people can read - they certainly have to know German, since the Luxembourg newspapers are in German :wink:

(So, when you want to go to Luxembourg, carrie, and want to read local-national printed news, you really should go on learning German )

Ah, stuff the news! Who needs to know what's going on in the world.

YUP, In Europe you must know at least three languages, 4 the most in order to break the language barrier among EU member countries.
English is a MUST, especially in Germany and you can also learn an extra which often is Spanish.
In England, most people take Spanish since many Brits are migrating to Spain. Others learn Italian or Dutch.

Ton connaissance de la vie et du languages Européennes, Duc de Lancastre, est classe, je pense :wink:

No, I think French is still the main second language for English schools, although Spanish and german have become very popular over the past five or ten years.

Quite a few English people have moved to Spain, but far more go to France (Dordogne especially.....and now Britanny).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4363679.stm

I speak 5 languages, my mother tongue, the 3 that were compulsory at school and another one that I studied later on. I can travel all over the world with no problems, even if I make mistakes.
Regards.
Xavier

I think that Spanish is very important to learn also.
Regards.
Xavier

i learned some sorbish at school, but i think i've forgotten all about it...
now i learn russian and english at school. i would like to learn polish because i like the sound of it.

I'm sorry Walter, I don't speak French and never wanted to learn it.
The only word I know is "Oui." lol

I took Latin, which was required in my school, German and a yr. of Spanish.

I believe he was showing appreciation of your "knowledge of life and European languages"... bar French, of course. :wink:

What annoys me is Ginglish! That is the increasing use of English in the German language therefore diluting it. eg. gecancelled, stop and go (statt stockende verkehr) usw. There are so many of them mostly introduced through advertising that they become part of the language BUT they for some reason take on another meaning than the original English.

Hmmm... that's an interesting phenomenon. Living in Germany, I've noticed the use of a lot of words like "upgeloaded" and "gedroppt".
I also wanted to mention that the languages I hear most often in Heidelberg (apart from German and English) are Turkish, Italian, and Asian language (Japanese, Mandarin, etc...)

You should go to some places, where the (real) local people go ... and than you can hear "Kurpfäzisch" as the predominant language