English seems so widespread nowadays, that many non-English speaking nations even the asian ones are learning to speak English in addition to their native tongue. Do you all think that in another 500 years, all other languages would die out execpt the English Language. I think it is quite possible. That would be so sad.

There's equally a case that languages old and new will 'break out' . Humanity is teetering on the edge of its own demise as should be perfectly clear all over. I hate to make projections but the world is well overcrowded with respect to the resources it can yield. You've seen many animal species large and small threatened with extinction or actually going extinct. Remember - humans are just further up this chain and they're pushing themselves out. In the last century, the human population doubled every 30 years so make your own projections!

What this preamble means to me is that there'll be a few catastrophes in 500 years that could fragment humanity, throwing survivors into small tribes & communities. Soon English will be an obsolete langauge as Latin is.

I don't class me as a doom & gloom person but I cannot see humanity lasting another 500 years unless we've left to colonise another world. I think that english will get so modified by the many cultures trying to take it in that it will resemble today's english only vaguely not too far in the future.

China is giving America very bad economic turns at the moment and there's an inevitability. Was on the news the other night because of the bra wars. We could all end up speaking Mandarin if we wish to do business with China. Mandarin is the most spoken language in the world.

It's said that by 2020 spanish will become the most Internationally spoken language ie for business and communication and stuff. In USA, especially in New York, you can go into a bar, order something in Spanish and get exactly what you want it since most people speak it fluently ir fluently enough.

Don't you just hate it when you are in a foreign country and you are having a go at talking to people in their own language and they speak to you in English? When I was in Barcelona recently, before I had even spoken a word, the people automatically said 'Hello'!!

I was trying to explain this to my friend. If a french person came here, no matter how good enlgish they spoke, I would still try and speak to them in french because I'd want to talk in french to a real live french person! It's the same for them when they meet English people.

It got to the point in one shop where my friend was talking french and the shop woman was talking in english back. I was like, what's the point?! Pick one language someone please!

Yeah, but a lot of English people assume everyone in Europe speaks English...

Although I got to use my french in the summer... In the Czech Republic! The person who worked at the youth hostel wanted to know why we were late... but only spoke french and german.

Yep true, so people automatically speak english to you, coz we stick out a mile! Except the woman in the airport who was struggling to give us instructions, so we said, do it in french we both can speak french. She looked so relieved!

We spoke German in Brazil sometimes, if we couldn't think of things we wanted in porutguese. Like paint brushes! We started off in portuguese, would replace the occasional word with german and then carry on in portuguese! It was ace!

Lol broken german and portuguese! M y french teacher does that sometimes (not the german and portuguese bit, but if he thinks there is something he just said that we don't understand, he will repeat the word in English, and carry on a sentence in full flow in 2 languages!

If you study languages at uni you'll probably find that between you and your fellow linguists you'll end up speaking a hybrid language... especially once you come back from time abroad, and when the word in the other language is not easy to translate or just sounds better!

Yes, I find it annoying when people speak to me in English in foreign countries. I would only speak in Russian to a Russian here if I was certain that they were happier that way/they weren't trying to learn English.

It was a problem in St Pete - it's horrible when the only reason people want to spend time with you is to practice English... but in Ulyanovsk far fewer people speak English, and those who did were happy to swap languages, and also it was very clear (on the whole!) that they wanted to spend time with us whether we were speaking English or Russian - they were interested in us, not the languages we could speak.

That happened to me in Barcelona recently!! Didn't think that my Spanish was that bad!

I think that it is very sad that languages could die out, as languages are part of a particular culture's heritage, as well as being fun to learn.


Slightly off the topic, my Science teacher said today that instead of us spending years learning to speak foreign languages, we should learn to speak English with a foreign accent as, according to him, we would be understood more easily! Don't agree with him though!

?!?!?!?

Your science teacher is a Very Strange Man.

You're not kidding.... no one in our set believes more than half of what he says about anything.... he did help me to get an A* for my year 10 science modules that are worth 25% of the final grade though!!!

Maybe it's part of being a good teacher - my best science teachers at school were invariably complete lunatics.

Sounds like the Big Friendly Giant (BFG) from Roald Dahl! Just invented a new type of person: VSMs!!!!!!!!!

lol!

Woohoo. Party on with the verb conjugations... je conduis... tu conduit... il conduit... *falls asleep*

Languages are only boring to learn with bad teachers.

Yep! I loved German at GCSE coz we had a fabby teacher. AS and A-level I used to clock watch, and then when we all did *really* badly in AS, she decided it was all our fault and made us come in for extra German lessons! I nearly died!

Oh no!

Yeah, I had a great German teacher in my second year (the top set got to start another language) and loved it - if we'd've chosen options then, I'd've dropped French straight away - but sadly she then went to Germany for a year and we got a German English teacher who whinged at us about how rubbish our German was, conveniently forgetting we had been learning it for a year, not since 7 which was the age all his German kids learning English had started... so I took French!

That's a bit harsh! If you were really that bad he should've done something to help!

AQA German AS and A2 syllabuses and exams are written by proper German people (no jokes, can't explain it any other way!) so what they think we should be able to do and what we can actually do are millllles apart. French syllabuses and exams are written by english people, so they're ok. Dunno about Spanish!

The really stupid thing was, we weren't. I got 97% and one of my friends got 98% in our end of year exam after one year, and even after a year of Herr Portner telling us how rubbish we all were we did well in the exams (I still got full marks for listening, I still remember that because he made some comment about it in the report - I think he was surprised!! ) - if we had truly been bad that would've been one thing, but he just conveniently forgot we'd not been learning the language for 5 years already...

grrrr shoot him!

Felt like it, believe me.

We found out halfway through the year his name was Gunther, like the chap in Friends. Cheered us up no end

So tell me about the language education in the UK. Are you obliged to learn foreign languages at school ? How many and from what age ?
In Belgium we learn a second language from 10 (5th year of primary school), third language at 13 or 14 (2nd or 3th year of secondary school) and a little bit of a fourth language from 15 (4th year of sec.) This is not including Latin and Greek, of course.

It's no longer compulsory to do a language at GCSE (the exams you take at 16). Most people start to learn a language at 11, and some learn another at 13/14 ish. But by year 10 (14 ish) quite a few people drop languages asa you don't *have* to do them anymore

Yes, you can general get away with 3 years of languages, from approx 11-14, if you don't like them. Very few people get to start earlier. Most people do two maximum, starting the second a year after the first.

Thanks !
I have to say, in Belgium too, most of the children don't like to study languages neither; they simply have too. If they would be free to choose, the situation wouldn't be different from the UK. It's only later, as an adult, that one realizes the value of these things...

Yeah well at least Belgium enforces these things.

And starts you off on languages at an early age!

Yeah, that's because we live in a country with two languages.
And the sooner you start learning, the better it works.

Yeah, they haven't cottoned on to that here yet.... grrr! lol. and then they wonder why so many kids give up languages