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Read other people's comments. Write a summary of each story. What’s your opinion?

Jonathan:

English is I am told the "world language" in terms of trade and commerce and because so many people now speak it in many civilised areas of the globe it is hard not to become relaxed. However I am a Britishman living in Slovakia and my partner is Slovak with excellent English. I spent three years learning the Slovak language and found it really difficult but I knew I had to learn it to communicate with friends and family in Slovakia who don't speak my language. All in all you can probably get around without ever speaking a foreign language but if you want to feel at home, understand a culture and have better employment opportunities then learning the countries local language or at least knowing another major world language does help. I also don't have to rely on my partner to assist me all the time!

Martin:

You should not blame English people for not being able to speak foreign languages, because of our education system many of us only start learning language by the age of 11yrs compared to France who start at the age of four or five years, it is by the fault of this glitch in the education system that many English children no matter even if they want to learn language at a young age can't. Even when we do start to learn a foreign language there is only 3yrs of mandatory learning, which takes place for two or three lessons per week. When the learning is over, many forget it because they have no use for it other than to order food when on holiday because whether you like it or not the English language is used everywhere, and often a foreign persons language skills are better than the English because they started at a very young age learning it. If you want to blame English speakers for being lazy for not learning then you should also blame yourselves for resorting to speaking English every time an English person is trying to speak to you in your language to get what little practice they can, I have found that every time I go to France that when I speak French they speak English back and even when I persist in speaking French they continue to speak English, you can't win!

 

James:

We're always going on about the need to learn 'foreign languages' without going into which we should learn. If an English speaker knows Spanish as well as English, it will make very little difference to his or her life. If a Spaniard knows English as well as Spanish, he or she is likely to find it useful in life. I speak three foreign languages well and another at a basic level but would still not be able to speak the local language in most European countries and have been unable to find any opportunity to put these languages to practical use. If I went to Germany, I'd be considered a typically lazy, ignorant monolingual Briton just because I can't speak German. A German who spoke only German and English would be well looked on. It's a double standard. English speakers would have to know 10+ languages to shake off the 'ignorant monolingual' tag.

Nicky:

I am English, living in Australia after all, but I have bothered to learn several languages. In answer to the question which other language to learn. Until the First World War we all learned German, then we moved over to French. When I was at school we did 5 years of Latin, here in Australia, the government encourages students to learn Mandarin and Japanese for trade reasons. Italian is hugely popular here because of the early influence of Italian settlers. Many schools working along the lines, of 'what is the most likely to be used?' have plumped for Indonesian given that so many Aussies holiday in Bali. Likewise in the UK, French and Spanish would seem to be the most useful. I am a language teacher myself and my children between them have studied, French, Japanese, Italian, German, English, Creole, Russian, and Spanish. My next-door neighbours have done a variety of Asian languages and my mother studied Hindi and my uncle Greek and Hebrew. After consulting with many colleagues I have come to the conclusion it is quicker to study a language that has the same script, is not based on tones and so is pronounced in a similar way and that you are most likely to visit/use. It is universally recognised by linguist that the easiest language for an English native speaker to learn is Afrikaans, but how useful would that be?

Jane:

What language you learn depends on your life goals. If say you are an American whose only purpose for a secondary language is to be able to communicate better with your community it depends where you live, yet Spanish is on the increase. If you want to learn a language to develop in your career, then this also depends on what you want to do. If you are looking to go into social work, then Spanish is your answer. If you want to go into international business, then Spanish and Chinese is good for you. If you are trying to learn another language in order to help your kids, then I suggest any and every language tutor or class that you can get your hands on (there is no loss here). Even if your child wants to learn Latin (although it is not very helpful in modern conversational language). But it will enrich you child's knowledge, and more than likely they will find a use for it (research, teaching, etc..) If you want to go into the FBI, CIA I would suggest Arabic. The right language to learn depends on each individual person and aspirations. Just make sure that the language you choose to learn is correct. Try and become fluent, but learn greetings in all and every language you can think of; here, it is the effort that you make in trying to please whoever you are dealing with that really counts, and this could give you the one up that the next person doesn't have.

Последнее изменение этой страницы: 2016-08-11

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