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  1. #41
    Quote Originally Posted by Puupi View Post
    Wait until there are 2 billion Chinese, 3 billion Indians etc. When world population is around 13-14 billion and there are 300 million native English speakers, even suggesting English as a planetary language is a joke.
    I've done business in both China and India. At the table we all speak English. All of the correspondence, minutes, and contracts are presented in English first. Their schools teach English as a second language at all levels for the purpose of preparing their population to be members of a global community.

    International court proceedings are conducted in English.

    The world's un-official language is English, both in highest use by population and by territory.

    And per my original statement should the Earth ever agree to a planetary standard language, which is not saying that it will be so, it would most likely be in the interests of business and law and thus that language would be English.
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  2. #42
    Chelly
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    I really don't get why people keep saying "Don't learn X, it's useless". No language is useless to learn, it just becomes useless if you don't do anything with the knowledge of the language. Or if you're just interested in a language and want to learn it because of pure interest, then it shouldn't matter to you if it's useful or useless to learn it.
    Quote Originally Posted by Zombergy View Post
    The world's un-official language is English, both in highest use by population and by territory.
    There are more Mandarin speakers in the world than English speakers. Hell, there are more people in the world who speak Spanish in the world than English - both as first and second language.
    Last edited by Chelly; 2014-04-21 at 11:04 AM.

  3. #43
    Deleted
    French is a pretty easy language to learn the basics.

    Dutch is useless, you can speak it in 4 countries in the world and all those 4 have different variations to the point that we don't even understand each other.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Puupi View Post
    Wait until there are 2 billion Chinese, 3 billion Indians etc. When world population is around 13-14 billion and there are 300 million native English speakers, even suggesting English as a planetary language is a joke.
    It is the biggest 2nd language, in Europe alone there are more people using it as a second language then native English/American speakers.

  4. #44
    Well, beautiful is subjective..so no1 would honestly care since it's about what you think about the language that's important.

    Those who are useful on the otherhand, are English (D'uh), Arabic, Spanish, French and German imo. Unless you want to travel all around the world, then go for chinease, japanease etc etc aswell.

  5. #45
    Ive always been impressed with people that could speak a lot of languages. I know broken Spanish...enough to get by in a spanish speaking country, but nowhere near fluent. I travel the world with my job and always wished i could be one of those people that could learn the language of anywhere they go. there was this restauraunt my brother was telling me he went to somewhere overseas...think it was Germany and the main waiter could fluently speak something like 25-30 different languages. He would actually listen to a tables conversation while walking up to it and then speak to them in that language. It was in an area around the Embassies so there would be languages from all over the world every day.

    That being said...i hate French. the words, the dialect...ugh...just sounds like you have balls in your mouth.

    EDIT: Whats also crazy is the variation of languages. I used to travel a lot in 3rd world Africa, and talking to the people there they said there could be thousands of languages in each country because each village would have their own form of it. I hear the same goes for China.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Esdese View Post
    I really don't get why people keep saying "Don't learn X, it's useless". No language is useless to learn, it just becomes useless if you don't do anything with the knowledge of the language. Or if you're just interested in a language and want to learn it because of pure interest, then it shouldn't matter to you if it's useful or useless to learn it.


    There are more Mandarin speakers in the world than English speakers. Hell, there are more people in the world who speak Spanish in the world than English - both as first and second language.
    This is because the English speaking people have a good reputation for killing people that dont speak thier language...assimilate or die! lol jk...but on a serious note, English should at least be the only language in America. I don't feel i should be looked down up for not understanding spanish speaking people in the USA...MORE...than the immigrants that come here (legal and illegal) that refuse learn our god damn language. Nowhere else in the world have I been that they would cater to you not speaking our language. Don't understand them? guess you're shit out of luck.

  6. #46
    Fluffy Kitten Yvaelle's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Puupi View Post
    Wait until there are 2 billion Chinese, 3 billion Indians etc. When world population is around 13-14 billion and there are 300 million native English speakers, even suggesting English as a planetary language is a joke.
    A lot of Indians speak English because India has the most language diversity of any country on the planet - English education in India is a national goal, and Education more generally is a major goal - so the next couple decades will push a lot of Indians to learn English. The Chinese are similarly interested in teaching everyone English. It's not the native English population that matters - it's the institutional effort to adopt it that is occurring.

    Secondly, the best estimates for population growth have the planet levelling out in the 9-12 billion range, last I was aware The biggest factor is reducing infant and child mortality rates in the developing world - at which point parents will naturally focus on having fewer children and investing more heavily in their success (all life seems to follow this trend when possible). So, now that we know how to slow it down - efforts are being made to do just that - meaning that it could occur toward the low end of the 9-12 billion estimate.
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  7. #47
    Titan Grimbold21's Avatar
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    3 pages and no "isn't portuguese the same as spanish" jokes...im proud.

  8. #48
    Quote Originally Posted by Grimbold21 View Post
    3 pages and no "isn't portuguese the same as spanish" jokes...im proud.
    no, because Mexican=Spanish!

  9. #49
    Body Languaje

  10. #50
    The Lightbringer Fullmetal89's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by vaeevictiss View Post
    no, because Mexican=Spanish!
    Ugh don't even go there man....This chick in college argued with me for an hour at a party once that in Mexico they spoke Mexican and Spanish is only spoken in Spain. You would be surprised how stupid/ignorant people can be.

    Most useful: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Mandarin.
    Most Beautiful: I like the way Italian and English with a Scottish accent sounds. Edit: Forgot to add Spanish with an Argentine accent. It's my favorite accent by far, loved it when I lived there. The insults and gestures are hilarious.
    Last edited by Fullmetal89; 2014-04-22 at 01:45 AM.
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  11. #51
    Useful: English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese

    *Beautiful: Spanish, French, Italian, English

    *beauty is subject to accent / dialect. (i.e. English - Midwestern vs. Deep Southern or Cockney vs. Ulster)


    If you want to make a lady or man swoon, learn a "beautiful" language, but don't adopt any of the more obnoxious accents (though this can be quite subjective). If you want to really make friends in the business and political world, learn more than one of the "useful" languages. If you're already a native English speaker, then I suggest Chinese or Arabic. Spanish and French are, for better or worse, dwindling in that department, but are still recognized by a large number of people outside of the US, UK, NZ, and AU.
    Last edited by Redlokyldoreifanggore; 2014-04-22 at 01:42 AM.
    "If I didn't have bad luck I'd have no luck at all."

  12. #52
    I think the best languages are definitely Atlantean or Lemurian.

    Italian is nice.

  13. #53
    Deleted
    If you are native german speaker you shouldnt have problem with them, specially not with dutch and danish languages.

  14. #54
    Herald of the Titans Suikoden's Avatar
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    Oh wow, there's a lot of love for the Dutch language goin' on here. O_O

  15. #55
    Most beautiful: Sign
    Most useful: Klingon

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