Reply to: What's all this nonsense about learning Chinese?

[BlasterBates]

yes "Loud English"...in which countries is "Loud English" spoken apart from Australia.

It might be good fun to learn it actually; we'd have to go abroad to try it out though.

[AlfredJPruffock]

Interesting thread.

As I speak French, German, some Spannish and some Russian, this has been an interesting thread.

I have a friend from Scotland who has lived in Japan for several years, speaks Japanese fluently, lives in Tokyo and has done rather nicely.

Tokyo was perhaps the most absorbing city Ive ever had the pleasure of visting.

Overall NSW is quite correct in stating that the language to learn in the past was Japanese and for the future is Chinese.

BTW would be interested to know if anyone has started to learn Mandarin yet?

[wendigo100]

"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story"

Actually, I wondered how they got up there myself!

From my point of view, it's such a pity that some of the best countryside in the world is occupied by Frenchmen.

BTW My daughter is over there right now, so her Chinese should come in handy.

[The Lone Gunman]

According to the world bank, in 1998 they had the fourth largest GNP in the world.

1 USA
2 Japan
3 Germany
4 France
5 UK

"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story"

[wendigo100]

That is a very good reason NOT to learn French. Isolate them globally. They are a small factor in Global markets.

According to the world bank, in 1998 they had the fourth largest GNP in the world.

1 USA
2 Japan
3 Germany
4 France
5 UK

[The Lone Gunman]

well I think the main reason people learn French is because there are many French teachers and not Chinese... coz nobody has learnt Chinese.... it's a kind of self-perpetuating thing.... even if France was blown off the map tomorrow (one can dream ;-) and no French people left, people would still leanr French at school because of a full supply of French teachers and lack of teachers of other languages!

There is however, one good reason to learn French: while Chinese people will all learn English, what with them wanting their economy to go global and all that, the French will not learn English. So the only way to communicate with French people is in French - whereas one can communicate with the Chinese / Japanese /etc in English

That is a very good reason NOT to learn French. Isolate them globally. They are a small factor in Global markets.

[Rebecca Loos]

well I think the main reason people learn French is because there are many French teachers and not Chinese... coz nobody has learnt Chinese.... it's a kind of self-perpetuating thing.... even if France was blown off the map tomorrow (one can dream ;-) and no French people left, people would still leanr French at school because of a full supply of French teachers and lack of teachers of other languages!

There is however, one good reason to learn French: while Chinese people will all learn English, what with them wanting their economy to go global and all that, the French will not learn English. So the only way to communicate with French people is in French - whereas one can communicate with the Chinese / Japanese /etc in English

[Not So Wise]

And lets look at what real "oportunities" french offers

Official language:
France and its overseas territories (basiclly load of islands in the pacific and the odd small african country)
Bénin; Burkina Faso; Central African Republic; Congo (Democratic Republic of); Congo (Republic of); Côte d'Ivoire; Gabon; Guinea; Luxembourg; Mali;
Monaco; Niger; Sénégal; Togo; the Canadian province of Québec; and the Swiss districts of Vaud, Neuchâtel, Genève, and Jura.

Co-official language:
Belgium, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Chad, Comoros Islands, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Haiti, Madagascar, Rwanda, Seychelles, Switzerland, and Vanuatu.

Yep sheer wealth of oportunities there...

The only reason the national curriculum keeps french on the books as the main 2nd language of this country is because of habit and the effort it would take to change. Sure French made sence 3 plus decades ago when cheap travel and easy telecoms was not advailable to everyone and globalisation was unheard of, they were the closest country to the UK (and being able to speak it more than any other language made you look more educated). But in this day and age education should be a lot more flexable and offering a lot more choice, hell if they were doing things right they would have kids studying 2 other languages from preschool onwards.

Sure english might be the language of the world in this day and age, but the guy who can speak to people in their native language will always have a clear advantage over the guy who cannot.

[OwlHoot]

Oddly enough, it is actually quite difficult to buy what in the UK we know as Danish bacon in Denmark. I had to draw a picture for my local butcher to explain what I meant by middle cut. Ah middle cut he says. That's what I was saying says I.

Did you know Samuel Pepys had a Danish turkey meal that he mentioned in his diary?

I did some investigation and discovered that the Danes were the first to domesticate the turkey and they used to export them to England, landing at Newcastle, whereupone they would be marched to Spittlefileds market, London.

Obviously they didn't have trucks or railways back in the day, so they had little leather boots for the turkeys.

Crikey, by the time they got to London the turkeys must have been as tough at their leather boots!

Anyway, I thought the turkey came from North America. Nothing about Denmark is mentioned in http://www.pfeiffernaturecenter.org/...d/turkey1.html

[Not So Wise]

OK, how many people in the UK spoke Japanese and made their fortunes?

Was it enough to have changed the national curriculum such that Japanese is taught to every schoolchild rather than European languages?

And if so, what would the fifteen million schoolkids under such a new curriculum now be doing with their Japanese GCSEs?

How many made real use of their french except in french resturants and on booze runs to france? While the UK has closer ties to france than say japan there was/is no booming and expanding market in France.

Where as in Japan thoughout the 80's to early 90's sky was the limit. I know quite a few people who got high paying job's all over the world with Japanese firms or those who deal with them just because they spoke Japanese and knew the culture, where as many Japanese had difficulty with the English language and it's culture. Where i cannot think of a single person except the odd diplomat who got such because they spoke french.

And not talking "national curriculum" here, talking about people being clever and thinking beyond such a limiting thing and looking at supply and demand...15 million kids speaking french or 1000 kids speaking Japanese/chinese...who is going to be more in demand? Especially when you consider the french have a lot less difficulty learning english than the Japanese/Chinese

Then also look at the economy's, is france a booming economy that is starting to spread out around the world and that also has companies from around the world clamoring to get into their market? No
Is China? Yes

[threaded]

Oddly enough, it is actually quite difficult to buy what in the UK we know as Danish bacon in Denmark. I had to draw a picture for my local butcher to explain what I meant by middle cut. Ah middle cut he says. That's what I was saying says I.

Did you know Samuel Pepys had a Danish turkey meal that he mentioned in his diary?

I did some investigation and discovered that the Danes were the first to domesticate the turkey and they used to export them to England, landing at Newcastle, whereupone they would be marched to Spittlefileds market, London.

Obviously they didn't have trucks or railways back in the day, so they had little leather boots for the turkeys.

[Rebecca Loos]

I speak Danish, me: båcøn

[threaded]

The Danes have this one sorted already. The official language is called rigsdansk, fun language, no one actually speaks it. As you travel west across the country the language changes in deep and meaningful ways, for example at the west there is only one gender, in the middle there are two and at the east there are three, another example are the names for things, at the west a potato is a potato, in the east it is a kartofler, oh and my favourite rigsdansk is known as rigsmål depending on geographical localle. Get any of these myriad of nuances wrong for the particular area you are in and the locals will claim you cannot speak Danish at all...

[datestamp]

They should teach kids Greek and no English. That way we could write all our IT specs in Greek and the Indians and Chinese wouldn't have a chance. And we could then arrest all foreigners that arrived at one of our airports in possesion of a camera as "illegal plane spotters". That would solve a few problems.

[OwlHoot]

OK, how many people in the UK spoke Japanese and made their fortunes?

Was it enough to have changed the national curriculum such that Japanese is taught to every schoolchild rather than European languages?

And if so, what would the fifteen million schoolkids under such a new curriculum now be doing with their Japanese GCSEs?

Exactly - In the long run they'd be far better off learning Latin and Greek!