General Chat

@ BG I was involved with our local deaf centre through my work, and met some really lovely people. They were extremely keen to learn. They also were very encouraging and loved to help me when I was learning to sign. I had some good fun and great times with them. :-D <3

In my opinion, like it or not, most other countries learn or speak some English the main reason being the English people are either too lazy or can't be bothered to learn another language. Before anyone objects this statement included myself until I moved and had to learn Spanish. I am still nowhere near fluent but I can get by. I was 59 when I started to learn. Here children have to start learning English at the age of 7. I dont know why in most english schools french is taught as a second language as it is not the second most spoken language. France is the nearest country to England so maybe that is why. In most countries that depend heavily on tourism it helps a great deal to be able to communicate with your clients. The Spanish are pleased when foreigners try to speak the language of the country, no matter how bad your effort at least you are trying. :-D

Even if you pronounce the 'o' wrongly Wendy? :-D

:-D :-D :-D Ann 'o' as in orange :-D :-D :-D

TS French and Spanish are 3rd equal most popular languages. And the second (Mandarin) is spoken on other side of world mainly. Nowhere in the "west" does any languag even appoach popularity of English, French and Spanish

Try telling him Wendy!!! :-D :-D

John where did you get your info from? Wikipedia says that 5.85% of the world speak Spanish but only 1.12% speak French. Another site say that Spanish is spoken by 392 million people but only 129 million speak French. I always thought that Spanish was the second most spoken language.

TS. I am afraid you are right. I am one of those who has been happy to get by with a little bit of school girl French, Italian & Spanish, I have just about got by, but am now I have more time going to give it serious push. Its on my list!

Hi Paula, I didn't have much choice but to learn Spanish. I live in the north of Tenerife where Eniglish is really only spoken by the English and a few Germans and even fewer Spanish. I am still surprised at the amount of British people who have lived here in excess of twenty years but have never attempted to learn the language of the country they live in. Many pay someone to go with them to all places official, ie doctors, hospital, council, police station etc and act as a translator. Over the years this must have cost them a small fortune.

I actually feel quite proud of myself for learning another language at 59 but freely admit that I wouldn't have done it if I had not moved here

Wendy

Well done, I take my hat off to you. It is often said that the easiest and best way to learn a new language is to live in another country. We had a beautiful young Swiss girl stay with us for six months a few years ago she spoke French and German fluently but had limited English.. Her father said whilst she was staying with us, he did not want her to speak anything other that English, by the end of the six months her English language was excellent, albeit it spoken with a slight local accent.

Paula when we are in N Tenerife we have our own interpreter Lol. I can vouch for how well Wendy (TS) speaks the language, well done to her.

I am impresssed :-D :-D :-D

Don't be too impressed as I'm off to 'Trafico' in Santa Cruz next week
to change my uk driving licence to a Spanish one. It will be interesting if nothing else!

:-D @ Merlin

Good luck with that Wendy, can't anyone go with you?

'Desperanto' - which is Esperanton as spoken by David Cameron yesterday morning.

Language is a great resource & humans have managed to communicate for some little while now.

What surprised me somewhat was the content of an article in one of the national newspapers not long ago. In short, it reported that English pupils are bottom in language classes because they are regarded as the worst in learning foreign languages.

There were some other items highlighted in the same piece but, as far as I can deduce, the writer wanted to emphasise that good English is not enough nowadays.

I do remember having a book on esperanto and having a go but never progressed and can't remember any now.

Bi-lingual and Global.........

Nice if they were 'Peace' and 'Tolerance' , but that won't happen, and neither will there be an overall winner in the debate, though I'd probably place a quid or two on English surviving in the Business world, versus Mandarin.

Karen, how's your Camel ?? I do okay with Dog, Cat and Horse (with a little bit of Cow), but Camel .... sheeesh!! Possibly using the wrong dialect, or maybe it's the fact that their smell makes me blink a lot and close my mouth ((don't all rush in on that!!!)) ... a distraction when forming vowels...... ???? :-D

Cannot find where I originally found those figures. On Wikipedia, these are top four languages:

1. Mandarin 1151m China, Malaysia, Taiwan
2. English 1000m USA, UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand
3 Spanish 500m Mexico, Central and South America, Spain
4 Hindi 490m North and Central India

On this site it said 173m French apeakers. But on another site, it said there will be 500m French speakers by 2020. Included all French African nations in that total.

I think it is right (howver confusing all these figures are) that Mandarin and English are most spoken - followed by French, Spanish and Hindi each spoken by roughly half a billion worldwide.

:-)