Language Powers
 

I was just chatting with a friend of mine about language and how learning language is considered the hardest thing a human will ever do. The feat of being completely fluent in more than one is exponentially difficult. Babies are the hardest workers ever, wrapping their brain around all the syntax, phonemes and whatnot of language.
So, I'd say the most important and useful language in the world hands down is: English. Even though it is actually a pretty challenging language to learn, English is the language of business and that's what makes the world go round ya know. But this is where me and my friend disagreed-is Spanish the second most important language? Or would it be possibly, French? Chinese?

English then Spanish.

Chinese is just spoken by 1.2 billion people, I don't even consider it that important globally (politics, business, enculturation).

French is the language of diplomacy. Mandarin and cantonese are spoken by more people than any other language.

Spanish is up there though, but it's not recognized in any formal way to my knowledge.

Italian.

Spaghetti, pasta, pizza, cannelloni, rigatoni, vermicelli, fettuccine...

Do you mean "my friend and I"?

Me see?

;)

True, but much of what might be called the patterns of language are hardwired into babies. The difficulties they tend to face come in where language has evolved away from the instinctive patterns. So, irregular verbs tend to cause children difficulty in all languages. Similar mistakes are noticed in children from different backgrounds and different languages. The English version being such mistakes as "I falled" instead of " I fell".

I think we should all learn Icelandic. Change the paradigm, people!

Hver maður er borinn frjáls og jafn öðrum að virðingu og réttindum. Menn eru gæddir vitsmunum og samvisku, og ber þeim að breyta bróðurlega hverjum við annan.

Ouch!

The reality is 99.9% of people don't actually interact globally in their lives. Who gives a shit if a car mechanic can speak the "language of diplomacy?" We're not all part of a global village, nor will most of us even work in a business situation that will cause us to interact with another country. The most important second language depends on each individual's cultural situation. Around here, it's Spanish, no question.

Do you think there will be a global language on earth in the future? Such as post nuclear war, the few surviving human populous all creating a global pidgin language? Or maybe in thousands of years when we go intergalactic, there will be a "human" language? Like a language that is native to earth, to distinguish from other alien races. Maybe I'm just a nerd....

If that happened, I bet you would see an increase in the number of languages because with civilization breaking down, there would be less travel and less communication. Local dialects would evolve into different languages.

Oh yeah....maybe...then humanity would be screwed on communication.

You mean it isn't already?:eyebrow:

I'm pretty sure I want to learn Mandarin and Cantonese, because I am firmly convinced that one day the Chinese will take over the earth.

I've played that video game, it's called Fallout.

Was at work this evening at 0015 PDT to meet our people in The Netherlands at 0800 local time. Thank god their English is impeccable, because as work on their computers with remote connections to see their screens, I find the localization of Windows XP in Dutch utterly impenetrable. I also have worked on systems localized for French, Italian, Swedish, German and Finnish. In cases like this, I'm working by braille. I remember that for some context sensitive menus, "Properties" is the bottom of the list. I have some screenshots of the Control Panel we all know and love in many of the languages listed above. Even the keyboards are substantially different.

Listening to them code switch in the background as they translate what I said to the other people in the room not on the phone is a testament to their skill. I wish I knew more languages.

Chinese is easy.

Number 53 with rice.

Just because you like rice and chinese meals usually include rice I find it very wrong of you to stereotype an entire country full of people. You don't know what the everyday rice needs of the Chinese are. ;)

Can you get the number 53 without peppers?

Esperanto was an attempt at making a universal language. It hasn't caught on, although it is a very interesting language. Completely regular. There are no exceptions to the rules, which is what you can get when you design the rules for a language before the language is actually created.

Too bad it's only used by a few million people on the planet, and I don't know if it's a first language for the massive majority of them.

Heh.:p

This is only true because you're talking to a mostly older demographic. I have to communicate out of the country quite often. Your kids and mine will compete with most of the rest of the world. At least they will if they work in a white collar or IT job. The global economy is upon us.


At least until the oil runs out.

I maintain that the average person on the cellar, as well as their children, are not in fact average. I mean sure, if you want anecdotal, I too have directly dealt with clients and/or vendors in Spain, Argentina, Germany, France, England, India, Ireland, and Brazil. But most people don't.

you asked for the second most "important" language. Importance is a pretty vague criterium. I think other than English, it would depend on the part of the world you are in, the business you are in, etc.

For me, it's certainly Spanish. I live on the border and in a town that is 80% Hispanic. I would also argue that in the US, Spanish is the number two language all around, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.

Esperanto also has noun inflection by plural and case, and adjective agreement. In other words, Esperanto could be simpler. A universal language should not be inflected according to number and case like this just because Indo-European languages are inflected in this way.

why ya'll so galdam intelextual like an' all? why do'nt nobody just give a real quick answer? (like my burillianjt ider of icelandic to rule the world) yues er noe. quick actin all ....whatever. shheesh.

Fools. The second (if not the first) most important language is the language of luurrrrve. :D

How about sign language? Sure, there are a few different versions, but not as many as spoken languages, some of it it intuitive even to people who have never encountered it before and it does include an extra portion of the communicatively-challenged population (while excluding another, sadly). Sign language already closes the Frech/American divide -maybe it can also resolve the freedom fries issue?

Or computer languages? Binary? Can we call Binary a language? It's a pretty damn important communication concept, that's for sure. at some level. Barcodes and shit.

OH MY GOD!!!! It's Britney Spears, here on the Cellar!!

:D

Punch one for English.

Okay, I'm changing my vote to Galactic Standard.

Klingon? I know most of you nerds know how to speak it anyway.

Cloud, it sounds like, for you, English is the second most important language.

Nah, Cloud would rather communicate with us, than her neighbors.

I find automated business lines are in spanish and english. If I want english I have to 'opt out' by pushing button #2.
The products I buy have secondary spanish labels as well.
In my last job this new worker, in a different department whom I never met before approached me speaking in spanish. I thought he had an attitude so when he asked me why I don't speak spanish I kindly said," because I don't HAVE to" and walked away. It is so like our system is set up to help people everyone thinks it should be their way. If I go to another country I'll be sure to try to learn the language of the land and not pressure the people there about why they can't speak MY language.

No I don't think spanish is most imortant...just necessary with the great migration.

The other"auxiliary" language is French as well as our own of English.

I only speak English. I can understand French if spoken slowly (I haven't spoken it myself since 1988, but am remembering it because my Manager on Saturdays is from Togo, an East African former French colony) a little German and tourist Italian and Spanish. I can swear in Dutch and Punjabi.

IMHO I think those languages most foreign to us are most important - Japanese, Chinese, Indian (although the last two have dialects so diverse there is no official language). To learn to converse with people who have not only a different language but a different structure is to me a huge commitment. Dwellars with good memories will know I signed up for Chinese but the course was cancelled - I'll look again (NOW I HAVE A JOB!!!! sorry, still excited)

? I speak decent Spanish. Read French about 60%. But always more comfortable in English.

If you learn Mandarin or Cantonese, you'll be understood everywhere in China, and if you learn 'Tokyo Japanese' you'll be understood everywhere in Japan. One thing I find very interesting about Japanese, is that there are island where the language itself has evolved into other dialects, so in order to communicate with someone on an island that you can see, you have to speak a dialect from a totally different area of the country.

This is horribly inaccurate.

He didn't say you'd be understood by everyone, just everywhere. :D