Thread: Why am I studying Russian?

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

I think the dude is talking in a geopolitical sense. Obviously all art and literature is best in their own language and therefore they will always be "important". I don't know if Arabic/Spanish will be that much more important than Russian/French/Japanese. I even doubt Chinese can disrupt the current dominance of the English language. I mean, most countries have already started good foundations to teach English, including China.

I'm sure he was. I wrote, while standing on my political "soapbox".

Again, my thoughts... Spanish resources (from South America)... and the political power that I think Spain will gain in the 21st-century... I think Spanish will be an important language. Spanish now is very important in America. There may be an important distinction developing between the Spain, and the Americas. With time, I think Madrid and Barcelona will become important "business players".

China is rising fast... it's economic power will probably exceed the U.S. within 20 years. In America, science-fiction writers are already predicting that Chinese may be the predominate language within 50 years.

English... it's strength is that it is a very efficient business language, especially for international agreements.

I think Arabic will become less important, with new energy technologies.

I think we may develop a "fusion" language... many years from now... and people will naturally become mult-lingual.

Nah... I have a hard time believing that the economic rise of China will develop into a linguistic dominance. Even if China surpasses the U.S., it still will be smaller than US/Europe combined. And even if it grows bigger than that, you'd have to undo alot of already permanent features of the English language, f.ex. the internet, f.ex. virtually any tourist traveling to a foreign country tries to use English as a common language. Even the Chinese.

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

Nah... I have a hard time believing that the economic rise of China will develop into a linguistic dominance. Even if China surpasses the U.S., it still will be smaller than US/Europe combined. And even if it grows bigger than that, you'd have to undo alot of already permanent features of the English language, f.ex. the internet, f.ex. virtually any tourist traveling to a foreign country tries to use English as a common language. Even the Chinese.

I don't agree. Many economists are forecasting China to become the major economic power in the world, within 30-40 years. Workforce, cheap labor, and many other factors.

Science-fiction writers, here, are predicting that in future world societies Chinese becomes the major language. Part of this belief is the basis of the very popular science-fiction series "Firefly... and it's movie "Serenity"... everyone is bi-lingual in forms of English and Chinese.

More thoughts?

science-fiction writers have also predicted moon colonies, mars colonies, alien invasions, intergalactic travel, disintegration of the Earth due to: meteorites, sun-explosion, intergalactic bypass construction, etc. etc. All in the extremely near future (if not already should have happened)

I usually don't use science-fiction writers as my crytsal ball!

But of course, who knows?

imho Chinese is too complex both in reading and writing, to become a global language.
BTW, may be I`m wrong, but as far as I know Chinese is not a unified language, i.e. for a Chinese from North it`s very hard to understand a Chinese from South...

Dobry and kalinka, you're leading a very interesting and controversial discussion!

As for the Chinese dominance in the world economy, I take Dobry's point that China will be the world's major economic power in the distant future. I've been reading so many articles in Russian economic magazines and newspapers about China's present-day development, I've built up a strong view that China is on its way to the world economic dominance. Have a look at the development of Chinese business in the last 10 years. There have been so many economically positive mergers, acquisitions, government reforms etc! Of course, there must have been hundereds of problems during the recent reforms but from an economic viewpoint, China's rising extremely rapidly. Some experts say that China's rate of growth is way too fast and that this could wipe out the whole country because of the shortage of energy resources. Well, I think that the Chinese government will succeed in overcoming these problems. Too much has been put into the Chinese economy by foreign investors. They aren't ready to lose their money with ease.
Dobry's right that it will take China around 30-40 years to surpass the USA. A lot of things might happen within this time but we can't predict everything, so we have to base our forecasts for tomorrow on today's situation. The situation is in favour of China today.

I don't believe science-fiction writers. I prefer to believe experts.

As far as a linguistic dominance is concerned, I think that Chinese has a very slim chance of the world's domination in the next 30 years. English will remain the most important language in the world in the long term - even if the US loses its economic dominance. It's no easy task to make the world start speaking a different language overnight.

Originally Posted by ReDSanchous

I don't believe science-fiction writers. I prefer to believe experts.

My, my, my! Aren't these experts science-fiction writers also? People can only predict and not to see the real way.

Originally Posted by Lampada

Originally Posted by Basil77

... Для обозначения 90% технических терминов просто нет необходимой лексики! ....И это по-твоему полноценный язык?

По такой логике большая часть языков в мире - неполноценные. А русский стал полноценным, когда в него ввели эти самые термины.
Украинский язык красивый. Послушай украинские песни - согласишься.

Вспомните тот же самый английский. Когда становилась наука, все учёные использовали только латинский. А когда с просвещением был провзглашён курс на английский, оказалось, что никаких возможностей сказать всё ЭТО нет... Так что за украинским большое будущее.

That's right.

Science fiction writers are no professionals in the field of economics whereas experts can be. Experts spend a lot of time studying a particular situation while science-fiction writers normally don't.

Originally Posted by ReDSanchous

That's right.

Science fiction writers are no professionals in the field of economics whereas experts can be. Experts spend a lot of time studying a particular situation while science-fiction writers normally don't.

Nevertheless, they just predict.

I mentioned prediction in one of my posts. We can't state any definite facts today because we have rather a vague idea about what will happen tomorrow. That's what future forecasts are all about.

Originally Posted by Rtyom

Originally Posted by ReDSanchous

That's right.

Science fiction writers are no professionals in the field of economics whereas experts can be. Experts spend a lot of time studying a particular situation while science-fiction writers normally don't.

Nevertheless, they just predict.

Prediction and pure imagination are two vastly different things. You can not claim that scientists and science-fiction writers are the same in any respect, apart from both being human beings (with the latter group even that is a stretch :P).

The most important language is Southern Redneck language. An' ah ain't jus' whistlin' Dixie! Jus' ask any Bubba y'all!!!!