Thread: because...

I'm learning Chinese b/c the wisest teacher I ever had told me "You only ever need to know 3 languages: English, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese"

so I told him I would learn it, and he was surprised when I said something to him in it....lol

what a life I lead

pretty soon this site will be called:
wwww.mastereverylanguagepossible.com

Bah, you don't need to know Spanish. And for a while it won't be important to know Chinese(but in the future it will be, I think). A lot of American teachers say you should learn Spanish because the US has a lot of immigrants from Central America, but they all speak English(or are learning how to). Unless you want to do things in that area I don't really think it's that important.

I actually am planning on going into a career in Spanish...or something of the sort. If not, it's useful where I live b/c many of the immigrants refuse to speak English here.

And how often is it necessary to talk to them?

Maybe it's important in America, but Spanish isn't that important to the rest of the world. I think the 3 most useful languages would be (I hate to admit) English, Chinese and Hindi.

loloolololol asdfasf asdf sl olo ool ... Even "wise" people can be wrong. The only time you're going to need to know spanish is if you want to talk to your homie jose's parents because they REFUSE, as you say to learn english. Maybe when the move to a country they should have enough consideration to learn the language.

The only earthly reason i could think of learning chinise is because it's the most widely spoken native language, but then... unless y ou go to china... or live in china town... when do you have to talk to them ? maybe if you want to be able to understand the chinise writing on the side of the missles as they are coming down.

And lastly english. Bah, my own love hate relationship with her. She is my native language. but she is an ugly one. I admit... there really is no reason to learn russian unless A, u want to talk to the russian immagrants (who most are at least courtious enough to learn english) or, if you want to go to rusia. I hope to someday completely forget english. It's so boring and stupid and structured. Once the stock market falls, and bush invades one too many countries, we wont have enough money or armed forces to defend ourselfs from canada, and they will take over, and sell everything to france. At that point, english wont be so important anymore.

To sum it up... why learn any langauge ? there is no "perfect langauge to learn" but, if you're going to take the time to learn a language... don't waste it on spanish. like, every single 3rd world country in south america has a native language of spanish.
anyways... maybe your wise teacher was good at some things, but maybe linguistics was not his cup of tea.

Originally Posted by Dogboy182

Once the stock market falls, and bush invades one too many countries, we wont have enough money or armed forces to defend ourselfs from canada, and they will take over, and sell everything to france. At that point, english wont be so important anymore.

Bush won't be around for that much longer, hopefully... so there aren't many middle eastern countries for him to invade. And I don't believe that either of the other two of Bush Sr.'s kids will become president.

I really don't see why so many people hate the English language. It's not ugly (personally, I find French ugly ), and the structure isn't that difficult to follow. Sure, with pronunciation you have a mess, but so do other languages, e.g. French (again). And the pronunciation is only hard if you are learning, you don't forget it if you know it...

like, every single 3rd world country in south america has a native language of spanish.

I'm going to assume you meant to write Portugese.

There is a perfect language though. It is the language of pictures. You can explain most anything with a picture, to anyone of any nationality. People go into too much detail with words, in my opinion.

Bet you five bucks your wise teacher doesn't know either language(and a few phrases in Spanish doesn't count). I can't stand people who make statements like that and act as if they know what they're talking about. It would be like me putting on a Texan accent, adjusting my belt, and saying "Now listen here, the only golf club you're ever gonna need is..."
There are over a billion speakers of Mandarin Chinese, but remember, almost all of them live in China or east Asia. Most of the ones living in the US speak English. And you don't see them very often(I believe Asians make up around 2% of the population, and "Asian" on US forms includes anybody from India eastward, although many Arabs like filling in "Asian" too).

I'm going to assume you meant to write Portugese.

There are certainly several countries there that speak Spanish.

There is a perfect language though. It is the language of pictures. You can explain most anything with a picture, to anyone of any nationality. People go into too much detail with words, in my opinion.

Bah. Just learn English.

Originally Posted by EffMah

There is a perfect language though. It is the language of pictures. You can explain most anything with a picture, to anyone of any nationality. People go into too much detail with words, in my opinion.

I wonder how would you be able to explain the following:
1. Attractions between the atoms in each protein molecule make the polypeptide chain fold up into a rather rigid structure with a form appropriate to its particular function — for instance, with small pocket that is the attractive site where an enzyme catalyze a chemical reaction. Also, many functional proteins consist of a tight cluster of two or more polypeptides.

2. And she goes like "Well, I'm not really in love with you, not that much, but if you don't mind, I'm sorta...errr..." and he goes "Agrh! You like I don't know what!"

3. воркалось... хливкие шорьки
пырялись на траве
и хрюкотали зелюки
как мюмзики в мове
or
Beware of Jabberwock, my son! etc.

The only countries that speak Portugese are Portugal, and Brazil. I've never been to portugal, but Brazil sure doesn't seem like a place i'd want to live. Other than that, becides Spain, every spanish speaking country is either poor, or their infastructure is in bad need of repair. The only thing they can export is soccer players.

And right, maybe i should just forget how to talk, and take a drawing class.

Also, english is ENCREDIBLY boring. Maybe not to my english teacher who claims all great countries are the ones that currently speak english (In my opninion, Ukraine is alot better than New Zealand). Look at english
my cat, my weapon, my life.
мой кот, мое оружие, моя жизнь
That is the cat that i killed with my weapon.
Это кошка, которую я убил своим оружием

I'm not trying to teach you anything, because most everybody here already seaks at least some russian... but it's just so much more interesting to listen to, and to speak. english IS boring, and it IS restricted by it's structure. Russian is cool because you can still say the same thing, but put it how you want.

Oh c'mon, English isn't that bad. You can certainly have a lot of fun rearranging things in it too.

That is the cat that I killed with my weapon.
As for the cat that I killed with my weapon, it's that one.
I killed that cat with my WEAPON!
I killed that cat with MY weapon!

There are over a billion speakers of Mandarin Chinese, but remember, almost all of them live in China or east Asia. Most of the ones living in the US speak English.

Whilst it's true that the majority of Chinese speakers outside China speak Cantonese, there remain many Mandarin-speaking communities across the world (including a substantial one here in Moscow). Most members of these communities - strange though it may seem - are monoglots, particularly as far as the older generation is concerned.

Maybe when the move to a country they should have enough consideration to learn the language.

What is the language? To pluck an example from the air, 45% of the population of South Florida have a native command of a language other than English. The USA, more than any other country on earth, is a linguistic melting-pot. You're richer for it.

Other than that, becides Spain, every spanish speaking country is either poor, or their infastructure is in bad need of repair. The only thing they can export is soccer players.

I'd hate to see philistinism take a hold of this forum. Are you seriously judging a language's value by the GDP of the countries in which it is spoken? Never wanted to read Neruda or Cervantes in the original? Utility ain't everything.

Yeah, I'd like to read Cervantes (already have, in English), but I'd like to read Russian authors even more. Besides, Spanish is just too easy. I can read any kind of text without ever having studied the language.

You may as well read Cervantes in Russian.
http://www.lib.ru/INOOLD/SERVANTES/

Joysof. I was refering to the poor nature of the countries to show how pointless it is to learn the lagnauge. Seriosuly, what does mexico do for anybody ? besides punch out fender guitars and rip offs of VW's... not much. Im saying, if you at least learn german, you can get a job translating at a car manuafactuing plant, or with BMW, or VW, or Audi... If you learn spanish, you really have two options... Join the cops, and interigate "non english speaking" suspects. Or move to spain and live there... Unless u want to live in mexico.

And, the united state's national lanuage is english, if someone moves here, they should attempt to learn a few phrases... If they wern't so lazy, you wouldn't have all those groups of foriegners who set up shop in 45% of miami, or wherever. I just don't see why spanish is so popular, or even still tought in highschools when it is virtually useless.

Hey hey there, Doggie, watch the capitalized "J" in "Joysof!" The man doesn't like his name capitalized, dig? So if you capitalize anything, don't capitalize "Joysof"! Err...I mean "joysof." Gah, that irritates me.

I wasn't capitolzing the name (as if it were a proper noun) as much as i was capitolizing the begining of a sentence.

I just don't see why spanish is so popular, or even still tought in highschools when it is virtually useless.

There are over 330 million Spanish speakers worldwide. I'm sure they'd be delighted to be written off by you. I hate to say it, but you're sounding every inch the insular American.

And, the united state's national lanuage is english, if someone moves here, they should attempt to learn a few phrases...

Most do. As for full fluency, it's difficult: your own mangling of English orthography and punctuation serves to illustrate that.

Dogboy182 wrote:

The only countries that speak Portugese are Portugal, and Brazil.

Actually, there are quite a few others. Just so you know what you're talking about (although it doesn't seem like you would care about anything concerning these countries), they are: Angola, East Timor, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and Sao Tome and Principe. Oh, and I believe it's spelled Portuguese...

You might also be surprised to know that there are countries in South America where the official language is French, Dutch and even English.

Jasper May wrote:

Maybe it's important in America, but Spanish isn't that important to the rest of the world

Wow, do you really think so?? I'm sure it's very important to all the countries in Latin America - not to mention elsewhere in the world. And, mind you, Latin America makes up a large part of that "rest of the world".