A question for all native English speakers ...

[Imke]

... do you think it's important to learn a 2nd or 3rd language?

I was kind of "inspired" by this thread. We have a huge amount of people here whose native language is not English and who often speak two or more foreign languages.

So, my question is: Do you (as a native speaker of English) still consider it important to learn/speak other languages, although your native language might already be all you need to "survive" in another country?

[ivet]

Yep! I want to learn a bunch of languages!

A lot of Americans, though, don't really care to learn a 2nd language.

[Lore]

Ivet you have to learn a 2nd language at school there right?

 

I guess you know how to speak spanish anyway :P

[ivet]

yeah, well it's required to graduate high school

and i took 2 years of French :heart:

 

And OH YEAH Native Spanish Speaker ftw :cool3:

[Imke]

Okay, maybe I should rephrase my question a bit. :anxious:

I mean if you have to learn a 2nd language in school, it still doesn't mean that you're actually able to communicate with it.

Do you think it's important to be able to speak another language well enough to at least have simple conversations in that language?

[ivet]

yes.

[eff-exx]

I'm err, Chinese. But I speak English primarily. And I learn Malay. And Mandarin too. And I can speak a little Hokkien. And I can say one to ten in Tamil. :awesome:

:|

 

I think that it is important to learn Malay and Mandarin (speaking in terms of my location), because well, Malay is quite a spoken language here, and Mandarin would be good in the business world.

[Lore]

I guess it's easier for non native english speakers to learn english than for english native speakers to learn anoher language, because we're all surrounded by the english language everyday.

 

Lots of TV shows and music in english are available everyday so it's not that hard to learn the language if you're really interested. I mean I can post here and talk (well my accent sucks :P) and I just had some basic lessons at school, but I've been listening to music in english and watching US tv shows since I was very young.

[мaямellata]

Yep! I want to learn a bunch of languages!

A lot of Americans, though, don't really care to learn a 2nd language.

I think the thing is that

they WANT to learn one but they are too lazy.

 

that's just my opinion tho,

I remember lots of people telling me how lucky I'm because I speak 3

& that they wish they knew something other than english blah blah..

 

but never do anything about it :thinking:

[Imke]

I guess it's easier for non native english speakers to learn english than for english native speakers to learn anoher language, because we're all surrounded by the english language everyday.

 

Lots of TV shows and music in english are available everyday so it's not that hard to learn the language if you're really interested. I mean I can post here and talk (well my accent sucks :P) and I just had some basic lessons at school, but I've been listening to music in english and watching US tv shows since I was very young.

 

That's true. My English improved a lot after I finished school and that even though I wasn't having any classes anymore ... I just watched movies/TV shows in English and tried to read as much as possible in English.

 

 

I think the thing is that

they WANT to learn one but they are too lazy.

 

that's just my opinion tho,

I remember lots of people telling me how lucky I'm because I speak 3

& that they wish they knew something other than english blah blah..

 

but never do anything about it :thinking:

 

I'm like that when it comes to my other languages (except for English) ... so I'm planning to go abroad again, because I just can't stand seeing myself saying "Oh how I wish I was fluent in Spanish" anymore. :uhoh: I just want to do something about it already.

[ivet]

Rosetta Stone

[Imke]

Rosetta Stone

 

Oh, haha, they advertise that here on TV all the time ... "Quiero unas manzanas" "Manzanas rojas o manzanas verdes?" "Manzanas rojas, por favor". :bomb:

I can't hear that sentence anymore. :dizzy:

[NumbersGirl]

Yes I think it is important. However I have not done it (learned something enough to speak fluently, anyway). I took French and Spanish in high school, but not very much, so I only know a little bit of each language. I wish there was more focus on it in school.

 

Oddly enough, if you put Spanish in front of me, I can read it out loud almost perfectly. I don't know most of what I am saying, but I sound like I do. :sneaky:

 

If I was able to ride a subway to/from work everyday instead of driving for 45 minutes each way, that would give me the time/opportunity to teach myself a language while waiting for someone else to take me where I need to go. Gawd I wish we had a subway here.

 

Rosetta Stone

Expensive Stone

(although I suppose it would be worth it)

[мaямellata]

 

the ad in this thread

[Megalomania]

I think it's very important for English speakers to learn another language. Probably the most useful is Spanish, since we're so close to Spanish speaking countries. In the business world, I'd say Chinese is most useful now, since so much of our business is taking place between the US and China.

 

 

I'm half German though, and we still have close family that we visit in Germany, so I'm learning German. :wacko:

[Violet]

I live in Texas, where there's a huge population of Spanish speaking people, and a lot of those people don't know English. For practical purposes, it's a good idea to know how to speak Spanish in order to communicate with those people.

 

Personally, I love learning new things. I took Spanish for all four years in high school, even though I only was required to have three. Really, I wish I could use it more so I could get really good at it again. I'm probably a bit rusty. I also have books for teaching myself to speak Italian and French, even though being a music major has caused me to put this stuff on the backburner for now.

 

When I visit this forum, I often think about how ignorant we Americans are. We don't bother to learn other languages so much, and we don't do it nearly to the extent of foreingers learning English. In my senior year of high school, we had this German exchange student in the band program who I ended up being good friends with. He spoke VERY good English, with only a slight German accent. He explained to me that he'd started learning English in the second grade. That blew my mind. I wish we did more stuff like that here in the United States. We could become so much more culturally enriched by learning more variety of languages earlier in life.

[Matter-Eater Lad]

I'm horrible with language, just failed a Spanish test. However I wish to learn French, it's my favorite.

To answer the question, it is important to know other languages.

[Violet]

Awww, sad day. :hug:

[eff-exx]

Mandarin's fucking hard to learn.

[Megalomania]

I live in Texas, where there's a huge population of Spanish speaking people, and a lot of those people don't know English. For practical purposes, it's a good idea to know how to speak Spanish in order to communicate with those people.

 

Personally, I love learning new things. I took Spanish for all four years in high school, even though I only was required to have three. Really, I wish I could use it more so I could get really good at it again. I'm probably a bit rusty. I also have books for teaching myself to speak Italian and French, even though being a music major has caused me to put this stuff on the backburner for now.

When I visit this forum, I often think about how ignorant we Americans are. We don't bother to learn other languages so much, and we don't do it nearly to the extent of foreingers learning English. In my senior year of high school, we had this German exchange student in the band program who I ended up being good friends with. He spoke VERY good English, with only a slight German accent. He explained to me that he'd started learning English in the second grade. That blew my mind. I wish we did more stuff like that here in the United States. We could become so much more culturally enriched by learning more variety of languages earlier in life.

 

I started Spanish in Kindergarten. I learned from my cousins in Germany though that their English classes are much more intense and they take a foreign language much more seriously, because they know how beneficial learning multiple languages is. They treat English classes with as much importance as we have with our own English classes.

[Lore]

Some private schools here have almost all their classes in english, german or any other language they want :blank: Public schools just have a few hours of english per week, I just had like 2 hours each week and it was just basic english.

[ivet]

I'm horrible with language, just failed a Spanish test. However I wish to learn French, it's my favorite.

To answer the question, it is important to know other languages.

 

If you can speak spanish you can speak French.

 

 

 

:disappointed: not true tho

cos i speak spanish but well maybe cos i don't know

i was so excited to learn french and well

i don't know much :P

 

 

BONJOUR JE M'APELLE IVET, CA VA?

JE VOUDRAIS UN COCA ET UNE CROQUE MONSIEUR

 

BONJOUR MADAME ESQDKFJA;DKFJA;FJDAFJ;

[Lore]

JE M'APELLE LORE CA VA TRES BIEN :freak:

[Violet]

¡Por favor, no más frances! D:

[Lore]

¡Por favor, no más frances! D:

 

Está bien :nice: