And for that reason... Oh the frustration to not being able to talk like you use to! But I know what you mean: It's also a charm about it, it really is!
Thank you!
English by non-native speakers
- Thread starter Oscillation
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And for that reason... Oh the frustration to not being able to talk like you use to! But I know what you mean: It's also a charm about it, it really is!
Carnegie Hall?
Haha!
I've always looked at it from an other perspective: whenever an american visits our country, everyone knows what he speaks of, but he knows nothing about what we speak. So it's perhaps not so good for the English speakers so only know one language.
I study English at the University of Copenhagen. It's awesome! English is like the opposite of the tower of Babel.
"How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice"
I’ve always made an effort to learn the basics to get me by to whatever country I was visiting…for a while there my Russian was really good!
French was so-so, and my German sucks.
I used to be able to speak more Spanish than I can remember (which is like, nothing.) when I was a paramedic in southern California where a good portion of the Hispanic population doesn’t speak English, or it is very limited…besides, it helped to put people at ease I think, when you reassured them in their native tongue.
But yeah, there are a lot of Americans who can only speak English.
That’s quite a review!
Do you find it easier than other languages you have tried or have learned in the past?
Ranked by difficulty:
1) Spanish (for some reason)
2) Italian
3) German
4) Hebrew
5) Swedish
6) Norwegian
Nice list my friend!!
And English has been the easiest I take if from your previous comment?
What makes it easier do you think? Or does it just make the English speaking world (which is large) accessible?
English is an emotional language to me. It's very expressive, rich and emotive. You can get across very well with a limited vocabulary. It's hard for me to judge if it's easy to learn, since I've been exposed to it so early in my life. My impression is that it's easy to pick up in most parts of the world because of the exposure that you get in culture.
One of my professors said that it's remarkable how influential the English language is. The Roman empire never reached that level of unambiguous influence over its sphere of influence, and neither has any other world power language in human history. I think that it's the result of many things - the Marshall Plan brought English into the homes of practically ever European person. Trading has required a lingua franca (common language) and English wound up becoming it because of colonization, economic power and brute force. Slavery was also a big reason for the spread of the language to the third world. Oh, and let's not forget the United States of America, a European dream of democracy in a time of oppressive rules in Europe. Everyone has looked up to the ideals of America at one point or another.
The post-information age with the internet and hyper-connectivity has only made English more important. Google, Facebook, Twitter, Apple -- these are all American services that are used world wide. It's impossible to imagine a modern society that doesn't have some sort of connection to the English language. So English is here to stay, there's no doubt about it.