Spain: 47% of adults don´t speak a foreign language
Sep 28th, 2009, 04:12 AM
#82
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Heck, in the U.S., sometimes even our version of "English" is considered a foreign language depending on the region. Here is a perfect example...
My wife, who is from Long Island (Lun Guylund), and I were at a hotel pool in Daytona Beach. A Georgia boy of about 13 came up to her and said "Um frum Allbenny (Albany)Jawjah". I'm not kidding the two of them tried to have a conversation and I do not believe either one understood half of what the other said.
Foreign language? Put together a group from New York, Boston, Maine, Georgia, Alabama and Kentucky together and see what you get. On the other hand, we Floridians have had to deal with this all of our lives, so we simply change our accents depending on who we are speaking with.
dave
My wife, who is from Long Island (Lun Guylund), and I were at a hotel pool in Daytona Beach. A Georgia boy of about 13 came up to her and said "Um frum Allbenny (Albany)Jawjah". I'm not kidding the two of them tried to have a conversation and I do not believe either one understood half of what the other said.
Foreign language? Put together a group from New York, Boston, Maine, Georgia, Alabama and Kentucky together and see what you get. On the other hand, we Floridians have had to deal with this all of our lives, so we simply change our accents depending on who we are speaking with.
dave
Sep 28th, 2009, 04:53 AM
#83
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mikelg, do your kids have the option of being educated in spanish in public schools in the Basque country? I ask because I don't know, but you can hear constantly that it is impossible in Catalonia.
Sep 28th, 2009, 04:53 AM
#84
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'and a dire economic outlook, which also breeds unity. who wants to be autonomous and even more broke when your only hope is funding from central government'
yes - but look up and what do you see. I'd rather be broke and warm than broke and wet!!!!!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/cont...e_webcam.shtml
Note the time - NOT 2am - that is 2pm
I once heard that Native Americans only measured time with two marks - sunrise and sunset. We don't have that privilege.
BTW what has Spain done with all that cash we gave you for the flat pack houses we bought all along the south coast. Surely Kaka and Ronaldo were not that expensive?
yes - but look up and what do you see. I'd rather be broke and warm than broke and wet!!!!!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/cont...e_webcam.shtml
Note the time - NOT 2am - that is 2pm
I once heard that Native Americans only measured time with two marks - sunrise and sunset. We don't have that privilege.
BTW what has Spain done with all that cash we gave you for the flat pack houses we bought all along the south coast. Surely Kaka and Ronaldo were not that expensive?
Sep 28th, 2009, 05:17 AM
#85
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Josele, here we have three educational models: A, B and D (there´s no C in Basque...). A is fully in Spanish, having some subjects in Basque. B is 60-40 Basque Spanish, more or less, and D is totally in Basque. You may chose an A model for your kids, but it´s true there aren´t too many schools under this model. Most are B or D. In my opinion, the system is not that bad: my kids, who live in a family where Spanish is predominant, are learning Basque and English at school since they are three. They use Basque to talk to other kids, and rapidly switch to Spanish when talking to a non-Basque speaker. We live in a neighbourhood where there´s a lot of BAsque speaking people, so they are growing using both languages. So far, I see no problem on this system.
It´s true that the main language here is Spanish, but learning another language is good.
It´s true that the main language here is Spanish, but learning another language is good.
Sep 28th, 2009, 06:10 AM
#87
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Caroline Edinburgh - i wrote the P word in this context, their language hastily and without thinking until i read it later - my mistake and i would not purposefully use the P word - i think before you and others pointed that out. And yes P is no language and i think Urdu or something should have been used.
As for Switzerland i am always struck how few German-speaking Swiss speak any French and vice versa but use English it seems more to communicate with each other.
As for Switzerland i am always struck how few German-speaking Swiss speak any French and vice versa but use English it seems more to communicate with each other.
Sep 28th, 2009, 06:24 AM
#89
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re weather, fair point well made, though it's a little unfair to illustrate your point with manchester. what is it they always say at Old Trafford (the real one, not the Theatre of Hype)?...if you can't see the pennines it's raining; if you can see them, it's going to rain.
re all those €, there's an awful lot of local government officials and elected representatives with lifestyles which are not exactly in keeping with their salaries...
re all those €, there's an awful lot of local government officials and elected representatives with lifestyles which are not exactly in keeping with their salaries...
Sep 28th, 2009, 06:54 AM
#92
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Life is easier abroad when you speak the local language. Of course, at present English is the international communication language (it is easy, it has powerful mass media behind, it´s popular, and it´s everywhere).
Sep 28th, 2009, 01:05 PM
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Dukey on Sep 28, 09 at 10:34 AM
Why should anyone CARE about how many adults in Spain...DON'T SPEAK ENGLISH "
even in Holland where EVERYONE speaks English one can find a number of older people in small towns who don't.
So ?
Dukey on Sep 28, 09 at 10:34 AM
Why should anyone CARE about how many adults in Spain...DON'T SPEAK ENGLISH "
even in Holland where EVERYONE speaks English one can find a number of older people in small towns who don't.
So ?
Sep 28th, 2009, 02:42 PM
#96
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I would guess that the stats for the USA are worse than 47%, excluding Latinos, many of whom I've found to befunctionally illiterate in both Spanish and English.
It comes down to motivation. If a worker has to demonstrate a certain level of literacy (i.e., ability to communicate & understand orders), he/she will try to achieve that level.
In a lot of cases in the USA, a low-level Manager will be hired who is fluent in English & Spanish: the boss will communicate with that person, and the orders interpreted & delivered by that person to the Crew. That's just the way it is.
Sometimes, a worker 'on the crew' will 'bootstrap' him-or-her self to be able to take over a low-level Manager's job. That's upward mobility at its best!
It comes down to motivation. If a worker has to demonstrate a certain level of literacy (i.e., ability to communicate & understand orders), he/she will try to achieve that level.
In a lot of cases in the USA, a low-level Manager will be hired who is fluent in English & Spanish: the boss will communicate with that person, and the orders interpreted & delivered by that person to the Crew. That's just the way it is.
Sometimes, a worker 'on the crew' will 'bootstrap' him-or-her self to be able to take over a low-level Manager's job. That's upward mobility at its best!
Sep 30th, 2009, 10:00 PM
#99
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looked at from another perspective, apparently 20% of Americans speak a language other than English “at home”
9% speak a foreign language “proficiently which compares badly with Europe where the figures range fro22% to 99%
I remember driving through Canada - an officially multi-lingual country - as the guest of a client once, and I saw a sign warning of no more fuel for 130km – the English sign had dropped off leaving only the French sign – I asked my friend – a member of Mensa – if we had enough fuel for 130 km, When he asked why, I explained there was a sign – he asked “how could you tell? It was in French.”
One of my jobs was as an agent for American Art and Antique dealers form the US – I used to have to handle everything from accommodation and meals to evaluations and deals all over Western Europe – and I must say I did not have a single client – all wealthy businessmen – who could utter a single useful word in any European language apart from English – (and a lot of them had trouble with that in Britain.)
I think that if you take the figure of English fist language speakers and then ask how many Americans speak any amount of another language the answer would be dismal.
The UK is similarly handicapped.
As for Spain I can understand why - – forget Chinese – English is the number 1 language on the planet – even a shoe-shine boy in Chad would know a couple of words – next to English, what other language is spoken all over the world? - Spanish – so again if you are a Spanish speaker there is a lot less need to speak another tongue.
At home they have their own and from elsewhere thriving art, music and film industries so there is less need there to translate too.
Spanish is also a Latin language so it has a lot in common with French, Italian, Portuguese. Yet, it would seem that also an assumption has been made on this thread, that if they did speak another language, it should be English!?!?!
.......... at the end of the day I consider that expecting people to speak English wherever you are is a most culturally asymmetrical and even arrogant position to take. .....
9% speak a foreign language “proficiently which compares badly with Europe where the figures range fro22% to 99%
I remember driving through Canada - an officially multi-lingual country - as the guest of a client once, and I saw a sign warning of no more fuel for 130km – the English sign had dropped off leaving only the French sign – I asked my friend – a member of Mensa – if we had enough fuel for 130 km, When he asked why, I explained there was a sign – he asked “how could you tell? It was in French.”
One of my jobs was as an agent for American Art and Antique dealers form the US – I used to have to handle everything from accommodation and meals to evaluations and deals all over Western Europe – and I must say I did not have a single client – all wealthy businessmen – who could utter a single useful word in any European language apart from English – (and a lot of them had trouble with that in Britain.)
I think that if you take the figure of English fist language speakers and then ask how many Americans speak any amount of another language the answer would be dismal.
The UK is similarly handicapped.
As for Spain I can understand why - – forget Chinese – English is the number 1 language on the planet – even a shoe-shine boy in Chad would know a couple of words – next to English, what other language is spoken all over the world? - Spanish – so again if you are a Spanish speaker there is a lot less need to speak another tongue.
At home they have their own and from elsewhere thriving art, music and film industries so there is less need there to translate too.
Spanish is also a Latin language so it has a lot in common with French, Italian, Portuguese. Yet, it would seem that also an assumption has been made on this thread, that if they did speak another language, it should be English!?!?!
.......... at the end of the day I consider that expecting people to speak English wherever you are is a most culturally asymmetrical and even arrogant position to take. .....
Sep 30th, 2009, 10:04 PM
#100
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PS - I would argue that English as a language to learn is a double edged sword - it is very easy to "get by" as it is a user-driven language - there are no rules, only conventions and everything is up for grabs, but to be be good this lack of rules and an enormous vocabulary, range of nuance and almost complete lack of grammar makes it very hard for anyone but a native speaker to excel in.......and a lot of them fail too!
