http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4840160.stm
Thats the french for you. Chirac is an idiot IMO
Just cause a meeting is conduct in English doesnt mean the whole french language is going to colapse. There has to be a middle ground and its just happens to be not french.
I would be more worried about the chinese laguage taking over more than the great english language If I were him.
Could swaer Chirac appears in the papers about once a month whining about something to do with us. :?
Well, the adopted language of Europe in terms of official EU things is French.
French is a great language, but very difficult to speak well. The French are very proud of their language and see it as an attack on their customs. Its a shame as I can speak far better French than I did a year ago, but it is not as useful in the world as English is. French is not going anywhere, itll be around for a long, long time, and is one of the nicest languages to hear, in my opinion.
President Chirac speaks very good English as far as I know.
Cheers
Tongy
Quote from: TongyWell, the adopted language of Europe in terms of official EU things is French.
French is a great language, but very difficult to speak well. The French are very proud of their language and see it as an attack on their customs. Its a shame as I can speak far better French than I did a year ago, but it is not as useful in the world as English is. French is not going anywhere, itll be around for a long, long time, and is one of the nicest languages to hear, in my opinion.
President Chirac speaks very good English as far as I know.
Cheers
Tongy
Id agree with that.
French is just such a sexy language, everything you could posibely say sounds so nice, even if you calling some one an asshole.
I never got on with French, I feel like too much of a ponce if I actually make an attempt on the accent, and its all backwards, ergh.
Give me German any day :D
Trying to protect French is fine, but protect it inside France!
About 125 mil speak french, 405 mil english and 420 mil spanish, the two latter ones must be much more useful to know. :)
According to that article English is taking over as the main EU language.
Bias aside theres nothing to choose from between languages really, its not like people who speak one or the other cant communicate as well, its just were very lucky that English has become the defacto world language and unlucky for Chirac that French is becoming less and less used. Chinese will not ever take over its far far too difficult to learn, English is (apparantly) quite tolerant when mistakes make you do.
lool sam
QuoteEnglish is (apparantly) quite tolerant when mistakes make you do.
Quote from: SamAccording to that article English is taking over as the main EU language.
Bias aside theres nothing to choose from between languages really, its not like people who speak one or the other cant communicate as well, its just were very lucky that English has become the defacto world language and unlucky for Chirac that French is becoming less and less used. Chinese will not ever take over its far far too difficult to learn, English is (apparantly) quite tolerant when mistakes make you do.
If you have seen serenity/firefly it has the idea of chinese/english hybrid where chinese integrates more and more into english. I could imagine this happening more. The odd word or term from chinese appearing more and more in common use, small amounts of chinese characters being used. I think this is the only possible way chinese can become more of a common language. Enough people start to use it and bit by bit people will get used to the words, just as there are lots of other languages in english atm for some terms were there wasnt an english word for it.
Lets get one thing strike, Chirac...
If it wasnt for the UK and the US, youd be speaking german, you insecure little turd...
And as someone has already pointed out, alot more people can and do speak English than french..
His parking brake cant endure the whole inertia of the EU.
Quote from: maximusotterHis parking brake cant endure the whole inertia of the EU.
good analogy :thumbup:
Quote from: bearAbout 125 mil speak french, 405 mil english and 420 mil spanish, the two latter ones must be much more useful to know. :)
And thats just as a first language Im assuming. If you look at how many people speak English as either first or second Im sure it would wipe the floor with everything bar Mandarin.
Quote from: SamAccording to that article English is taking over as the main EU language.
Bias aside theres nothing to choose from between languages really, its not like people who speak one or the other cant communicate as well, its just were very lucky that English has become the defacto world language and unlucky for Chirac that French is becoming less and less used. Chinese will not ever take over its far far too difficult to learn, English is (apparantly) quite tolerant when mistakes make you do.
The thing with Chinese is, Chinese people have something different about their palate/tongue or something AFAIK that prevents them from making certain sounds necessary in English without them sounding wrong. I reckon it will be around a lot longer than French, at least.
There are loads of chinese languages not just one which it makes it very dificult to use
Har har, Clockd.
I know Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino, slash Americans, that sound either redneck or valley girl or what have you. Theres no palate or glottal structural difference.
Chinese, and som other languages simply dont have some of the same sounds as English, so theyre extremely hard for an adult learner to come to terms with. Youd have an equally hard time learning Chinese, where a very simple sounding two letter syllable could mean a myriad of things depending on inflection.
I dont think its that bad. The majority speak mandarin I think, once you know one dialect the others are relatively interchangeable without too much lost in translation. I could be wrong, maybe thats why its called chinese whispers?
Max, I briefly took classes in Cantonese so I know exactly what you mean. Im not sure where I picked up my little snippet of information though, so its AFAIK.
Aha, I was way off, but this explains it all in some detail:
http://www.sinosplice.com/lang/pronunciation/03/
The sounds are made using different parts of the tongue against the palate, making it difficult (bot not impossible) to learn.
according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_language
most are indeed Mandarin but still huge amounts of people speak the others
Ive got a chinese colleague on my course at uni. I must say he speaks extremely good english and I very rarely find myself saying pardon. :)Better than some of the european students imo. :?
On a random note, before I worked (almost left that as "woked" :mutley: )with this chap, I had no idea that what we consider a surname is their first name and vice versca.
Quote from: ThrawnQuote from: bearAbout 125 mil speak french, 405 mil english and 420 mil spanish, the two latter ones must be much more useful to know. :)
And thats just as a first language Im assuming. If you look at how many people speak English as either first or second Im sure it would wipe the floor with everything bar Mandarin.
350-1000 mil speak english as a second language, so yes to above.
My misses is welsh and her family/friends/neighbours all use their middle name as their first
Quote from: brummieaccording to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_language
most are indeed Mandarin but still huge amounts of people speak the others
Yes and they have a hard time understanding each other but if written all who can read understand.
Complete Idiot that guy I cant stand him every time I see him I feel the need to punch him.
Quote from: SamBias aside theres nothing to choose from between languages really, its not like people who speak one or the other cant communicate as well, its just were very lucky that English has become the defacto world language and unlucky for Chirac that French is becoming less and less used.
If its your first language then you will be able to speak it very fluently as your brain gets hardwired to understand it, any languages learned later are harder because the wiring has already taken place. Not all languages are as easy to learn and some are very difficult like Icelantic.
[qiote=Sam]
Chinese will not ever take over its far far too difficult to learn, English is (apparantly) quite tolerant when mistakes make you do.[/quote]
English is not so much tollerant as flexible, You can say something in many different ways, which also means you may end up saying something you never intended. Many other languages, unlike English, have sexed terms too which is how the famous English and how she is wrote style mistakes happen. Flexibility can also make languages difficult to learn.
The main reason Chinese isnt a good universal language is the number of written characters makes writing problematic.
Observation: The French arent racist, they hate everyone equally.
Quote from: Clockd 0NeI dont think its that bad. The majority speak mandarin I think, once you know one dialect the others are relatively interchangeable without too much lost in translation. I could be wrong, maybe thats why its called chinese whispers?
Although mandarin is the official language and most speak it there are a lot of other localised languages, not including Tebetan. In the West of china the languages are more like russian or indian and there is a good chance that someone from that area wouldnt understand mandarin.
Quote from: SmugsComplete Idiot that guy I cant stand him every time I see him I feel the need to punch him.
please stand in the cue and wait your turn...
/points to lne of 3 billion plus people...
Chirac is pathetic I have never known a world leader so obsessed with such unimportant things :roll:
Quote from: maximusotterHis parking brake cant endure the whole inertia of the EU.
true - but the french are a bunch of insecure stubborn tw*ts - they got rather paranoid about english speaking pop music on thier radio & more recently they have been anti competitive regrding the prevention of mergers and aquisitions - this recent incident, though humorous, shows up a slightly more worrying side to the french - they like the benefits of being in the EU but they dont like sticking to the rules very much & it is still going to take a lot more shoving from the rest of the gang to make them grow up a bit.