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what is the most popular foreign language that everyone is learning?

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Originally posted by: Solodays
I knew it was ENGLISH. but since WHEN and WHY did ENGLISH first became the International, or the second favorable language for other foreigners?
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Because the superpowers of the UK (with its gigantic empire) in the past and the US of today mainly speak English.
 
Originally posted by: Solodays
Originally posted by: MartyMcFly3
Originally posted by: Solodays
Originally posted by: MartyMcFly3
Originally posted by: Solodays
I knew it was ENGLISH. but since WHEN and WHY did ENGLISH first became the International, or the second favorable language for other foreigners?
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Because WE got the bombs...
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so does china, india, etc..
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Not back in the old days...
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so?what s your point?
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During the history of mankind, there have been several more or less universal languages or lingua francas, such as Latin (and Greek) in the Roman empire, mediaeval Latin in Western Europe, later French and English. Universality is of course relative; it means universality in the "known world" or "civilized world", or just in a large empire. No language has been really universal (global), but the current position of English comes closest. The position of a universal language has always been gained as a by-product of some sort of imperialism: a nation has conquered a large area and more or less assimilated it into its own culture, including language, thus forming an empire. Usually the language of the conquerer has become the language of the state and the upper class first, then possibly spread over the society, sometimes almost wiping out the original languages of the conquered areas. Sometimes - especially in the Middle Ages - the imperialism has had a definite cultural and religious nature which may have been more important than brute military and economic force.

As regards to the English language, it would have remained as a national language of the English, had it not happened so that the English first conquered the rest of the British Isles, then many other parts of the world. Later, some English colonies in a relatively small part of America rebelled, formed the United States of America, and expanded a lot. They formed a federal state where a variant of the English language was one of the few really uniting factors. And that federal state became, as we all know, wealthy and important. It also exercised traditional imperialism, but more importantly it gained a very important role in world economy and politics. Whether you call the US influence imperialism or neo-imperialism is a matter of opinion, but it certainly has similar effects on maintaining and expanding the use of English as classical imperialism.

This probably sounds like political criticism, but it is intended to be descriptive only. Personally, I do not regard imperialism as an incarnation of the Evil; it has had both positive and negative effects, and in many cases imperialism has been a necessary step from chaos to civilization.

Source
 
Originally posted by: Solodays

i always thought the japanese have the best electronics.
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Not since quite a bit after WWII, and certainly not in 1850-1900 as the post you responded to mentioned.
 
Originally posted by: Deadtrees
My native language is Korean which is voted as the most scientific language (voted by scientists at U.N convention or something), however, it's no good once I meet non Korean.
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Most scientific language? What does that mean?
 
Latin was the most popular language in my highschool, but only because we were all forced to study it for a minimum of 2 years (in addition to 2 years of a modern language).

in terms of modern languages... Italian was the most popular, followed by French, Spanish, German, and Greek.
 
I'm learning Mandarin~ Was going to take Japanese (got bored of three years in Spanish and I can speak it well...but no passion) since I figured they had all the technology on the consumer level, but I quickly got attracted by all the characters and I learned that they were Chinese characters (duh 😉 ) so I swiched onto Mandarin and I'm enjoying it thoroughly, although it was initially weird since I'm the only non- Asian in there (one of the guys is korean and the rest are Chinese) but it all works out in the end ^_^

but learning language is fun fo sho~
 
Originally posted by: Chaotic42
Originally posted by: Solodays
I knew it was ENGLISH. but since WHEN and WHY did ENGLISH first became the International, or the second favorable language for other foreigners?
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I wish we could have one universal language.

Heck, I'd learn any other language if it were universal. Even the stupid ones. Yeah, you know which ones I'm talking about.

Those.
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Interesting to note, most linguists think in 100-400 years, pretty much everyoen on the planet will know one of four languages:

1. English
2. Spanish
3. French
4. Chinese (whatever the majority dialect is, I forgot if that was manderin or cantonese)
 
"Don't confuse Japanese consumers love of the latest robot Dog/camera phone with research dollars, and things like landing a man on the moon."

Lord, that struck me funny! 😀
 
At my school, French and Spanish are the main ones that people learn, and I think it's probably because they're closer to english so easier to learn. Chinese (Mandarin) is growing more popular with non-asians... I've always found it ironic when kids who already know chinese take the course just to get high marks.
 
I just wish everyone in our contry would learn our language. almost twice a day at my old job a mexican family would come in trying to buy something and they only spoke spanish. then they would get all mad that no one in the store could understand them. I have no problem if you want to live in our country but learn the damn language
 
Originally posted by: Solodays
Is cantonese widely spoken in china?
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Yes, in quite a few areas. So much that many foreigners end up thinking that Canto is the national language for one reason or another.
 
I just wish everyone in our contry would learn our language. almost twice a day at my old job a mexican family would come in trying to buy something and they only spoke spanish. then they would get all mad that no one in the store could understand them. I have no problem if you want to live in our country but learn the damn language
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this may sound a bit strange butta mexicans speaks spanish and the country is not worthy and all but spanish language is very popular around the world. hmmmmmmm
 
Originally posted by: Solodays
this may sound a bit strange butta mexicans speaks spanish and the country is not worthy and all but spanish language is very popular around the world. hmmmmmmm
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Around the world as in Spain, Mexico, and U.S.?
 
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