Arrogance and Learning English!!!

Adam   Fri Oct 14, 2005 4:01 pm GMT
"Rubbish languages?"

Languages such as French (that's a funny language. When I hear, or even read French, it seems like an artificial language created only to be spoken by snobs and people with head colds); German (even saying "I love you" in that language sounds like a Nazi shouting orders at you); Chinese (what's the point?); Dutch (an ugly version of English for people who can't pronounce the letter S properly).
Sander   Fri Oct 14, 2005 4:08 pm GMT
=>Dutch (an ugly version of English for people who can't pronounce the letter S properly). <=

You might get your linguistic information from movies like "Austin Powers in Goldmember", but I don't.

Saying that Dutch is 'an ugly version of English' is plain stupid.If you want to use such terms I'd rather say that English is an ugly version of French.

stupid idiot , or should I say 'idiot stupide' as it's said in the proper language?
Travis   Fri Oct 14, 2005 8:01 pm GMT
>>German (even saying "I love you" in that language sounds like a Nazi shouting orders at you)<<

"Ich liebe dich" sounds quite unlike that, actually. In reality, the [C] sounds in "ich" and "dich" sound quite soft and not harsh at all (and you just might have forgotten that /x/ in German has the allophone [C] morpheme-initially and after front vowels).
Adam   Sun Oct 16, 2005 9:02 am GMT
"You might get your linguistic information from movies like "Austin Powers in Goldmember", but I don't.
"


no Sander, it is from another source, your granpa's life.
pizdiet   Sun Oct 16, 2005 10:32 am GMT
"Adam is a fucker"

At least he's having sex.
feliz   Sun Oct 16, 2005 11:19 am GMT
not the case for Sander the so known troll aka "many trolls names"!
Stan   Mon Oct 17, 2005 12:20 am GMT
To Adams: No language is funny if you know how to speak them.

"Ich liebe dich" does sound like a Nazi shouting orders at you. Atleast I agree with you on that.
Zander   Mon Oct 17, 2005 7:05 pm GMT
Hello everyone, i am new here. Glad to know you fellows. There is not any ugly languages. German can be also very nice.
eito(jpn)   Mon Oct 17, 2005 8:24 pm GMT
In German, every noun begins with a capital letter. I like that feature.
Stan   Mon Oct 17, 2005 9:13 pm GMT
There is no such thing as an ugly language (though some sound ridiculous), a common problem everyone fails to acknowledge is the fact that we all evaluate the content of all languages with the same yardstick: "the English language." We even go as far as calling it the universal language.

Some people spend despairing efforts to learn English but never consider the notion that perhaps if most Britons and Americans exert a fraction of the same effort to learn other languages, then maybe the world would be in a position to benefit more.
Damian en Edimbourg   Mon Oct 17, 2005 10:00 pm GMT
**if most Britons exert a fraction of the same effort to learn other languages, then maybe the world would be in a position to benefit more**

Easier said than done.....I tried it...my effort to place the world in a beneficial position met with stiff resistance in Paris. My exquisitely executed French.....delivered with the best of intentions and in the true spirit of L'Entente Cordiale.....was shot down in Gallic flames....WHAM!.... when l'homme dans l'hotel (sorry...no circumflex) responded en anglais. Och! the pique...c'est magnifique.

So we don't ....erm....sort of bother any more.....everyone speaks our lingo...or try their best to do so.....so instead of learning other Languages we look for more other productive, more fun things to do.
Imma Troll   Mon Oct 17, 2005 10:09 pm GMT
I don't know why people accuse English speakers of arrogance. We're not arrogant. We just know we're speaking the best language.
****(jpn)!   Mon Oct 17, 2005 10:22 pm GMT
Calling English the universal language must be a kind of political (or comercial) strategy, which is a propaganda. But some peeple admire the idea of "universal language", just because they are lazy. They are likely to think they can avoid other languages if they know English.

When I was a student, I met an English-language teacher who told us to be moderate in our 2nd foreign language study and just concentrate on English. He said, "With English, you can comunicate with peeple all over the world.". But what he meant was peeple in America from all over the world, I supose. As he had stayed in U.S. for a while, he might have thought like "Oh, peeple from different contrys speak English! So do we!". Nope! They used English just because they stayed in an English-speaking contry! I do not want to become a person like him.

English cannot be the universal language. In my contry, nobody speaks English, except some peeple who cannot avoid it. This fact is very important. In Japan, peeple from abraud use the Japanese language.

Using English is sometimes an evasive way to comunicate with peeple. I will not concentrate on English!(That's why I am not good at enny forren languages.) Let's try not to speak it like a native speaker!
****(jpn)!   Mon Oct 17, 2005 10:38 pm GMT
>>I don't know why people accuse English speakers of arrogance. We're not arrogant. We just know we're speaking the best language.<<

I would not acuse you of using English. If you think your language is the best one, please continue thinking that way. Everybody may think his or her language is the best. But the fact remains that some peeple are arrogant, whether native speakers of a certain language or not. Especially, I disagree with someone who calls some languages "rubbish". And I hate someone else who tells their students to concentrate on English, ignorantly thinking and insisting that it is or should be the universal something!
Uriel   Tue Oct 18, 2005 2:55 am GMT
Some people might tell you to concentrate on learning English because they feel it is the language that will confer the most economic advantage on you. Well, that's a political and economic justification, but not a linguistic one. Linguistically, all languages are equally expressive and have their own unique charms that can't be quantified by mere monetary considerations. So if people are placing more emphasis on English than on other languages, it has nothing to do with the language itself, but rather with current geopolitical circumstances. So don't take it too seriously!

And for god's sake, don't give anything posted by Adam a second glance. He just likes to fire up people's emotions.