Spanish is not so important as latin-americans praise!
Until now, I've already got to learn 4 languages more or less, I think it's absolutely not so important for Europeans to learn Spanish, at least it's not necessary in Europe. Besides the most important language-English, I consider both French and German are crucial important worldwide, because France and Germany play an important role in economy, politics, science and technology, industry and commerce. Most of the developed countries' people in Europe speak German or French instead of Spanish.
And in fact, Spain is not very powerful in many ways, and Latin America are, speaking frankly, very poor developing countries. Actually Spain is even much inferior to Italian, and say nothing of comparing to German, French, Switzerland, Austria, and so on. So we can't only judge any of language's importance by population's quantities, although we know that Hispanic world has about 400,000,000 spanish speakers, it's not the key factor to estimate a language sanely and expressly. But in America and Latin america, Spanish is surely very important, just like the importance of French, German, and Italian in Europe. And I feel that Italian sounds a little better than Spanish, for my experience. To be an Asian, I suppose that, apart from English, German, French, and even Italian, are all much more important than Spanish, especially it will be of great help to find out a good job, but the relationship between Spain and Asia is not very promising and chummy as yet. And I'm not crazy about Spanish at all, just because my standpoint is very different form Latin American's. But this doesn't mean that Spanish is not important, to say the least, it really has its advantages. OK, this is my point of view on Spanish......
Ninja,
Even in the United States, French, German, Latin and Ancient Greek were the traditional foreign languages taught in high schools and colleges. Spanish was introduced in the 1930's partly because of expanding trade and tourism with Latin America, and partly as a result of President Franklin Roosevelt's so-called "Good Neighbor" policy towards Latin America.
The Portuguese and the Spanish were both remarakble peoples in some ways as navigators, explorers and conquerors but since their languages have produced little technical litterature most scholars and scientists have not been interested in them.
well personally I love Spanish and i think Spanish language is very important because it's the third language the most spoken in the world after Chinese and English and it's also a very beautiful language ( sorry for the mistakes lool i don't speak English very well)
Mr.Brennus, thank you for your correction and supplement.
I know clearly that German and French are both very important not only in Europe, but also in U.S. and so many other countries throughout the world. And so far, Spain as well as Portugal doesn't give me an enviable impression, but I find that more and more Asian and European are now choosing to learn Spanish like mad, so I need to stand out to say something honestly about my feelings on Spanish and Portuguese. They're absolutely not the mainstream languages all over the world.
In Japan and China, not to mention Germany and France, the economic and cultural cooperation with Italy is much more hopeful than with Spain and Latin America......
Larissa, you are entitled to love Spanish. And may I ask you where you come from, if you don't mind.
Ninja,
Hi. There actually are Japanese people living in many Latin American countries nowadays. A few years ago, I saw an interview with a Mexican singer on Univision (a Spanish language television channel) who was of Japanese heritage. After the interview he sang one of his songs (canciones). In the United States, we don't normally think of a Japanese person speaking Spanish and almost cannot envision it but they do exist.
Brennus,
Yes, you're all right, too. In fact, I just want to make out my personal idea about foreign languages, everyone can hold his own viewpoint.
Maybe I love France, Germany, Italy too much. Now I take back what I said about Spanish. And thank you for your active reply......
sure i'm Russian but now i live in France why this question?
Brennus thank you! (bienvenue)
and NINJA may i ask where you come from too? if u don't mind of course
<<I know clearly that German and French are both very important not only in Europe, but also in U.S. and so many other countries throughout the world.>>
Where do you think that German is important, outside Europe?
Ninja is most likely a troll, but I will like to respond to some of his comments...
In the US, Spanish is the second most spoken language in the 43 out of 50 states in the good ol USA. The idea that German or French have more clout in the US then Spanish in (almost) 2006 is ridiculous. Wherever you go in the US, from Maine to Hawai'i and all points inbetween, you will hear Spanish language radio stations, see TV channels, visit community centers, read newspapers magazines, etc. The (federal) Department of Labor prints all their employee rights in both English and Spanish so wherever you are in the US in some human resources office you will see both languages letting you know your rights and privelages as a worker in the US. The US has no official language, but if you go to the US federal government portal
www.us.gov, you will see that the page is offered in both English and Spanish.
About Asians and Latin America, Latin Americans did not bend over backwards and take it up the arse like most Asians did with British colonialism. Speaking English does not equal refinement, intelligence, none of that. There are millions of Asians and their descendents in Latin America, from Indians in Trinidad to Japanese in Peru or Lebanese in Colombia.
<<Where do you think that German is important, outside Europe?>>
Same with Italian (which isn't important in Europe, either).
<<In the United States, we don't normally think of a Japanese person speaking Spanish and almost cannot envision it but they do exist. >>
Peru's former president Alberto Fujimori is of japanese descent.
>>The Portuguese and the Spanish were both remarakble peoples in some ways as navigators,explorers and conquerors<<
Hardly. The consensus among a number of respected historians is that European exploration had no deliberate desing instead being purely accidental and all about being at the right place at the right time. It was inevitable that "America" was going to be "discovered" (read: stumble across it because other human beings had actually discovered it thousand of years ago) due to competition in those times to find a maritime route to Asia for trade. There was nothing "remarkable" about it when you examine it carefully. If one is academically and intellectually honest about their "remarkable exploration" can be put down mostly to luck. If it wasn't the spanish it would have been someone else. And very few did any conquering in the truest sense of the word. In fact they relied mostly on Native American allies to overthrow established regimes. To believe otherwise is just eurocentric claptrap that is used to stroke european egos.
I recommend you read this book to acquaint yourself with how events really played out.
http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/HistoryWorld/LatinAmerican/?view=usa&ci=0195160770
You can also read the firts chapter free of charge.