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It's English but not as we know it, Jim

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Ubutumwa 167

ururimi: English

sudanglo (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 5 Rusama 2011 13:41:34

Fascinating report here

geo63 (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 5 Rusama 2011 17:39:24

sudanglo:Fascinating report here
"It is often maintained that acquiring a good command of English is very expensive
and in this perspective the connection between the use of English as a lingua franca
and social justice appears problematic."

One has to learn English for 12 years. The language has very hard pronunciation for most of the world, and do you really know how many deaths have been caused by misunderstanding English? Read about plane disasters.

Kraughne (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 5 Rusama 2011 19:12:20

geo63:do you really know how many deaths have been caused by misunderstanding English?
We'll need a source on that factoid, because there's a good chance that it is pretty wrong.

darkweasel (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 5 Rusama 2011 19:12:47

geo63:
One has to learn English for 12 years.
Really? I started learning English in 2004, that's seven years ago (though I had already known some words before) - and I don't think my capability of speaking/writing English is that bad (but surely the other forum members can judge that).

Surely for some people, depending on their linguistic background and their general talent for languages, English is more difficult, I just don't like your generalization that it's necessarily difficult for everyone.

Chainy (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 5 Rusama 2011 19:27:51

geo63: and do you really know how many deaths have been caused by misunderstanding English? Read about plane disasters.
Oh dear, can we just forget about this stupid plane crash argument?! Some Esperantists really are desperate.

geo63 (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 5 Rusama 2011 19:44:12

darkweasel:
geo63:
One has to learn English for 12 years.
Really? I started learning English in 2004,...Surely for some people, depending on their linguistic background and their general talent for languages, English is more difficult, I just don't like your generalization that it's necessarily difficult for everyone.
So you have still 5 years to learn that:

"most of the world ..."

does not mean everyone.

English is not too difficult for Germans, as Russian is not difficult for Poles.

Chainy (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 5 Rusama 2011 19:44:26

darkweasel:Surely for some people, depending on their linguistic background and their general talent for languages, English is more difficult,
This is a very significant factor, linguistic background. German and English are closely related, whereas Polish and English are not at all! So, native Polish speakers are always going to have a much harder time learning English.

If Polish was the international language, then I'm sure we'd have loads of Slavonic people delighted about how relatively easy it is for them.

Whereas for you and me, darkweasel, it would be one hell of a task learning it!!

geo63 (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 5 Rusama 2011 19:45:39

Chainy:
geo63: and do you really know how many deaths have been caused by misunderstanding English? Read about plane disasters.
Oh dear, can we just forget about this stupid plane crash argument?! Some Esperantists really are desperate.
Yes, we can... unless one of your family member dies in one.

razlem (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 5 Rusama 2011 19:47:21

It also depends at what age you learn the language. There are millions of people in the US who are fluent in both Spanish and English because they grew up in bilingual areas.

Kraughne (Kwerekana umwidondoro) 5 Rusama 2011 19:53:47

Other fascinating report that actually just retells everything in this thread.

All we need to do is make sure our pilots are Germanic. Problem solved.

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