Mesaĝoj: 76
Lingvo: English
geo63 (Montri la profilon) 2011-aŭgusto-11 09:09:07
黄鸡蛋:OK, the site is nevizitebla for me. Maybe for all who are in China. Great Fire Wall did a good job.Try some proxy gate.
proxy gate should work OK.
vincas (Montri la profilon) 2011-aŭgusto-11 10:19:46
geo63:Do not worry, the Chinese language is not a big rival of the English language.Epikuro57:... in case anyone wants to go vote for EsperantoWhy Esperanto? Polish is the only reasonable choice (I write this because I don't want my grandchildren to learn Chinese).
Here are a couple of books.
http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-research-...
geo63 (Montri la profilon) 2011-aŭgusto-11 10:28:28
vincas:Do not worry, the Chinese language is not a big rival of the English languageSome decades ago so said the French about their language and English. What if the future world will witness shifts of superpowers - US will loose its dominant position and China will grow and take over the world economy? Do you think they will use English to communicate with the rest of the world? Is US using French for the same purpose today? If not, then why?
vincas (Montri la profilon) 2011-aŭgusto-11 10:53:34
"There is no reason to believe that any other language will appear within the next 50 years to replace English as the global lingua franca. The positon of English has arisen from a particular history which no other language can, in the changed world of the 21st century, repeat"
Future of English page 58.
geo63 (Montri la profilon) 2011-aŭgusto-11 11:26:53
vincas:Which languages my rival English as a world lingua franca in the 21st century?And I have to replace one forecast of the future with another one? (60 years ago French said exactly the same thing about French). Let's live and see. No sense to debate on the matter right now. China grows, US goes down step by step. Who knows the outcome of this.
"There is no reason to believe that any other language will appear within the next 50 years to replace English as the global lingua franca. The positon of English has arisen from a particular history which no other language can, in the changed world of the 21st century, repeat"
Future of English page 58.
"Always in motion is the future" - said Mr Yoda.
vincas (Montri la profilon) 2011-aŭgusto-11 15:00:25
geo63 (Montri la profilon) 2011-aŭgusto-11 16:10:44
vincas:You may be right. Nobady knows what the future will be. But, the current situation is quite clear. A lot of people are learning English. who are learning Chinese?About 50 million people worldwide are learning Chinese now and the number steadily grows. Many people are learning English, that is true. What percentage of them have any good command of English. How many of them are fluent speakers. It turns out that only 10% reach that level (there are researches in that subject). So 90% speak Globish, not English. This is because English is far more difficult than many people think. At first it looks simple. Then the more you learn the more and more weird it becomes. So the majority reaches only basic level of language skills - adequate for simple communication (tourism, asking way, shopping...) You reach that level in esperanto after 3 months of learning.
On the other hand I don't know how fluent are those who are studying Chinese. I suspect the same percentage as with English. I think that in this matter all natural languages are just the same.
darkweasel (Montri la profilon) 2011-aŭgusto-11 17:21:08
geo63:i suspect chinese is a lot more difficult than english, if only because of its symbols and tones. especially for speakers of indoeuropean languages, who make up for most of the western world - the most important economic partner for a possible future superpower china.
On the other hand I don't know how fluent are those who are studying Chinese. I suspect the same percentage as with English. I think that in this matter all natural languages are just the same.
geo63 (Montri la profilon) 2011-aŭgusto-11 17:29:14
darkweasel:i suspect chinese is a lot more difficult than english, if only because of its symbols and tones. especially for speakers of indoeuropean languages, who make up for most of the western world - the most important economic partner for a possible future superpower china.In one field Chinese is more difficult than English, in other it is easer. English pronunciation is also very difficult - it took me 3 years to start understanding English spoken sentences - some English dialects I can't understand up to now (and probably never will). So the difficulty is not a deciding factor for a language to become global.
geo63 (Montri la profilon) 2011-aŭgusto-11 17:46:45
"Comment on "Envoys of lifelong friendship" (China Daily, Jan 14)
China is an important trade partner of Europe, and its culture is fascinating. I am sure that young Europeans will find an equivalent to Western culture in China.
An increasing number of people in Europe are learning Chinese, because they are fascinated by China's language and culture. Confucius Institutes offer not only language courses to people outside China, but also the opportunity to know more about China.
Maybe one day - not too far away - Chinese will become a global language. "