maybe You should be learning a second language!

[opeth1989]

So, I want to start out by saying, I am bilingual. I am french, all of my family and most of my friends are french, but I have learned English early in life. Even if I have an accent, I can communicate what I want to say without too much trouble. I might phrase something in the wrong way but at least I am getting a point across.

So I live in a bilingual town, french and english. They teach you at an early age in school that learning both languages will prove to be a very valuable skill in life, and I completely agree, I am proud to be bilingual having worked with french and english customers and co-workers.

The other day I was shopping, and overheard this french woman asking something to a cashier about a product she wanted to buy, she was obviously having trouble communicating what she needed in English, yet the cashier would not even try to talk to her in french, he had to get a french speaking employee to help her out. And that's fine, the lady got what she needed and left happy. But what really pisses me off is what i overheard that cashier saying to an other employee afterwards. Insulting the lady for not being able to speak English, calling her an idiot, and saying that everyone should be forced to learn English, and if they are not able to learn perfect English while in school they simply should not be able to graduate.

I think there is a double standard here. Why should we not be able to graduate if we do not learn perfect english, yet if he completely fails his french classes,(witch, you start at around grade 4 till grade 10 here, so you got lots of time to pick it up) its all good, go on and get your diploma buddy. And why would SHE be the idiot? At least she was trying to talk while he did nothing except saying I'm sorry I don't understand you. Maybe you should be learning a second language!

Do not get me wrong, I know english is the most commonly spoken language, but the way he insulted her simply pissed me off.

Our province is proudly bilingual, but I want to clarify, I am not ranting about someone who can only speak one language, if you only know how to speak english, hey that's fine with me. I am mostly ranting about the way the cashier spoke of us frenchies. P.S I have met equally douchy french people who said equally mean things about english speakers and I hold the same opinion of them as our friendly cashier here.

My opinion is, if you live in an area where multiple languages are commonly used, you should at least TRY to learn as much as you can, because you are going to have to deal with them eventually.

So i guess my question to you guys is
1. Do you live in an area where more then one language is commonly used?
2. Do you know more then one language?
3. If yes, what other language do you speak

 

[tombman888]

1: No. English is the most commonly used language here.

2: I learned a bit of Japanese in school. Sadly though, i've forgotten practically all of it.

I wouldn't mind learning another language, thing is, i have no idea what language i'd want to learn.

 

[Sandernista]

1. Yup, heavily spanish speaking neighborhood.
2. Can ask for help and such in chinese, can have casual conversation and order food.
3. Mandarin Chinese.

 

[NeutralDrow]

1. Sort of. I'm pretty close to a heavily Spanish-speaking area. The locals usually call it Mexico.
2. Sort of. I know 1.75 languages. My French sucks, and I don't have much confidence in my Japanese.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

1. No. It's just English here, and it's surprisingly bad, broken English at that.

2. I used to know the Russian alphabet back in junior high if that counts, but I've forgotten most, if not all of it. I would really like to learn the actual language though.

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

Spanish is often spoken alongside English. There are plenty of other hidden languages such as Korean, Cantonese, and Arabic which are spoken in the various small circles of immigrants as well, but they're rarely something you deal with on a day-to-day basis.

I know a little French, and I'm currently in the process of learning more. I like to practice with Le Monde, Radio France Internationale, and French television on youtube. I wouldn't trust myself to hold an actual conversation. Besides French, I've taken a year in of High School level German, and college level Spanish and Arabic. I'd like to pursue Arabic, although that's on the backseat to French.

 

[Ionait]

Poof

 

[The_Ghost_Ninja]

Well, with your separatist soap box aside:
1. Newfoundland - Mostly just English and French.
2. Yes.
3. English, French, Japanese, ASL.
Also, if anyone is wondering, it's said that you can learn up to 12 languages but at around that point you start to developing super-dyslexia... I forget the actual condition there are like 2 start trek episodes about it.

 

[opeth1989]

To The_Ghost_ninja

I'm sorry if my post appeared as *separatist* to you, as it was not my intention at all.

I do not wish to be in a french only province, I simply wished to point out the hypocrisy that he said we need to learn english yet he does not bother to learn french.

I believe in a bilingual province (New-Brunswick in this case), there should not be any favoritism. English speakers should learn basic french, as well as french speakers learn basic english.

I know its hard to learn a language, and if you can only speak one, that's fine, you are not any less of a good person in my eyes. But the fact that this guy was insulting the lady for not speaking english pissed me off

 

[thylasos]

1. Do you live in an area where more then one language is commonly used?
2. Do you know more then one language?
3. If yes, what other language do you speak

1. Not really; there's a few Urdu and Arabic speakers in town, a few Polish, and few Russian and Ukranians, and some tourists from France and Spain, but it's not... noticeable, really, unless you're looking for them.

2. Yep. I try, at any rate.

3. English is the mother tongue, I studied Russian to degree level, and I can still read and understand (if not speak) French to a newspaper standard, as well as a smattering of Czech, Spanish, Italian, and the remnants of my Latin.

In terms of the sort of sentiment expressed by the monoglot cashier... it's a sad reflection of people not being willing to put the effort in, really. Agreed, if you haven't been brought up in a bilingual area perhaps you should be cut a little slack in terms of fluency and so on, but I would expect at least a basic standard of the second language after a few years, just out fo politeness, really. Expecting other people to change because you're not willing to open your mind to another culture and way of seeing the world is... terribly sad, to my mind.

 

[warprincenataku]

1. Do you live in an area where more then one language is commonly used?
Generally people here speak Thai, but some speak English and some speak Deiju, which is a form of Chinese.

2. Do you know more then one language?
Yes, I know many languages. I could list dozens that I know and even more that I'm familiar with.

3. If yes, what other language do you speak
Me personally I speak English, some Thai, Mandarin, Spanish, French and Japanese. Although none of them I speak fluently. My Thai is my second strongest language however and can carry on a decent conversation in Thai. Also, I can read Thai, but not any other Asian language.

 

[GundamSentinel]

1. Nope, it's all Dutch around here. Well, some of my teachers only speak English, but aside from that, nope.

2. Yes.

3. Aside from Dutch, my English is fluent (or so I'd like to think). My French and German are far from perfect, but I can make myself understood and there are some remnants of Latin, Ancient Greek, Italian and Japanese in the back of my head.

 

[bakan]

[...]
So i guess my question to you guys is
1. Do you live in an area where more then one language is commonly used?
2. Do you know more then one language?
3. If yes, what other language do you speak

1. Well, I'm from Germany but I live near the Netherlands (~5mins to cross the border), so it is common to see a lot of dutch folk around here.
2. Yeah
3. I learned English and Latin in school, and took a crash course in Dutch because I'm studying in the Netherlands. At the moment I'm learning Japanese.

 

[Ruwrak]

IN the netherlands, we're obliged to speak 4 languages...


Dutch
French
German
English

And then you can pick another one for Spanish, Swedish, or Itallian if you really want.
So yeah... 4 languages. Fluently -.- Oddly enough my english outweighs my dutch much much more

 

[Viral_Lola]

To answer your questions:
1. Nope
2. Yes
3. English, Vietnamese, French but I'm trying to learn German and Russian.

 

[sshakespeare]

1. nope
2. can understand and read french but cant speak it to save my life

 

[Violator[xL]]

I am Dutch.
All cartoons used to be in English with subtitles (not anymore, stupid stupid!)
and well, lots of English games. And English at school. German and French too, I can vaguely read and understand the first, since it's a lot like Dutch, but not so with French.

 

[Frybird]

1. No, it's german, although there's always a good chance of hearing people speaking Turkish and Russian 'round here.
2. Yes.
3. English. I COULD say french since i learned it in school, but alarmingly i actually forgot almost all of it.

But yeah, i as well think it's good to know more than one language. And i think it's essential in a non-english-speaking country to learn English. Even though other languages can, of course, be also useful, i think english is almost always the most likely common ground when speaking with people who don't speak your native language.

 

[Harlemura]

1. People usually speak English in England. Go figure.

2/3. I knew a bit of French because I did it at GCSE. I wasn't great, but might have been able to get by.
But Then I forgot all of it. Now all I can remember is hello, goodbye and some drinks. So I'm set if I can order a hot chocolate by just greeting someone as I walk into the shop.