Do you speak more than one language?
By arkaf61
@arkaf61 (10881)
Canada
February 8, 2007 3:13pm CST
DO you even think it's important to?
I find that in Europe for exemple, people are more open to learn different languages and actually want to and feel it is important. In NOrth America the idea seems to be more that there is no need to learn different languages, English is just fine.
I tend to think that this difference comes from the fact that countries in EUrope are smaller, and there are many different languages all around. People are able to travel trought more than one country in a day sometimes and are exposed to the different languages and cultures. THat makes them more familiar with those differences and the basic human need for communication ( to mention just one factor ) make them want to learn those languages,
In North America, however, we can travel for days in row and never leaving an english speaking environment so that need to learn different languages is not felt the same way.
What about you, do you think it is important to know more than one language or not?
2 people like this
8 responses
@LightninStrike (5915)
• Saint Vincent And The Grenadines
10 Feb 07
Well i speak Spanish (my native language) and english perfectly, then i also speak gallego(a language from a region of spain) and some french.
2 people like this
@ankitsingh225 (155)
• India
20 Feb 07
I think the more languages you know the more better you are able to communicate.I know 4 languages in all.
@urbangirl (1456)
• Australia
11 Feb 07
I speak two languages fluently (Greek and English) and as a child I spoke French but when we moved to Australia, I did not keep up the French. I tried to learn Italian too but because I don't use it everyday, I can understand it better than I speak it. My relatives in Europe can all speak at least 3 languages (even aunts and uncles who did not even finish high school) with some speaking 5. Speaking only two fluently makes me feel I miss out on a lot when I visit Europe! I think it is great to be able to speak many languages. My choices would be to able to speak Mandarin, Spanish, Italian, French, German and Arabic.
@Jleivang (374)
• India
11 Feb 07
It's not a compulsion to learn different languages but if we do its beneficiary for ourselves. I personally know just one international language i.e, English. I wanna learn more languages. Its one way we can understand other cultures more efficiently.
@miaonly (72)
• China
20 Feb 07
well, it seems i do not need to face this choice. as a chinese , i feel lucky to have mastered chinese, yuo know , in many people 's opinion the most difficult language in the world.as to english.i have to learn this basic survial skill in the globalizing world well, and in most chinese secondary school, maybe even primary now, english learning has become a compulsion.
at the same time, i am very intersted in italy, so i learn italian myself.to my surprise, i found english and italian share many words together,different prounsation but the same spelling.this lead me to believe, maybe because most european languages have a latin root, once master one, it is not quite challenging to learn another. that should also be a reason why eourpean people are eager to learn foreign language
1 person likes this
@arkaf61 (10881)
• Canada
24 Feb 07
YOu are indeed very lucky, I mean chinese seems to be so difficult. Of course learning if because you live there might make it a bit easier, but still :)
You are completely right, languages like italian, french, portuguese, spanish and many others in europe come from latin and have many words that are either the same or very similar, It makes it easy to learn them and that's a fact.
However there are many other languages in europe that don't have that same root. I feel that european are more open to learn languages because there are many different countries in that continent and traveling gets them in touch with many of them, which in turn gives them the curiosity to learn.
@buenavida (9984)
• Sweden
24 Feb 07
It is a great advantage to be able to speak more than one language. My first language is Finnish, then Swedish after we moved to Sweden and when I was 11, we started to learn English at school.
We also learnt German, Spanish and a little French at school.
I am really greatful that I had the opportunity to study languages at a young age and even later in life.
It would be great to cnontinue learning as much as possibe.
@sachinsm5 (41)
• India
9 Feb 07
well its not important but if u have passion to learn languages then u can learn a lot of languages...........
1 person likes this
