languages

[Blind Guardian]

Yes it is.

*edit*Everyone in North America counts as English speaking on that list but that aint the case in reality,many speak Spanish.

 

[waif]

Fail.

English as a first language is the second most spoken language in the world. More people are fluent in English than in any other language.

 

[Blind Guardian]

How do you know that more people are fluent in English than in Mandarin?

 

[Vitor]

i speak portuguese and try to speak english.

 

[rms]

No it isn´t,in fact even Spanish is more spoken than English.

According to the google link, you are wrong

 

[Zephyrus]

They all learn it in school. In 20 years almost everyone in china will be fluent.

If China takes over the world they won't need to speak English.

 

[waif]

How do you know that more people are fluent in English than in Mandarin?

Because English is taught in schools all over the world, while Mandarin is mostly just taught in China. And because Chinese schools have mandatory English classes. And all those people you claim speak Spanish? Guess what else they speak.

 

[Blind Guardian]

What´s "fluent" anyway? I might seem fluent in English but you should hear me speak it,sounds like shit.

 

[Zephyrus]

The word fluent comes from the root word for "to flow", so being fluent in a language means it "flows" naturally as you speak it.

 

[CAIRATH]

Like hell do most Chinese people speak English. A good portion of the country is too poor to even get remotely decent schooling and even the rich fuckers barely speak a word. When I was studying computer science we had a whole class of Chinese foreign students there. All kids from parents rich enough to send their kids abroad to get a fancy 'European education'* and out of that class of 30 or so people there were maybe 3 that could actually communicate in English decently, maybe at most another 5 or so that could atleast read/write English decently (but you couldn't understand a fucking word they were saying) and the rest was entirely clueless and impossible to communicate with either verbally or in text. Needless to say the vast majority of them never made it very far. What a fucking waste of time that was.

* Something that is seen as a status symbol in China for some reason, despite the fact that Bachelor level education in countries like the Netherlands is at a pretty mediocre level, certainly not enough to bother coming all the way there for.

 

[cookiecutter]

Not too be an idiot, but it is kinda confusing about the middle class...

"I thought I was reasonably well off, but it turns out that my house isn't very nice and my bank account is smaller than it was yesterday. Curse those economists!"

GDP is calculated based on the amount of money the country makes combined with purchasing power parity. Purchasing power is how much you can buy. For example in the UK I think salaries have just recently or are about to go above the US in face value due to the recent drop in the dollar. However things are really expensive in the UK so having that extra money is not as good as being able to buy cheap things in the US. China's GDP dropped because the economists were overcompensating for the cheapness of Chinese products, not that the Chinese have less money now.

 

[Blind Guardian]

As usual we´re slowly drifting from the initual purpose of the thread.

 

[waif]

What´s "fluent" anyway? I might seem fluent in English but you should hear me speak it,sounds like shit.

I wouldn't worry about seeming fluent.

GDP is calculated based on the amount of money the country makes combined with purchasing power parity. Purchasing power is how much you can buy. For example in the UK I think salaries have just recently or are about to go above the US in face value due to the recent drop in the dollar. However things are really expensive in the UK so having that extra money is not as good as being able to buy cheap things in the US. China's GDP dropped because the economists were overcompensating for the cheapness of Chinese products, not that the Chinese have less money now.

Yeah, no, I get the basic idea. But it's weird that now there's no chinese middle class or whatever. Economics is confusing (0 rly). But I'm taking a class in it next year.

As usual we´re slowly drifting from the initual purpose of the thread.

Of course we are. So what?

 

[Vimana]

English, Spanish. Except I don't know slang in Spanish so I sound really proper when I speak it.

Articles are annoying, but doesn't every language suck in this regard.

Only Indo-European languages have articles. And even not all Indo-European languages have them.

I took a Japanese class before. I still remember some stuff such as: country name in Japanese + Jin (person) = person of that country. And that watashi wa means I, me and my and anata wa means you, your, and you're (I think). And I remember how to count. I also know stuff from watching anime in Japanese with subtitles. Such as tsuki = moon, kitsune = fox, baaka = idiot. And I think da put after a word makes it plural. I heard Japanese is easy except for the speaking and understanding part, due to their words being so long they talk faster, and I think you have to put a suffix on a number if you're counting something, and everything has a different one.

i speak portuguese and try to speak english.

And fail.

 

[waif]

Damnit, stay off topic!

 

[Blind Guardian]

I wouldn't worry about seeming fluent.

I am fluent when it comes to writing.

 

[waif]

At least, you think you are.


Just kidding, you can make yourself understood most of the time.

 

[Blind Guardian]

Is kan making i understandz al teh tymz.

 

[waif]

neh. u b3z n0t m4k1ng und3rst4ndz 41w4Is.

 

[Vimana]

1337 !5 l=0l2 94¥2