Je wil gewoon Nederlands horen hè? Terecht. Stiekem overtreft het Nederlands het Engels in subtiele dingen. Sarcasme, ironie en een vrijere zinsopbouw maken het Nederlands superieur.
Jammer dat maar drie mensen dit kunnen lezen...
Nils
· 2 years ago
Hoera! Nederlands staat bovenaan. Dank je wel!
Cuppojoe
· 2 years ago
I may be called a native English speaker, but I really speak Canadian, eh?
Nils
· 2 years ago
You mean that post title you so generously suggested is Canadian, not English?!
Andrew Eglinton
· 2 years ago
Hi Nils,
Thanks for leaving a comment on Desperate Curiosity, for some reason though, it got deleted a day later...mmm violence and databases as a friend of mine would say.
Language day. Having learnt French at an early age and then Japanese following my wife to Japan, I've begun to get a better idea of the impact of the English language in this era of globalisation. You are right of course that it is not just the language that spreads but also culture, both go hand in hand. It may well be that in the future we see Mandarin become the lingua franca, but for that to happen, Chinese culture needs to be readily exportable and consumable, which at the moment I don't think it is.
In the case of France it's interesting to see how defiant the government has been in warding off any influence of the English language, approaching it as quasi 'colonisation', with acute resentment shown towards the US. This comes and goes with the waves of nationalism that spread through the country. Japan on the other was colonised/occupied by the US and to a degree she embraced north American culture. It reminds me of a type of relationship I had in high school. A 'friend' kept pestering me day in and day out, but it wasn't until I slapped him in the face that we became real friends...
Nils
· 2 years ago
Thanks, Andrew, for getting back to me. Pity about the comment, if you like I could retype it, but the message has been conveyed I think, so maybe not.
Good of you to mention Mandarin and the fact that it is far from being a globally expanding language yet. There may even be a big surprise in store for all these people who have begun 'learning Chinese' these days, when they discover that the 1% (?) of Chinese who who are actually active in international business have all learnt English.
In any case, thanks for commenting and sharing your insights and that wonderful little story.
Azhar
· 2 years ago
Mai mera desh ka bhasha : Hindi, ko pasand nahin hai kyonki pathshala me bahut kathin hai. Isliye mai english pasand hai.
Translated from Hindi :
I don't like my country's language : Hindi, because it is very hard in school. Therefore I like English.
:D
Josh
· 2 years ago
While I'm glad I found out about this, I'm a bit bummed that I didn't know of it in advance. I can think of a decent post for such a day, one which I'll probably write anyway, even though I've missed "the day".
I think such a holiday is a wonderful idea. You're right, in that while it's convenient to have a "global language", it's also extremely important to preserve (and even encourage the growth of) other languages. I think anyone who has studied foreign languages realizes that exact word to word translations just don't exist. When something is translated from its original language, something is invariably lost. I think one of the simplest ways to put it, is that every language has a soul of sorts. It reflects the culture and mindset of the people who use it. Translations take a bit of that soul away.
I don't know how English will look in 75 years. I hope, however, that you're wrong about IM-speak taking over. I've come to loathe "c u later" and other such things. While I suppose IM-speak is just a natural language progression, sped up by the internet, that doesn't mean I have to like it. :) Same goes for Ebonics.
Mrs Lifecruiser
· 2 years ago
I'm sorry I missed that day. In Sweden we actually better watch out about all our own Swedish culture, since we have adopted so many other cultures habits, not only the language. It even went so far a while that we couldn't raise the Swedish flag at all without being considered as racists...
I hold nothing against other cultures - in fact I love to travel there and explore them - but I love to have different cultures, for them as well as for us. That's what's interesting. How boring it would be if we all have merged to something common.... Nothing more to explore!
All Comments
Jammer dat maar drie mensen dit kunnen lezen...
Thanks for leaving a comment on Desperate Curiosity, for some reason though, it got deleted a day later...mmm violence and databases as a friend of mine would say.
Language day. Having learnt French at an early age and then Japanese following my wife to Japan, I've begun to get a better idea of the impact of the English language in this era of globalisation. You are right of course that it is not just the language that spreads but also culture, both go hand in hand. It may well be that in the future we see Mandarin become the lingua franca, but for that to happen, Chinese culture needs to be readily exportable and consumable, which at the moment I don't think it is.
In the case of France it's interesting to see how defiant the government has been in warding off any influence of the English language, approaching it as quasi 'colonisation', with acute resentment shown towards the US. This comes and goes with the waves of nationalism that spread through the country. Japan on the other was colonised/occupied by the US and to a degree she embraced north American culture. It reminds me of a type of relationship I had in high school. A 'friend' kept pestering me day in and day out, but it wasn't until I slapped him in the face that we became real friends...
Good of you to mention Mandarin and the fact that it is far from being a globally expanding language yet. There may even be a big surprise in store for all these people who have begun 'learning Chinese' these days, when they discover that the 1% (?) of Chinese who who are actually active in international business have all learnt English.
In any case, thanks for commenting and sharing your insights and that wonderful little story.
Translated from Hindi :
I don't like my country's language : Hindi, because it is very hard in school. Therefore I like English.
:D
I think such a holiday is a wonderful idea. You're right, in that while it's convenient to have a "global language", it's also extremely important to preserve (and even encourage the growth of) other languages. I think anyone who has studied foreign languages realizes that exact word to word translations just don't exist. When something is translated from its original language, something is invariably lost. I think one of the simplest ways to put it, is that every language has a soul of sorts. It reflects the culture and mindset of the people who use it. Translations take a bit of that soul away.
I don't know how English will look in 75 years. I hope, however, that you're wrong about IM-speak taking over. I've come to loathe "c u later" and other such things. While I suppose IM-speak is just a natural language progression, sped up by the internet, that doesn't mean I have to like it. :) Same goes for Ebonics.
I hold nothing against other cultures - in fact I love to travel there and explore them - but I love to have different cultures, for them as well as for us. That's what's interesting. How boring it would be if we all have merged to something common.... Nothing more to explore!