Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 7:55 pm Post subject: Which foreign language do you hear/use most?
Which foreign language do you find yourself using or hearing most in your everyday work environment? Which foreign language seems to have the most practical use in your country?
In my case, English and Spanish are used everywhere. At one of my jobs, (a grocery store), English is used predominantly, but Spanish is used among certain mono-lingual Spanish speakers, and a few of our customers. Farsi is used by three employees who are all of Iranian-extraction. One man from Iran is also fluent in French, although his English is very poor, and so I converse with him in very broken French, and I teach him English and Spanish words, correct his grammar, etc, and he shares his knowledge of French with me. So it's a mutually enriching relationship.
At my other job (an investment firm), English is basically the only language used. We have a few Spanish speaking clients, but only a handful compared to hundreds of English speaking clients. Our company is only active in English speaking countries like the U.S., the U.K. and Canada. So when dealing with others in the company by e-mail or telephone, I rarely encounter someone who is not a native speaker of English. The only other significant language within our company is French, because of our prescence in Quebec, and every once in a while, I will speak to French speakers on the phone or via e-mail, but nearly all of them speak fluent English.
This seems to be pretty standard. As an American, by far the three most important and practical languages are English, Spanish, and French, and in that order. Any other langauges, like German, Dutch, Nordic languages, Italian, Portuguese, etc, are of minimal importance compared to the far more practical languages of English, Spanish, and French, for those of us in North America.
Location: San Francisco, Noord-Kalifornië, Noord-Amerika
Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 8:14 pm Post subject:
Also being a Californian, not to mention living a couple of blocks from the biggest Latino neighborhood in San Francisco, I hear Spanish all the time. I don't have occastion to use any foreign language in my work, though, except for a couple of occasions when I've typed a document that has some foreign names (Spanish, French, German) and I've been able to point out errors in spelling or missing diacritical marks. But this has happened probably only 3 times in the 7+ years I've worked at this law firm.
The other languages I hear most frequently on the street are Chinese (various dialects, I suppose) and, to a lesser degree, Vietnamese and Tagalog.
Occasionally someone at work will broadcast a request for help translating a letter or document, usually Chinese or Japanese.
Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 8:25 pm Post subject: Re: Which foreign language do you hear/use most?
Porthos wrote:
Which foreign language do you find yourself using or hearing most in your everyday work environment?
I hear Indic languages (e.g. Urdu, Panjabi, Gujarati, Hindi etc.), Chinese and Polish on virtually a daily basis. I don't speak any of those languages though.
At work I use no other language than Swedish, basically. In the last 15 months I've had to speak English twice and both occasions were very brief. I've also spoken briefly to a couple of Danes in said period of time.
The foreign language I hear the most is Arabic. I reckon that Arabic would be of much practical use if you're a cop or a social worker or somebody that meets a lot of different people. Btw, I read that they teach Spanish at the police academy in LA. I suppose that a lot of companies use English frequently when dealing with customers and associates around the globe. Which foreign language(s) you hear/use the most depends on what your job is.
you even can't imagin how many english-speaking people live here for business purposes, but they even don't have any intention to learn Russian, saying, it's so difficult... blablabla Most of them even have never begun to learn it, personally I don't like such attitude. _________________
Which foreign language do you find yourself using or hearing most in your everyday work environment? Which foreign language seems to have the most practical use in your country?
Good question.
In my city, we have a very big Spanish minority (it's generally from rich Spanish families which come to live in Hendaye, because the housing price in Spain is more expensive), in nursery schools (écoles maternelles) the number of Spanish-speakers is in constant increase since approximately the 80's. The parents are generally Spanish-speakers and basque-speakers, few are good french-speakers.
A very strange situation, the Spanish children that live in Hendaye don't go to study in Spain, why?
I think that it is due to the French school system, schools are compulsory from 2 or 3 years, while in Spain the school is compulsory from 6 years, therefore, for parents, generally, their work don't allow them to educate their kids, also, the school is the good way... until the Lycée (Secondary school), most of the Spanish children study in France, so they have an excellent level in French, Spanish, often Basque, as well as in English and German (2 living languages are compulsory to choose from the French School).
However, the Spanish teens of France stays in bands, keep the Spanish culture which they are most close (the music, teams of football, TV stars), and thus speak Spanish.
For the non-bascophone or some bascophone Spanish, Spain is a source of admiration, it's common to hear " Viva España! " in buses.
While for the Spanish Basque and the French Basque it's the Basque Country and basque culture which is defended, at the final that obviously cause a intercommunal tensions.
Finally there are the French children immigrants resulting from the other French regions (generally Gascon, from Bearn, and Parisian) and of immigrants of Portuguese, Algerian, or Africans origin who they get loose from their cultures and from their languages little by little.
The San Sebastian-Bayonne area's inhabitants (called the "basque Eurocity") are polyglotts, many of them are trilingual, quadrilingual or multilingual...
So, in Hendaye which is the heart of the "Eurocity", French is the first most important language (official of the administration etc..) with Basque(historically and culturally), Spanish (big minority), and other languages resulting from immigrations, and the summer tourists (there are many holiday and vacation homes).
Location: San Francisco, Noord-Kalifornië, Noord-Amerika
Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 10:04 pm Post subject:
Wanderin wrote:
English, it's so boring
you even can't imagin how many english-speaking people live here for business purposes, but they even don't have any intention to learn Russian, saying, it's so difficult... blablabla Most of them even have never begun to learn it, personally I don't like such attitude.
Location: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula
Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 8:49 pm Post subject:
At work, the most spoken foreign language is probably Tagalog. Apparently, jobs in finance and accounting are very attractive to Filipinos (apart from nursing! ). Other languages I hear around here are Farsi, Chinese, Armenian, and Spanish. Immediately outside of work (Little Tokyo), I frequently hear Spanish, Japanese, and Korean (at least I think it's Korean). When I'm riding on public transport, forget about English, all I ever hear is Spanish and Armenian.
With a large influx of Hispanic workers after Hurricane Katrina to my area, and my grandmother and father being Mexican, I hear quite a bit of Spanish daily. Unfortunately I am nowhere near fluent(yet!)
With a large influx of Hispanic workers after Hurricane Katrina to my area, and my grandmother and father being Mexican, I hear quite a bit of Spanish daily. Unfortunately I am nowhere near fluent(yet!)
Your father didn't speak Spanish at home?
David wrote:
Cajun French and Vietnamese are also common in my area, although Cajun is unfortunately dying very quickly.
What about the preservation of Cajun French? I read about the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana on Wikipedia. Are their efforts futile?
With a large influx of Hispanic workers after Hurricane Katrina to my area, and my grandmother and father being Mexican, I hear quite a bit of Spanish daily. Unfortunately I am nowhere near fluent(yet!)
Y
Quote:
our father didn't speak Spanish at home?
No...for some reason he didn't learn it until high school...odd, because my grandmother is Spanish Mexican, and my grandfather is Italo-Argentinean (whatever you call it). He said he did learn some from listening to them argue in Spanish.
David wrote:
Cajun French and Vietnamese are also common in my area, although Cajun is unfortunately dying very quickly.
What about the preservation of Cajun French? I read about the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana on Wikipedia. Are their efforts futile?
I think that is actually a very recent idea. It'll probably take a long time, I think, to have any big affect. I do not actually live in 'Cajun Country', so I really don't know if they're teaching kids in Cajun etc., over there. I do know some Cajuns, though.
My paternal great-grandfather was Cajun and Cherokee Indian. I believe he spoke a Cajun-influenced dialect of English, but not French. _________________ Operation Northwoods - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods
Favorite languages = English/Spanish
Followed by Italian/French/Dutch
I believe he was born in Louisiana, but migrated to Arkansas by the time my grandmother was born. He married a Scots-Irish Arkansas woman, who spoke an Appalachian-English dialect. _________________ Operation Northwoods - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods
Favorite languages = English/Spanish
Followed by Italian/French/Dutch
Well, living here in London, I hear various languages.
The Chinese languages, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, the Indic languages (Urdu, Farsi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Hindi), Arabic, Greek, Turkish, Spanish (many variants), Portuguese (mostly Brazilian variant), Italian, French, German, Polish, Yoruba, Somali, etc.
In North London where I live, I frequently hear Turkish, Greek, Polish, and some Hebrew. But in South London where I work, I hear Spanish (mostly Latin American variants, especially Colombian), Portuguese (Brazilian), Arabic, Yoruba, Ga, Twi, Somali and Polish. And in Central London where the nightlife spots are frequented by me and my friends, I hear EVERYTHING!!
I even "see" Polish Sign Language and American Sign Language.
According to the 2001 census, there are over 300 immigrant languages spoken in London alone. It's not uncommon for some schools in London to have over 100 languages spoken by children (first language).
When I lived in Inverness, a town in the far north of Scotland, which is one of the most sparsely populated regions in Western Europe, we used to hear just Gaelic (apart from English) but due to the increase in immigration, Inverness started to get Arabic, Kurdish, Polish (Inverness now has their own (Scottish) newspapers published in Polish), Lithuanian, Estonian, Latvian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Russian and Romanian. _________________ Zoriona tximelata bat bezalakoa da: bilatzen baduzu, hegaldatuko besterik ez da, baina gelditzen bazara, dator eta zure sorbaldan jartzen da.
Last edited by Daniel on Fri Jun 29, 2007 12:24 am; edited 1 time in total
Well, living here in London, I hear various languages.
The Chinese languages, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, the Indic languages (Urdu, Farsi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Hindi), Arabic, Greek, Turkish, Spanish (many variants), Portuguese (mostly Brazilian variant), Italian, French, German, Polish, Yoruba, Somali, etc.
In North London where I live, I frequently hear Turkish, Greek, Polish, and some Hebrew. But in South London where I work, I hear Spanish (mostly Latin American variants, especially Colombian), Portuguese (Brazilian), Arabic, Yoruba, Ga, Twi, Somali and Polish. And in Central London where the nightlife spots are frequented by me and my friends, I hear EVERYTHING!!
I even "see" Polish Sign Language and American Sign Language.
According to the 2001 census, there are over 300 immigrant languages spoken in London alone. It's not uncommon for some schools in London to have over 100 languages spoken by children (first language).
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). Other languages I hear around here are Farsi, Chinese, Armenian, and Spanish. Immediately outside of work (Little Tokyo), I frequently hear Spanish, Japanese, and Korean (at least I think it's Korean). When I'm riding on public transport, forget about English, all I ever hear is Spanish and Armenian.
