Originally posted by FAEbGBD:
Chas,
Interested in your thoughts here. Are wee too arrogant or too dumb? After all, those are the only 2 possibilities you offered up. So which is it?
If we're too dumb, is that why people world wide have found it necessary to learn English? "let's learn English so we can deal with the dumb English speakers of the world." Obviously there was a lot to gain by dealing with the dumb Americans, otherwise some other language spoken by smart people would have become the dominant language of the world.
So far, I've heard that learning another language is good for impressing the locals, ordering at restaurants, and buying beer. Learning English is good for most business, education opportunities, and most popular entertainment. Have I missed something? Guess I'm among the arrogant. Even though I did briefly study 2 languages, and have since never found a real need for either of them.
Sure, I'm impressed that many of the internationals speak English, and some of them speak it very well. But I don't feel dumb or arrogant for not speaking another language. Guess I was a bit miffed with the slightly condescending attitude of the original post. I would like to see us coming back closer to the front in areas of math and science. American students are falling behind in a lot of areas lately, and the use of a foreign language in my opinion should not be at the top of the priority list.
Interesting post and I don't think that any person is too dumb too learn, though particuarly on this BBS I think any of us musicians are able to learn a foreign language since good ears help a lot with learning a foreign language
Personally I did learn french, german and english at highschool but also learned spanish (in fact I am writing from spain at the moment as I am on a holiday) and arabic by listening and trying.
My native language is obviously dutch.
Nice too see that most of you are still here by the way
Fred
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