So, why hasn't a small handheld machine been invented yet that has common words in a thousand languages? I don't mean a simultaneous translation machine, but one that can say "Where is the toilet" in French, Korean, Chinese and Russian? And other boilerplate expressions?
A global language machine
- Thread starter dumpthemonarchy
- Start date
It has all the words you want in it and then it makes a sentence you can pronounce in English to buy a pizza, ask directions, or ask for a red pen in a store. People travel all the time, and cannot learn all the languages of the world. it would be a blackberry type machine.
Hey Andem, they don't exist on the market. Repeat, this machine is not a translation machine on the fly.
Hey Andem, they don't exist on the market. Repeat, this machine is not a translation machine on the fly.
We'll never have a perfect translation machine beyond technical translation and fixed common expressions. language changes all the time. People play with laguage for humour. Different dialects, words with different meanings, sarcasm, code switching, etc. etc. etc.
If we ever wanted a machine in the future which could translate ANYTHING we'd say, at any level of complexity, we'd have to learn a standardised variety ourselves. For instance, when we type in the phrase, we'd also need to inform the computer of wht dialect of english we are using, are we being sarcastic or serious, do we intend the formal or slang sense of the word, in what dialect of the target language do want it to be translated. Should id be translated to humorous, for formal, sarcastic, or other effect....
By the time we would have entered all the information into the machine, the guy would have walked away form boredom from waiting anyway.
So sure, a translaton machine can work for technical translations and set phrases, but for anything else, forget it. And even for technical translation, they're not perfect, even if your own grammar is. And if your grammar stinks, then the machine will really mash up the language.
If we ever wanted a machine in the future which could translate ANYTHING we'd say, at any level of complexity, we'd have to learn a standardised variety ourselves. For instance, when we type in the phrase, we'd also need to inform the computer of wht dialect of english we are using, are we being sarcastic or serious, do we intend the formal or slang sense of the word, in what dialect of the target language do want it to be translated. Should id be translated to humorous, for formal, sarcastic, or other effect....
By the time we would have entered all the information into the machine, the guy would have walked away form boredom from waiting anyway.
So sure, a translaton machine can work for technical translations and set phrases, but for anything else, forget it. And even for technical translation, they're not perfect, even if your own grammar is. And if your grammar stinks, then the machine will really mash up the language.
RE: A global language mac
Yup, couldn't have said it better myself, Machjo.
I could see a machine like this done in the not so distant future, like, when we have something approaching human-level AI, but not now. It's not possible right now.
Yup, couldn't have said it better myself, Machjo.
I could see a machine like this done in the not so distant future, like, when we have something approaching human-level AI, but not now. It's not possible right now.
Re: RE: A global language machine
True! Not even the human mind is a perfect language translation machine. Just witness the amount of comprehension difficulties that people experience when speaking the same language. Language is not even close to being the perfect medium for communication. When you're trying to cross language barriers implemented through differing languages, the task becomes even more difficult.
Aleister Crowley wrote much on the limitations of language for communication. We're just going to have to face the reality: In terms of effective communication, language leaves much to be desired.
Machjo said:
True! Not even the human mind is a perfect language translation machine. Just witness the amount of comprehension difficulties that people experience when speaking the same language. Language is not even close to being the perfect medium for communication. When you're trying to cross language barriers implemented through differing languages, the task becomes even more difficult.
Aleister Crowley wrote much on the limitations of language for communication. We're just going to have to face the reality: In terms of effective communication, language leaves much to be desired.
Dear geniuses: The machines spits out stock phrases in excellent Chinese, French, German, Korean etc. The conversation is very brief, a sentence or two, just like in Canada when you talk to a clerk, it is not long and drawn out, filled with subtle nuances. You go into a business to exchange simple bits of infornation to buy or find out what you want.
You can all still point and make actions like a chicken if you want.
You can all still point and make actions like a chicken if you want.
At the site
http://livesciencestore.com/56721.html
All for $30
There is a nutrition gadget at this URL that tells you about the nutrition content of food. Gee, why can't languages be substituted here? And squeak out words, like say, a radio. The tech exists, no one has had the idea yet. Who here speak Chinese, German? Zero I bet.
http://livesciencestore.com/56721.html
All for $30
There is a nutrition gadget at this URL that tells you about the nutrition content of food. Gee, why can't languages be substituted here? And squeak out words, like say, a radio. The tech exists, no one has had the idea yet. Who here speak Chinese, German? Zero I bet.
Most people in the world will never learn English. Why? Because most people don't need it to make a living. All the hype of people needing to know English or else is cultural arrogance and ignorance very accurately reflected in your comment Blackleaf. Such a little Englander.
There are so many handheld devices, another one like this would come in very handy across Asia where people want to do business.
Consumers are 70% of the economy, a device like this for under $100 would sell like hotcakes. I am in Seoul, Korea, and I would buy one in a minute because it would be very useful.
Humour, dialects and idiom could be used with this machine, and it could be useful to learn languages too.
There are so many handheld devices, another one like this would come in very handy across Asia where people want to do business.
Consumers are 70% of the economy, a device like this for under $100 would sell like hotcakes. I am in Seoul, Korea, and I would buy one in a minute because it would be very useful.
Humour, dialects and idiom could be used with this machine, and it could be useful to learn languages too.
Umm, I have a program on my pocket PC which will translate many common phrases, you just find the phrase and pick the language you want it to speak in.
my pocket PC does have basic speech recognition capabilities as well, so the ability to speak and have the PPC translate is there (although I haven't checked to see if this is a feature) the point is it could be.
NEXT:
If english isn't important why are companies all over the world hiring english teachers for there employees????
with a degree any first language english speaker can get a job teaching english in almost any asian country. India has english as a required subject in school. As does the better african schools.
my pocket PC does have basic speech recognition capabilities as well, so the ability to speak and have the PPC translate is there (although I haven't checked to see if this is a feature) the point is it could be.
NEXT:
If english isn't important why are companies all over the world hiring english teachers for there employees????
with a degree any first language english speaker can get a job teaching english in almost any asian country. India has english as a required subject in school. As does the better african schools.
Re: RE: A global language machine
Oh. Now if you're talking about translating common stock phrases, that'a old technology. Computers could do that since long ago already. That's too easy. You program the computer to recognise the stock phrase you type, and present the Chinese equivalent from memory. It needs not conjugate, replace words or anything. It's just a pre-programmed set phrase with its equivalent fully programmed into the computers memory. It's efectively just working form memory, nothing complicated there. Just don't try to translate poetry wich such a program.
Problem is though, if that's as far as we can communicate, but can't joke, express feelings, etc., then at that stage the person behind the counter acts as little more than a machine likewise.
dumpthemonarchy said:
Oh. Now if you're talking about translating common stock phrases, that'a old technology. Computers could do that since long ago already. That's too easy. You program the computer to recognise the stock phrase you type, and present the Chinese equivalent from memory. It needs not conjugate, replace words or anything. It's just a pre-programmed set phrase with its equivalent fully programmed into the computers memory. It's efectively just working form memory, nothing complicated there. Just don't try to translate poetry wich such a program.
Problem is though, if that's as far as we can communicate, but can't joke, express feelings, etc., then at that stage the person behind the counter acts as little more than a machine likewise.
Blackleaf said:
Have you ever taught the language? It's a bloody mess!
Examples:
'I just lost my keys' is grammatically correct in US English, but not Canadian, in which it would have to be rendered 'I've just lost my keys'. 'color' is wrong in Canada, just as 'colour' is wrong in the US. 'Pants' and 'elevator' have different meanings. English nouns can be countable, uncountable, or both. Some nouns can stand as collectives, which thus allows one to chose whether to conjugate them in either the singular or plural. 'Fit' is a perfectly acceptable past participle in the US, yet incorrect in Canada, whereby it must be rendered 'fitted'. Little is spelt as it's pronounced, and even then one needs to beware of exceptions. In some varieties of English, 'bit' and 'beet' sound alike. In Australia, 'today' and to die' sound alike. 'Lieutenant', 'vase' and other words are likewise pronounced differently enough in various Englishes so as to not allow a non-native speaker to get it without first seeing it in writing or having it spelt to him. Need I go on? English is a monstrosity when it comes to foreing languages. It's among the worst options out there next to only Chinese and Arabic! Oh, and I forgot the prepositions! 'Put in', 'put out', 'put on', etc. A person is 'on' TV yet he's nowhere near the TV set. Oh, and illogical expressions. The straw broke the camel's back, yet I see no camel. All roads lead to Rome? Who cares if you're in Beijing? I think I made my point clear.
So now, Blackleaf, give me some logical reasons as to why we ought to promote English for global communication?
"Most people in the world will never learn English. Why? Because most people don't need it to make a living. All the hype of people needing to know English or else is cultural arrogance and ignorance very accurately reflected in your comment Blackleaf. Such a little Englander."
I wouldn't fully agree. Those who do succeed in learning a foreing language, at least here in China, definitely fare better than their unilingual counterparts, and this creates a new class of haves and have-nots. unfortunately, however, English is just too difficult for the average teacher, never mins dtudent, to learn.
There are so many handheld devices, another one like this would come in very handy across Asia where people want to do business.
The importance of the business side of language is far too over-estimated. Many Chinese, while running around learning English, are unaware that in a few Autonomous regions, language tansionsare really brewing. Just visit Urumqi; it'll be a flashback to Montreal.
Consumers are 70% of the economy, a device like this for under $100 would sell like hotcakes. I am in Seoul, Korea, and I would buy one in a minute because it would be very useful.
For strict impersonal comercial transactions, I agree, simple technical translation of set phrases suffices if you care not for any friendly relations. An ability to communicate at a higher and more sublte level is still necessary to build deeper friendships of course.
Humour, dialects and idiom could be used with this machine, and it could be useful to learn languages too.
Idioms could be pre-programmed as stock phrases, one by one. Dialect could be programmed too, but then you'd need to clarify the dialct to choose, or the machine would need to give all possible meanings, either way being a little time consuming. As for humour, only if it can be expressed in a technical manner. If it involves puns, the joke ain't funny anymore once you have to explain the technicalities of the fact that a particular word in the English language happens to have a double meaning. The delayed laugh, anyone?
I wouldn't fully agree. Those who do succeed in learning a foreing language, at least here in China, definitely fare better than their unilingual counterparts, and this creates a new class of haves and have-nots. unfortunately, however, English is just too difficult for the average teacher, never mins dtudent, to learn.
There are so many handheld devices, another one like this would come in very handy across Asia where people want to do business.
The importance of the business side of language is far too over-estimated. Many Chinese, while running around learning English, are unaware that in a few Autonomous regions, language tansionsare really brewing. Just visit Urumqi; it'll be a flashback to Montreal.
Consumers are 70% of the economy, a device like this for under $100 would sell like hotcakes. I am in Seoul, Korea, and I would buy one in a minute because it would be very useful.
For strict impersonal comercial transactions, I agree, simple technical translation of set phrases suffices if you care not for any friendly relations. An ability to communicate at a higher and more sublte level is still necessary to build deeper friendships of course.
Humour, dialects and idiom could be used with this machine, and it could be useful to learn languages too.
Idioms could be pre-programmed as stock phrases, one by one. Dialect could be programmed too, but then you'd need to clarify the dialct to choose, or the machine would need to give all possible meanings, either way being a little time consuming. As for humour, only if it can be expressed in a technical manner. If it involves puns, the joke ain't funny anymore once you have to explain the technicalities of the fact that a particular word in the English language happens to have a double meaning. The delayed laugh, anyone?
Re: RE: A global language machine
Umm, I have a program on my pocket PC which will translate many common phrases, you just find the phrase and pick the language you want it to speak in.
And just how far will common phrases get you? I've sen computer translations between English, French and Chinese, and I'll tell they really get magled. While they might help the human translator to do his job more quickly, they are not reliable on their own. A human translator or interpretor, or at least proofreader, is absolutely essential to ensure the automated translation is correct.
NEXT:
If english isn't important why are companies all over the world hiring english teachers for there employees????
And yet another question. If employees had been learning English from primary school right through university, how is it that they still can't speak it? Same here in China! If that's not an indication that English is just too difficult for the average person, I don'tknow what is.
with a degree any first language english speaker can get a job teaching english in almost any asian country.
That's because of a desperate shortage of English teachers. They are starting to wake uphowever. In Nanjing, a Chinese-Polich interpreter rakes in 5X teh salary of his Chinese-English counterpart. French, Arabic, Spanish and practically every other language is now outperforming English in China salary-wise due to the desperate shortage. English has effectively flooded the market, with most of the population already having mastered set phrases. Just don't expect to discuss anythign high-level.
India has english as a required subject in school. As does the better african schools.
Yes, and I've met some of their students. And some of them can't speak English well either. But hey, maybe the problem is that they don't start to learn early enough? They're already starting in kindergarten in China, and some scholars are now worried about falling levels of Chinese in high schools. My God, if we must sacrifice the quality of the mother tongue to learn such a difficult language for most people, is it really worth it?
Umm, I have a program on my pocket PC which will translate many common phrases, you just find the phrase and pick the language you want it to speak in.
And just how far will common phrases get you? I've sen computer translations between English, French and Chinese, and I'll tell they really get magled. While they might help the human translator to do his job more quickly, they are not reliable on their own. A human translator or interpretor, or at least proofreader, is absolutely essential to ensure the automated translation is correct.
NEXT:
If english isn't important why are companies all over the world hiring english teachers for there employees????
And yet another question. If employees had been learning English from primary school right through university, how is it that they still can't speak it? Same here in China! If that's not an indication that English is just too difficult for the average person, I don'tknow what is.
with a degree any first language english speaker can get a job teaching english in almost any asian country.
That's because of a desperate shortage of English teachers. They are starting to wake uphowever. In Nanjing, a Chinese-Polich interpreter rakes in 5X teh salary of his Chinese-English counterpart. French, Arabic, Spanish and practically every other language is now outperforming English in China salary-wise due to the desperate shortage. English has effectively flooded the market, with most of the population already having mastered set phrases. Just don't expect to discuss anythign high-level.
India has english as a required subject in school. As does the better african schools.
Yes, and I've met some of their students. And some of them can't speak English well either. But hey, maybe the problem is that they don't start to learn early enough? They're already starting in kindergarten in China, and some scholars are now worried about falling levels of Chinese in high schools. My God, if we must sacrifice the quality of the mother tongue to learn such a difficult language for most people, is it really worth it?
Okay, Mochjo, one person.
The machine has a keyboard on it, you punch in the phrase in English you want, such as
"Cabbie, take me to Seoul city hall."
Then the machine squeaks out a phrase in good Korean the cabbie understands. Actually, in Seoul, all taxis can be instantly connected with an English speaker which you can talk to. But change Seoul to Osaka, Delhi, Moscow, Sao Poalo, Shanghai or Tashkent and you have problems.
Everyone is obsessed with a perfect translation. Such is the confusion, fear, and doubt English speakers feel when confronting another language. So much resistance to encountering other cultures.
Handbooks have stock phrases people mangle, and they communicate, and these books sell by the thousand, why not add new machines to the translation mix?
When I am out and about in Seoul I want to ask simple questions to Koreans and I can't. Books will not do it, I need a device that can do it for me. And if merchants realize they will make money off me, they will give me a few minutes to find out what I want so I can spend won in their store.
The machine has a keyboard on it, you punch in the phrase in English you want, such as
"Cabbie, take me to Seoul city hall."
Then the machine squeaks out a phrase in good Korean the cabbie understands. Actually, in Seoul, all taxis can be instantly connected with an English speaker which you can talk to. But change Seoul to Osaka, Delhi, Moscow, Sao Poalo, Shanghai or Tashkent and you have problems.
Everyone is obsessed with a perfect translation. Such is the confusion, fear, and doubt English speakers feel when confronting another language. So much resistance to encountering other cultures.
Handbooks have stock phrases people mangle, and they communicate, and these books sell by the thousand, why not add new machines to the translation mix?
When I am out and about in Seoul I want to ask simple questions to Koreans and I can't. Books will not do it, I need a device that can do it for me. And if merchants realize they will make money off me, they will give me a few minutes to find out what I want so I can spend won in their store.
Machjo said:
English is failry easy to learn for other European speakers due to the simpler grammar compared with German, Italian, French etc, but for Chinese and Japanese speakers it will be difficult because they also have to learn a new alphabet and the sounds of each letter.
But, even though, in terms of grammar, English is easier than other European languages it is the most difficult European language to learn to read (Finnish and Italian are the easiest) Rates of dyslexia are higher in Britain, the US and other English-speaking countries than it is in other European countries.
I also don't need to give logical reasons as to why we ought to promote English for global communication as English is ALREADY the world's lingua franca. It is the 2nd-most spoken language after Chinese and the world's most widespread language. The main language of worldwide business and politics in English. When international airline pilots talk to each other, most of them use English. English is THE international language of the world.
-------------------------------------------------------------
English is toughest European language to read
15:30 04 September 2001
From New Scientist Print Edition.
James Randerson
Despite being the world's lingua franca, English is the most difficult European language to learn to read. Children learning other languages master the basic elements of literacy within a year, but British kids take two-and-a-half years to reach the same point.
In the most extensive cross-national study ever, Philip Seymour of Dundee University and his team compared the reading abilities of children in 15 European countries. They found that those learning Romance languages such as Italian and French progressed faster than those learning a Germanic language such as German and English. "Children do seem to find English particularly complex and problematic though," says Seymour.
The team focused on the earliest phase of learning to read. They tested the children's ability to match letters to sounds, their capacity to recognise familiar written words, and their ability to work out new words from combinations of familiar syllables.
Seymour's findings might explain why more people are diagnosed as being dyslexic in English-speaking countries than elsewhere.
In languages where sounds simply match letters, some symptoms just would not show up, says Maggie Snowling, a dyslexia expert at the University of York. The condition would be more difficult to diagnose in children who speak these languages, though subtle symptoms such as impaired verbal short-term memory would remain. "People might be struggling, but no one would notice," she says.
Consonant clusters
The Germanic languages are tricky because many words contain clusters of consonants. The word "sprint", for example, is difficult because the letter p is sandwiched between two other consonants, making the p sound difficult to learn.
Another feature of English that makes it difficult is the complex relationship between letters and their sounds.
In Finnish, which Seymour found to be the easiest European language to learn to read, the relationship between a letter and its sound is fixed.
However, in English a letter's sound often depends on its context within the word. For example, the letter c can sound soft (as in receive) or hard (as in cat). Many words like "yacht" don't seem to follow any logic at all.
Historical accident
However, the things that make English difficult to read might have contributed to Britain's rich literary tradition. Words like "sign" and "bomb" are difficult because of their silent letters, but these hint at relationships with other words. The connection with words like "signature" and "bombard" is obvious.
Mark Pagel, an expert on language diversity at the University of Reading, acknowledges the irony that despite being the international lingua franca, English is the most difficult to learn. The dominance of English has more to do with historical accident than any innate superiority of the language, he says.
"People who speak English happen to have been the ones that were economically and politically dominant in recent history. Those forces greatly outweigh any small difficulties in language acquisition."
newscientist.com
Just like in the US they say "I have gotten", whereas in Britain we say "I have got."
The Americans can only say "spelled", whereas the British can either say "spelled" or "spelt".
I think British English is more difficult than North American English. The Americans and Canadians, especially the Americans, speak a more simplified form of English.
English is failry easy to learn for other European speakers due to the simpler grammar compared with German, Italian, French etc, but for Chinese and Japanese speakers it will be difficult because they also have to learn a new alphabet and the sounds of each letter.
Actually, it has nothing to do with the letters. The Chinese have already approapriated the Roman letters for Pinyin, so even if they stopped learning English, they would still need to learn Roman letters as an aid to learning their own native language. Most Chinese can already read Pinyin by the age of six. As for sounds, Chinese and English actually share a good handful of phonemese in common. The real difficulty is in all the exceptions to the rules. They're looking for reliable rules to follow, yet there often are none.
But, even though, in terms of grammar, English is easier than other European languages it is the most difficult European language to learn to read (Finnish and Italian are the easiest) Rates of dyslexia are higher in Britain, the US and other English-speaking countries than it is in other European countries.
It shouldn't surprise anyone. English spelling is worse than I've ever seen in Pinyin, Arabic or Persian. The only thing I've come across so far that is worse than English spelling if Chinese ideographs! I'm not joking either, and I can read English, French, and Esperanto and Pinyin fluently. I can recognise Arabic and Persian words and read basic ones. And can read some Chinese characters. So I think I know waht I'm talking about.
I also don't need to give logical reasons as to why we ought to promote English for global communication as English is ALREADY the world's lingua franca.
If that were true, my Chinese wouldn't be as good as it is now. I've been to busy to study it methodically, but because those who study it for 9 yeasrs straight still can't speak it, I've had no choice but to pick up the local lingo.
It is the 2nd-most spoken language after Chinese and the world's most widespread language.
That's open to interpretation. In one study in Europe, respondents were expected to fillin a form declaring all languages they spoke, and then take a test in their proclaimed second language. I can't remember the exact percentages, but the claims to bilingualism ranged in the mid 50%, yet test scores took it down ten percent! And that was only testing BASIC fluency, and in ANY foreing language (not necessarily English). So remember, claimed fluency is not the same as real fluency.
The main language of worldwide business and politics in English. When international airline pilots talk to each other, most of them use English.
And it's well recorded that some plane crashes were cuased by miscommunication. this is life and death.
English is THE international language of the world.
-------------------------------------------------------------
English is toughest European language to read
15:30 04 September 2001
From New Scientist Print Edition.
James Randerson
Despite being the world's lingua franca, English is the most difficult European language to learn to read. Children learning other languages master the basic elements of literacy within a year, but British kids take two-and-a-half years to reach the same point.
In the most extensive cross-national study ever, Philip Seymour of Dundee University and his team compared the reading abilities of children in 15 European countries. They found that those learning Romance languages such as Italian and French progressed faster than those learning a Germanic language such as German and English. "Children do seem to find English particularly complex and problematic though," says Seymour.
The team focused on the earliest phase of learning to read. They tested the children's ability to match letters to sounds, their capacity to recognise familiar written words, and their ability to work out new words from combinations of familiar syllables.
Seymour's findings might explain why more people are diagnosed as being dyslexic in English-speaking countries than elsewhere.
In languages where sounds simply match letters, some symptoms just would not show up, says Maggie Snowling, a dyslexia expert at the University of York. The condition would be more difficult to diagnose in children who speak these languages, though subtle symptoms such as impaired verbal short-term memory would remain. "People might be struggling, but no one would notice," she says.
Consonant clusters
The Germanic languages are tricky because many words contain clusters of consonants. The word "sprint", for example, is difficult because the letter p is sandwiched between two other consonants, making the p sound difficult to learn.
Another feature of English that makes it difficult is the complex relationship between letters and their sounds.
In Finnish, which Seymour found to be the easiest European language to learn to read, the relationship between a letter and its sound is fixed.
However, in English a letter's sound often depends on its context within the word. For example, the letter c can sound soft (as in receive) or hard (as in cat). Many words like "yacht" don't seem to follow any logic at all.
Historical accident
However, the things that make English difficult to read might have contributed to Britain's rich literary tradition. Words like "sign" and "bomb" are difficult because of their silent letters, but these hint at relationships with other words. The connection with words like "signature" and "bombard" is obvious.
Mark Pagel, an expert on language diversity at the University of Reading, acknowledges the irony that despite being the international lingua franca, English is the most difficult to learn. The dominance of English has more to do with historical accident than any innate superiority of the language, he says.
"People who speak English happen to have been the ones that were economically and politically dominant in recent history. Those forces greatly outweigh any small difficulties in language acquisition."
newscientist.com
Just like in the US they say "I have gotten", whereas in Britain we say "I have got."
The Americans can only say "spelled", whereas the British can either say "spelled" or "spelt".
I think British English is more difficult than North American English. The Americans and Canadians, especially the Americans, speak a more simplified form of English.
Actually, it has nothing to do with the letters. The Chinese have already approapriated the Roman letters for Pinyin, so even if they stopped learning English, they would still need to learn Roman letters as an aid to learning their own native language. Most Chinese can already read Pinyin by the age of six. As for sounds, Chinese and English actually share a good handful of phonemese in common. The real difficulty is in all the exceptions to the rules. They're looking for reliable rules to follow, yet there often are none.
But, even though, in terms of grammar, English is easier than other European languages it is the most difficult European language to learn to read (Finnish and Italian are the easiest) Rates of dyslexia are higher in Britain, the US and other English-speaking countries than it is in other European countries.
It shouldn't surprise anyone. English spelling is worse than I've ever seen in Pinyin, Arabic or Persian. The only thing I've come across so far that is worse than English spelling if Chinese ideographs! I'm not joking either, and I can read English, French, and Esperanto and Pinyin fluently. I can recognise Arabic and Persian words and read basic ones. And can read some Chinese characters. So I think I know waht I'm talking about.
I also don't need to give logical reasons as to why we ought to promote English for global communication as English is ALREADY the world's lingua franca.
If that were true, my Chinese wouldn't be as good as it is now. I've been to busy to study it methodically, but because those who study it for 9 yeasrs straight still can't speak it, I've had no choice but to pick up the local lingo.
It is the 2nd-most spoken language after Chinese and the world's most widespread language.
That's open to interpretation. In one study in Europe, respondents were expected to fillin a form declaring all languages they spoke, and then take a test in their proclaimed second language. I can't remember the exact percentages, but the claims to bilingualism ranged in the mid 50%, yet test scores took it down ten percent! And that was only testing BASIC fluency, and in ANY foreing language (not necessarily English). So remember, claimed fluency is not the same as real fluency.
The main language of worldwide business and politics in English. When international airline pilots talk to each other, most of them use English.
And it's well recorded that some plane crashes were cuased by miscommunication. this is life and death.
English is THE international language of the world.
-------------------------------------------------------------
English is toughest European language to read
15:30 04 September 2001
From New Scientist Print Edition.
James Randerson
Despite being the world's lingua franca, English is the most difficult European language to learn to read. Children learning other languages master the basic elements of literacy within a year, but British kids take two-and-a-half years to reach the same point.
In the most extensive cross-national study ever, Philip Seymour of Dundee University and his team compared the reading abilities of children in 15 European countries. They found that those learning Romance languages such as Italian and French progressed faster than those learning a Germanic language such as German and English. "Children do seem to find English particularly complex and problematic though," says Seymour.
The team focused on the earliest phase of learning to read. They tested the children's ability to match letters to sounds, their capacity to recognise familiar written words, and their ability to work out new words from combinations of familiar syllables.
Seymour's findings might explain why more people are diagnosed as being dyslexic in English-speaking countries than elsewhere.
In languages where sounds simply match letters, some symptoms just would not show up, says Maggie Snowling, a dyslexia expert at the University of York. The condition would be more difficult to diagnose in children who speak these languages, though subtle symptoms such as impaired verbal short-term memory would remain. "People might be struggling, but no one would notice," she says.
Consonant clusters
The Germanic languages are tricky because many words contain clusters of consonants. The word "sprint", for example, is difficult because the letter p is sandwiched between two other consonants, making the p sound difficult to learn.
Another feature of English that makes it difficult is the complex relationship between letters and their sounds.
In Finnish, which Seymour found to be the easiest European language to learn to read, the relationship between a letter and its sound is fixed.
However, in English a letter's sound often depends on its context within the word. For example, the letter c can sound soft (as in receive) or hard (as in cat). Many words like "yacht" don't seem to follow any logic at all.
Historical accident
However, the things that make English difficult to read might have contributed to Britain's rich literary tradition. Words like "sign" and "bomb" are difficult because of their silent letters, but these hint at relationships with other words. The connection with words like "signature" and "bombard" is obvious.
Mark Pagel, an expert on language diversity at the University of Reading, acknowledges the irony that despite being the international lingua franca, English is the most difficult to learn. The dominance of English has more to do with historical accident than any innate superiority of the language, he says.
"People who speak English happen to have been the ones that were economically and politically dominant in recent history. Those forces greatly outweigh any small difficulties in language acquisition."
newscientist.com
Just like in the US they say "I have gotten", whereas in Britain we say "I have got."
The Americans can only say "spelled", whereas the British can either say "spelled" or "spelt".
I think British English is more difficult than North American English. The Americans and Canadians, especially the Americans, speak a more simplified form of English.