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SeoulMan99
Joined: 02 Aug 2009
Location: Seoul
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 Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 5:23 pm Post subject: |
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| Cerberus wrote: |
| SeoulMan99 wrote: |
| wesharris wrote: |
| SeoulMan99 wrote: |
| Cerberus wrote: |
| gay in korea wrote: |
| T-J wrote: |
| janafromfrance wrote: |
In this big blue world there are many languages that are really important. ...French is important....
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That's the funniest thing I've heard all day. Thanks for that... |
anti-french sentiment is one of the stupidest things I have ever encountered. Be it about the second world war or anything else.
And why is this one really stupid?
French is spoken as a first, second, or understood at a high level by half a billion people. It's either the 8th or 9th most spoken language in the world.
So I am now going to contribute something to the actual topic of this thread, re: stupid things said by foreigners...
| Quote: |
| That's the funniest thing I've heard all day. Thanks for that.. |
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I'll agree with you on anti-french sentiment. A true and clear sign of someone being a complete idiot.
But re French language and its importance/usefulness and practicality, well - the only people that consider it imporant/useful and practical are the French.
yeah, it might be around 10th place. That's not really saying much, is it?
can I call massive BS on 500 million?
where is French useful and important outside of France, Quebec and several African ex-colonies?
I could make an argument for Korean being almost as useful/practical/important.
It's still shockingly amazing that a completely defeated France after WW2, managed to get a seat on the UN Security Council, and that French is actually one of the "official" languages of the UN.
Shows how much the world has changed in the last 50 years. (indeed even as late as the 19th century, knowledge of French was required by almost any "educated" European) |
Complete BS on the numbers. It's spoken as a native language by about 75 million people and another 55 million know it as a second language. That said, it is still a lingua franca of international organizations and in certain countries throughout the middle east and Africa. France is one of the 5 largest economies, and it is an essential language for any potential polyglot. It is, and will continue to be, one of the most important languages in the world. |
Sir French is possibly if not probably one of the more useless world languages. I sir do not speak French. Except for Oui and No? . I find the idea of French being a major language laughable at the best of times. Sad at the worst of times.
_+_+
Wes |
I do not have the energy to type out all the reasons why you are completely wrong. I do find your notion taht French is one of the most useless languages laughable and saying that shows your ignorance on the subject quite clearly. At the end of this are a couple of links. Click on them so you can see why French is probably the most useful foreign language to learn ( obviously if you need to learn Spanish for a job or something that would be more uesful to your situation) in general. One thing I will add that you may not see in the links is that learning French will better help you learn your own language, English, better than any other language in the World. More than 1/3 of English vocab is directly or indirectly linked to French because of the Norman invasion of England during the period of transition from Olde English -> Middle English.
Here is the opening paragraph from one of the links:
"While any language will be useful for some jobs or for some regions, French is the only foreign language that can be useful throughout the world as well as in the United States. French as a foreign language is the second most frequently taught language in the world after English. The International Organization of Francophonie has 56 member states and governments. Of these, 28 countries have French as an official language. French is the only language other than English spoken on five continents. French and English are the only two global languages."
and,
"When deciding on a foreign language for work or school, consider that French is the language that will give you the most choices later on in your studies or your career."
"French, along with English, is the official working language of
the United Nations
UNESCO
NATO
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
the International Labor Bureau
the International Olympic Committee
the 31-member Council of Europe
the European Community
the Universal Postal Union
the International Red Cross
Union of International Associations (UIA)
French is the dominant working language at
the European Court of Justice
the European Tribunal of First Instance
the Press Room at the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium
"One example of the importance of French can be seen in a recent listing of international jobs (12/1/09) distributed by the US State Department: 92 required or preferred French, 36 Spanish, 11 a UN language (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish), 7 Arabic, 5 Russian, 1 Japanese, 1 Hindi, 1 German, and 1 Chinese."
"Of the various types of professional positions for which international organizations recruit, four required French, two Spanish, and one Arabic, according to the fact sheet released by the Bureau of International Organization Affairs of the U.S. Department of State (November 2009)."
http://www.fll.vt.edu/French/whyfrench.html
True English - French cognates: http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/vraisamis.htm
Please though, do not let the facts disuade you. I will agree that it would be wiser for a person living in the US who doesn't have any ambitions of a global career to learn Spanish, but in terms of global importance Spanish certainly is not more important than French.[/b] |
I'd say learn both but French is going to be fairly useless unless you want to be a EU bureaucrat.
the EU bureaucracy is the last bastion of French usefulness/practicality.
(still makes one shake one's head at how French would be more important than German in Europe anyways. I guess those very OLD stereotypes die hard)
as I mentioned I have no intention of knocking France, the French or their language (except to postulate they deeem their language to be far more relevant than it actually is, this is similar to their foreign policy/ int'l standing)
to say french is more "globally important" than Spanish is laughable though 
unless you're talking about working in the EU or UN bureaucracy.
I'm guessing geography isn't your strong suit since you've clearly never looked at a map. |
I love Spanish and I am well aware of the countries it is spoken in, as I have been to many of them, and I have lived in two of them. I also have a map which shows that French is an official language in 28 countries, while French is an official language in 28 countries. This is a bit of a ridiculous argument as we know they are both important. If your goal is to work internationally then a knowledge of French is very important. Spanish is also. |
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blackjack
Joined: 04 Jan 2006
Location: anyang
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| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 5:43 pm Post subject: |
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| SeoulMan99 wrote: |
I love Spanish and I am well aware of the countries it is spoken in, as I have been to many of them, and I have lived in two of them. I also have a map which shows that French is an official language in 28 countries, while French is an official language in 28 countries. This is a bit of a ridiculous argument as we know they are both important. If your goal is to work internationally then a knowledge of French is very important. Spanish is also. |
Sorry but 21 of those countries are in Africa. and even on that list while it may be an official language, it is often not their first language. sign language and Maori are official languages of NZ, yet how many speakers/signers are there in NZ? Not 4 million that's for sure.
French is useful when traveling in Europe and western africa, as a business language? It's day has passed.
Democratic Republic of the Congo
France
Canada
Madagascar
Cameroon
Côte d'Ivoire
Burkina Faso
Niger
Senegal
Mali
Rwanda
Belgium
Guinea
Chad
Haiti
Burundi
Benin
Switzerland
Togo
Central African Republic
Republic of the Congo
Gabon
Comoros
Equatorial Guinea
Djibouti
Luxembourg
Vanuatu
Seychelles
Monaco
Non official but still spoken
Algeria
Tunisia
Lebanon
Mauritania
Mauritius
Andorra |
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tall_dave
Joined: 02 Nov 2009
Location: Songtan, S. Korea
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| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 6:14 pm Post subject: |
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| Mr. BlackCat wrote: |
| There seems to be a very strong anti-Canadian streak among American posters on this site which I find unfortunate. That's the only reason I bring any of this up. |
I'm American. You are my countries neighbor. We both share a common language and heritage so I say screw it.. lets just be friends. I'm not anti-Canadian. Lets just drink some beer and quit fighting. |
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SeoulMan99
Joined: 02 Aug 2009
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 6:20 pm Post subject: |
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Dave you've gone to the dark side!  |
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YLWRocketMan
Joined: 14 May 2009
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| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 6:36 pm Post subject: |
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| Mr. BlackCat wrote: |
| There seems to be a very strong anti-Canadian streak among American posters on this site which I find unfortunate. . |
I find it quite the opposite actually. I'm both American and Canadian and lived in both countries. In my experiences i've found most Americans could care less about Canada aside from making stupid jokes here and there. Many Canadians seem to have something against America. I've heard the War of 1812 nonsense numerous times and a lot of anti American stuff in general. Being that the two countries have so much in common we should really be able to get along better. |
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tall_dave
Joined: 02 Nov 2009
Location: Songtan, S. Korea
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| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 6:46 pm Post subject: |
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| SeoulMan99 wrote: |
| Dave you've gone to the dark side! |
I hope you're not against drinking beer. Hell Canadian Whiskey works just as well.. Now, the truth be told, I was born in Newfoundland to parents that were US citizens. But I'm American~just as being born in Korean hospital to US parents does not make you Korean.
Last edited by tall_dave on Mon Feb 01, 2010 6:50 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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dunc180
Joined: 07 Nov 2009
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| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 6:50 pm Post subject: |
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| blackjack wrote: |
| SeoulMan99 wrote: |
I love Spanish and I am well aware of the countries it is spoken in, as I have been to many of them, and I have lived in two of them. I also have a map which shows that French is an official language in 28 countries, while French is an official language in 28 countries. This is a bit of a ridiculous argument as we know they are both important. If your goal is to work internationally then a knowledge of French is very important. Spanish is also. |
Sorry but 21 of those countries are in Africa. and even on that list while it may be an official language, it is often not their first language. sign language and Maori are official languages of NZ, yet how many speakers/signers are there in NZ? Not 4 million that's for sure.
French is useful when traveling in Europe and western africa, as a business language? It's day has passed.
Democratic Republic of the Congo
France
Canada
Madagascar
Cameroon
C�te d'Ivoire
Burkina Faso
Niger
Senegal
Mali
Rwanda
Belgium
Guinea
Chad
Haiti
Burundi
Benin
Switzerland
Togo
Central African Republic
Republic of the Congo
Gabon
Comoros
Equatorial Guinea
Djibouti
Luxembourg
Vanuatu
Seychelles
Monaco
Non official but still spoken
Algeria
Tunisia
Lebanon
Mauritania
Mauritius
Andorra |
Still spoken a bit in Vietnam, too. |
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soakitincider
Joined: 19 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 7:07 pm Post subject: |
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I'll only put the" head "in.
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shifter2009
Joined: 03 Sep 2006
Location: wisconsin
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| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 7:13 pm Post subject: |
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| YLWRocketMan wrote: |
| Mr. BlackCat wrote: |
| There seems to be a very strong anti-Canadian streak among American posters on this site which I find unfortunate. . |
I find it quite the opposite actually. I'm both American and Canadian and lived in both countries. In my experiences i've found most Americans could care less about Canada aside from making stupid jokes here and there. Many Canadians seem to have something against America. I've heard the War of 1812 nonsense numerous times and a lot of anti American stuff in general. Being that the two countries have so much in common we should really be able to get along better. |
Seconded, most if not all Americans I know are indifferent or like Canadians. We may love to give them a hard time but there are no malicious feelings there. I have met some Canadians that have been down right hostile towards Americans though. I actually had a Canadian girl once 'force' me (it was that or make the situation more social awkward than it already was) to listen a Canadian song about burning down the White House (or red house, whatever). Different sort of vibe coming from that side of the border |
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conrad2
Joined: 05 Nov 2009
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| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 7:34 pm Post subject: |
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| Any anti Canadian sentiment on Daves, or in Korea in general, displayed by Americans did not exist until those Americans moved to Seoul and listened to Canadians day in and day out say things such as 1. Let me tell you why I hate your country 2. We kicked you ass in the war of 1812 3.Americans are fat and stupid 4. You cant even name all the provinces in Canada 4. Jim Carey etc etc is from Canada. |
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reactionary
Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Location: korreia
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| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 7:37 pm Post subject: |
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British guy trying to hook up with North American female: You're grinning like a chesire cat.
Girl: What's a chesire cat?
Guy: You know, Alice in Wonderland.
Girl: My name isn't Allison. |
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Stalin84
Joined: 30 Dec 2009
Location: Haebangchon, Seoul
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JBomb
Joined: 16 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 8:43 pm Post subject: |
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| oh and favourite is f-a-v-o-u-r-i-t-e! |
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Bucky
Joined: 19 Jul 2009
Location: Vancouver (formerly Yongsan-gu, Seoul)
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| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 8:47 pm Post subject: |
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A lot of Koreans too. I'm Asian, and a lot of Koreans I meet have a hard time grasping the concept that 1) I don't speak Korean (except for a few phrases) and 2) my native language is English. |
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tall_dave
Joined: 02 Nov 2009
Location: Songtan, S. Korea
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| Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 8:50 pm Post subject: |
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| Bucky wrote: |
A lot of Koreans too. I'm Asian, and a lot of Koreans I meet have a hard time grasping the concept that 1) I don't speak Korean (except for a few phrases) and 2) my native language is English. |
I'm thinking a great deal of the foreigners here actually speak American. |
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