Well I studied French and Spanish at high school (German wasn't an option unfortunately) and french was definately the hardest in terms of how it was written and pronunciation, it sometimes felt like French was delibratly written differently from how it was spoken. German might have more native speakers but English is definately the most widespread if you count it as a second language. Oh and the word is 'widest'
Good thing that this is not going to happen. I'm having hard time trying to read that what would be after 4rd year.
Seen this before, pretty funny. Loads not seeing it as a joke lol, when it is. If I'm playing along with taking it seriously. Whilst I have a basic German ability (although not used for 5 years), I don't think we should attempt to ease the transition, we've been down this road before... twice.
Durchweichten Kekse uke2: WhiteLightning Google translate will read it out for you to listen to if you've the stomach for it
I hate to break it to you, but French has been the language of diplomacy for centuries. Don't forget that France used to be a leader back then, when it had a huge empire. Of course, water has flowed over the dam since that era, and French has lost its prevalence.
GB also had an empire once, though I guess our language got stuck wherever we once held and has remain there to this day.
The US has too many variants of spoken English. There's Southern English, Northern English, Surfer English, Ghetto English and Ebonics. Oh yeah...and Texican English...definitely can't forget "Country English", "Backwoods English" and Proper English. All depends on what part of the country you live in as to which you actually use.
Well considering the size of the USA that's hardly surprising that there's so many different accents.
Yes indeed, I have lived in the Northeast, the Southeast, and the Midwest. Each area has it's own accent, or even multiple accents within a region. For example a Boston accent is very different from a Brooklyn accent, and then you have the Upstate New York accent, which depending on where you are could be anywhere from a quasi-Midwest accent to a New England accent... and that's just one state out of 50. Then we have Texas (spent a few days there) where they speak like no place else. You also have the Rocky Mountain (spent a summer there once upon a time) states where the locals have a mixture of the MidWest twang and a Southwestern drawl that is really unique in and of itself. All in all the US is a veritable melting pot and it's impossible to pick one particular accent that you can pinpoint and say "this is American English". More on topic, having spent several years in Europe (Eastern & Central) I would have to vote for English as the official language of the EU. In my travels there I always had people (specifically those 30 & under) who were able to communicate in English. I often had people ask if I was German or spoke German, but not nearly as often as they asked "you speak English?" That is a trend that I see growing over the next decade. I can't speak for Western Europe, but from Vienna to Moscow I think English is the only logical choice for the current and future generation in particular. In fact, I would argue that it is the global language. Not to say that there are not several other widely spoken languages, but I can think of no other language that you can readily find a competent translator in every country of the world. Certain languages have a prevalence on certain continents, but are lacking totally on other land masses.... for example, Spanish - very prevalent in Central & South America, but of limited use in Asia, and Africa. As for the pronunciation and spelling, I readily agree that English sucks for continuity. Being bi-lingual it's very easy to point out the inconsistencies, but there are inconsistencies in other languages as well. For pure descriptive capability I would choose a Germanic language, but for ease of learning a Romance language wins nearly every time. *my apologies to the Cyrillic alphabet and nearly everyone in Asia... *
Despite sounding like I'm being ethnocentric, most people in the country consider American English to be spoken similar to that of people in the Midwest, usually its lack of variation in tones within sentences and sometimes slower speech makes it easier for people of various accents to understand. It is probably why it seems, that news castors are preferred with this type of language. However, with the advent of the internet I believe you will see a melting of accent differentiation as well as language differentiation throughout the world over the next 40 years.
Wat iz goin on hir, i tot i we tak end wrajt gud no? lol n1 DerSchniffles hehe i saw some German Politic talking English in EU Union and then some German TV RTL made a joke - they named his broken English after him instead of Oxford English. lol it was funny to hear, but damn i dont know his name and i cant find it anymore..
hehe thanks but i cant take credit for it except for posting it here someone else had posted it on another forum i visit and didnt post the original link. just thought it was hilarious and had to share
I can't believe I know a guy who played soggy biscuit in the Army... wtf? WTF? Back on topic Where I live we're about to change a bilingual school English/Welsh to fully Welsh. This will cause issues for those who don't have Welsh as their first language or were taught it in primary school. I know people in my town who are fully welsh but never use it. I was lucky enough to learn it in primary school but to be honest I rarely ever use this skill so now I lack confidence in my own ability to say what I mean in the medium of Welsh. I've English parents btw.
