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Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe BlackAdder Send a noteboard - 24/09/2010 05:47:09 PM
My answers may be a bit strange since I have hopped around a bit.
Might as well add a mini-survey for European members (though Americans and others are welcome to answer as well if they like):

Not European here, mostly American and Asian

1) Which languages did you learn in school, and for how long?

Well, I lived in India for a while so I learned Hindi, Marathi, and Telugu (the latter two are regional languages which I picked up naturally and not via schooling). I also learned some English at the time, but not really until I moved to the US. Most people these days learn English so they can generally understand it, but it's usually not very polished.

After that, I picked up English fairly quickly, then I learned German and Latin. Continued learning Latin in college. I'm OK with German but it's definitely my weakest language.

I've learned bits and pieces of other languages like Japanese, French, Spanish, Arabic, etc., but it's not all that useful to be completely honest.

2) Which languages would you say you speak with some degree of fluency?

English, Hindi, Marathi, Telugu... German after a bit of practice/use.

3) Do you think languages get too much attention in the school system you went to, too little, or just about enough?

Hmm, I think it was OK. People that were interested in it were able to take what they wanted, usually. People that weren't didn't take one. Maybe they wish they did, maybe they don't. I don't know.

4) What do you think of the remarkable dominance of English that appears in the data?

English is used pretty commonly. Pretty remarkable how many people either know it or will recognize certain phrases even if they don't. It's not surprising to me that English speakers have a lower rate of learning secondary languages simply due to lack of a need for many of them.
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/Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 24/09/2010 01:37:42 PM 1600 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 01:49:32 PM 978 Views
Answering the survey myself... - 24/09/2010 02:04:39 PM 1011 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 02:10:57 PM 999 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 02:20:45 PM 1134 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 02:24:01 PM 996 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 02:14:52 PM 1043 Views
We have a similar situation in Belgium. - 24/09/2010 02:32:25 PM 912 Views
It is all double dutch to me - 24/09/2010 02:41:41 PM 971 Views
Hah! - 24/09/2010 06:58:49 PM 1072 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 03:32:09 PM 929 Views
That is rather sad to say the least. - 24/09/2010 04:15:32 PM 1170 Views
Indeed - 24/09/2010 06:23:52 PM 973 Views
That's just Paris being a city of nasty people. - 24/09/2010 06:32:40 PM 1102 Views
I never noticed that - 24/09/2010 07:05:18 PM 1017 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 04:00:04 PM 1057 Views
I didn't mean just in Sweden, or Scandinavia. - 24/09/2010 04:19:32 PM 1051 Views
Well... - 24/09/2010 10:50:09 PM 959 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 05:47:09 PM 1036 Views
Interesting. - 24/09/2010 06:04:30 PM 963 Views
Re: Interesting. - 24/09/2010 06:42:02 PM 1114 Views
Re: Interesting. - 24/09/2010 07:05:44 PM 1013 Views
Re: Interesting. - 24/09/2010 07:21:24 PM 1138 Views
Re: Interesting. - 24/09/2010 08:18:30 PM 1000 Views
Re: Interesting. - 25/09/2010 08:02:30 PM 1059 Views
American who just got a C+ on a French quiz reporting in. - 24/09/2010 06:09:31 PM 1071 Views
What was it on? - 24/09/2010 06:22:35 PM 987 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe - 24/09/2010 06:16:22 PM 936 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 24/09/2010 09:38:05 PM 1129 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 25/09/2010 05:49:05 AM 1135 Views
Real quick - 25/09/2010 12:03:51 PM 1065 Views
Self-study can be worth as much as formal classroom study, I suppose - 25/09/2010 03:43:14 PM 1083 Views
Certainly it can. - 26/09/2010 12:35:56 PM 1081 Views
You know, gen eds typically include a language. *NM* - 26/09/2010 07:28:57 PM 440 Views
Yes, but other things as well. - 26/09/2010 08:08:20 PM 990 Views
Interesting - 27/09/2010 03:14:00 AM 1204 Views
Re: Interesting - 27/09/2010 11:04:37 AM 1096 Views
You don't have to prove it's economically valid? - 27/09/2010 08:31:46 PM 1095 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 25/09/2010 04:54:40 PM 1201 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 25/09/2010 07:38:29 PM 1133 Views
The amount of German is more surprising. - 25/09/2010 07:55:29 PM 890 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 26/09/2010 12:07:19 AM 1157 Views
They should have asked about second languages rather than foreign languages. - 26/09/2010 11:34:27 AM 1009 Views
Aye, they should have. - 26/09/2010 12:26:51 PM 1098 Views
Re: /Survey: Foreign language knowledge in Europe (and elsewhere) - 27/09/2010 03:18:30 PM 1054 Views

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