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The Washington Post has an article asking the question "Which languages will dominate the future?" The answer depends on your interests: making money in growth markets; speaking with as many people as possible; speaking only one language while traveling; or learning about culture. As you might imagine, the article concludes
There is no one single language of the future. Instead, language learners will increasingly have to ask themselves about their goals and own motivations before making a decision.
[...] In a recent U.K.-focused report, the British Council, a think tank, identified more than 20 growth markets and their main languages. The report features languages spoken in the so-called BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China — that are usually perceived as the world's biggest emerging economies, as well as more niche growth markets that are included in lists produced by investment bank Goldman Sachs and services firm Ernst & Young.
"Spanish and Arabic score particularly highly on this indicator," the British Council report concluded for the U.K. However, when taking into account demographic trends until 2050 as laid out by the United Nations, the result is very different.
Hindi, Bengali, Urdu and Indonesian will dominate much of the business world by 2050, followed by Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Russian. If you want to get the most money out of your language course, studying one of the languages listed above is probably a safe bet.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Covalent on Friday September 25 2015, @12:53AM
Just finished a long trip through Europe. Nearly everyone spoke English remarkably well.
The fact that they are learning it while we Americans learn nothing tells you all you need to know.
You can't rationally argue somebody out of a position they didn't rationally get into.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday September 25 2015, @12:59AM
No, it doesn't. I still don't know who killed JFK.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday September 25 2015, @03:02AM
It's been in the news, duh... it was, like, Oswald! Everyone knows this because teh Warren Commission?!?
Man, where you been? Back and to the left????
:)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday September 25 2015, @04:35AM
:)
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Friday September 25 2015, @03:05AM
You don't need to know.
The Musk/Trump interview appears to have been hacked, but not a DDOS hack...more like A Distributed Denial of Reality.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday September 25 2015, @04:33AM
Of course, an authoritarian would say that. Since when it is you that defines my needs?
(that was a nice bridge - large trollish grin)
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 25 2015, @01:00AM
There is a lot of value in being able to speak a language but not look like you speak the language. My wife is indian born and speaks hinglish with her family, her parents barely speak english at all - just enough to run a convenience store. But she does not look indian at all and knows how to keep her mouth shut. And so she is constantly underestimated by native hindi and urdu speakers who think they can talk about their business in front of her with impunity.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 25 2015, @01:12AM
Wow, your wife is the exact opposite of Mindy Kaling, who looks Indian and sounds like a Valley Girl.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday September 25 2015, @12:29PM
I had this experience all the time in Japan. My girlfriend there was Japanese-Canadian and didn't speak a lick of Japanese. I did. Japanese would often turn to her and talk about me, not realizing we were together. She'd look at them blankly and I'd reply in Japanese. The double- and triple- and quadruple-takes they did were legendary.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday September 25 2015, @06:46PM
I had a similar experience in Florida, when a couple of Hispanics were making fun of English speakers. I laughed, and said "You guys sound pretty funny, too" in Spanish. Their faces turned red and their jaws dropped.
Spanish is a very useful skill in many American places, like Florida, Texas, California, Chicago...
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 25 2015, @01:14AM
...That Americans already know the only language they need and the 'language of the future' is English, be it American or British?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 25 2015, @01:23AM
America is #1 and always will be. Go-o-o-o-o-o Bama!
(Score: 3, Funny) by TheGratefulNet on Friday September 25 2015, @01:36AM
time for one of my favorite jokes-
"what do you call someone who speaks 3 languages?" ("tri-lingual")
"what do you call someone who speaks 2 languages?" ("bi-lingual")
"so, what do you call someone who speaks 1 language?" ("an american")
(somewhat true, actually).
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 25 2015, @04:47AM
Wow, it might even be funny if it were true, but it's not [nytimes.com]. Sadly, as usual, Europeans aren't as special as they tell everyone they are.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday September 25 2015, @06:20PM
That link definitely doesn't say what you claim it says.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday September 25 2015, @06:52PM
The above AC is either trying to snow you with headlines or didn't RTFA himself. What his linked article says is "we don't know". Direct quote: "The celebrated multilingualism of not just Europe but also the rest of the world may be exaggerated."
MAY be exagerrated.
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 25 2015, @04:08AM
What does it tell you? All it tells me is that where you have a bunch of different languages squished together, the people who live in those regions learn multiple languages out of necessity. When you have big, contiguous areas with one language, there isn't the need. You'd probably be very shocked to learn that in the regions where the US and Mexico share a border, a much larger percentage of the population speak multiple languages than they do in the center of the US. It isn't so shocking to me, but then again I'm not a dumbass who can't grasp these simple concepts.
Many people in Europe know English because they have to learn it. There are a lot of multi-lingual Swiss. It isn't because of some cultural superiority, it is because they have three fucking languages in that country. Did you know that there are a lot of bi-lingual people in Quebec? And there they have social pressures to make you only speak French. The rest of Canada doesn't speak French because, and I'll type this slowly so you can grasp it, there isn't a driving influence to.
It is such a simple concept that I am shocked it is so hard to grasp. No wonder the Europeans don't have the capability to create Googles and Facebooks.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday September 25 2015, @06:33PM
I really don't know but I'd bet a far larger proportion of Europeans speak a two or more languages than Americans. Here, Spanish is the obvious choice for a second language, because almost all of the countries to our south speak it, It was incredibly helpful to me when I worked at Disney, as there were a LOT of South Americans and even Floridians who knew only Spanish. I learned Thai when I was in the USAF because I was going to Thailand.
Learning a language you'll never use is worthless. If I lived in the UK I'd probably learn German and French, simply because it would be useful.
If you don't use a language you've learned, you'll forget it, even your own native tongue! There's a Hispanic fellow who goes to the same bar I do who has been in the US for ten or twenty years, and forgot the Spanish word for "basement". I couldn't remember, and neither could another fellow who knew Spanish (I finally just googled it for him).
Impeach Donald Saruman and his sidekick Elon Sauron