06-02-2002 07:03									#31
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quote: Originally posted by Ade he's accused for being a racist sh*t

Are the Finns and Swedes considered to be members of different races?

	06-02-2002 07:06									#32
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En svensker der taler dansk? NU har jeg set alt.

Holy Hell! The government forces you to be tri-lingual!

Nothing unusual in that. It's the same if you want to attend High School in Denmark, only then we're talking about English and a choice between German and French. The only unusual thing here is that any country would want Swedish as a forced language when virtually every Scandinavian speaks basic English.

	06-02-2002 07:11									#33
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Yeah, Dutch, English, German, French, Latin and Greek were compulsory

	06-02-2002 07:24									#34
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English and Mandarin. I can generally make myself understood in French, though i still can't understand those natively produced Quebec shows.... hmm, and I can also construct very basic sentences in German.

well that makes three, i guess.

	06-02-2002 07:36									#35
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quote: Originally posted by loinburger Are the Finns and Swedes considered to be members of different races?

Nay, genetically we're almost identical, but at least around here 'racism' also means discrimination of different ethnic groups and other minorities (sexual for example..)

Monk:
At least you get some kind of a choice... and more so, a choice between languages that have major international authority.
(Förlåt, det är inte så med svenska )

	06-02-2002 07:40									#36
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O yes, Finnish, I speak three words of Finnish, but I'm a fan of Eläkeläiset and Finnish Humppa in general

	06-02-2002 07:44									#37
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three words... lemme guess: Perkele, Salmiakkikossu and... (hmm this is hard) ... nah, can't figure. What's the third?

	06-02-2002 07:45									#38
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quote: Originally posted by Ade three words... lemme guess: Perkele, Salmiakkikossu and... (hmm this is hard) ... nah, can't figure. What's the third?

"Mina voin pahoin" actually

	06-02-2002 07:48									#39
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quote: Originally posted by Ade Yeah... about 5% of Finnish population list Swedish as their mother tongue, and about 75% (including me) are pissed off for having to learn Swedish in schools, but the government still insists us on learning it... Because of the Swedish colonization in Finland that lasted about from 1216 to 1808 most of the Swedish speaking population belongs to the upper class and they have much authority around here And still, Swedish is considered, especially by old people, as a 'fine' language, while our own Finnish is even shunned ( ) by some ... And the thing with teaching Swedish is kinda sensitive issue around here, too...everytime someone brave politician suggests stopping teaching it, he's accused for being a racist sh*t... and more so, the 5% of the population who speak Swedish are situated in small coastal areas that make up about 5% of Finland's areal...

Surrender to the masters.

	06-02-2002 07:55									#40
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quote: Originally posted by Assur Bedoel je niet "talen"?

Wel, Ik zij dat ik twee talen kon spreeken, niet srijven. Ik was uit Nederland gegan toen ik 3 was, dus ik can het nog wel ardig goed, vind ik. Dat was trouwens een tijp fout. Maar ze geven ons ook geen Nederlandse Spell Check !

	06-02-2002 07:55									#41
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Dra åt helvete

Ok, the situation isn't -as- bad as I mentioned , but it still sucks

	06-02-2002 07:58									#42
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quote: Originally posted by Grrr Wel, Ik zij dat ik twee talen kon spreeken, niet srijven. Ik was uit Nederland gegan toen ik 3 was, dus ik can het nog wel ardig goed, vind ik. Dat was trouwens een tijp fout. Maar ze geven ons ook geen Nederlandse Spell Check !

It's OK, actually, it's quite impressive

	06-02-2002 08:07									#43
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this isn't going to make me popular. I applaud everyone for extending their education. But I find this thread slightly elitist. What's the point of knowing more than 1 language anyways? (esp. if the 2nd language is Latin- who speaks latin?) English is the dominant language . I know a little bit of Spanish. I did take spanish in school, and my city is quickly becoming a spanish speaking city. I find myself needing it at work occasionally. But I'm one of those people with bad memories (but with amazing computing power ). I find it difficult to learn languages at this old an age. It was far easier when I was a kid. I wish stupid american schools would teach foreign languages in elementary school.

	06-02-2002 08:09									#44
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quote: Originally posted by Dissident (esp. if the 2nd language is Latin- who speaks latin?)

Other elitists.

	06-02-2002 08:14									#45
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quote: Originally posted by Dissident (esp. if the 2nd language is Latin- who speaks latin?)

Ego

	06-02-2002 08:17									#46
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But if you are going to know second languages it might as well be a useful one. I could never figure out why people took french in high school. It made no sense to me. My city speaks English and Spanish.

Here's my oder of importance of languages: English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, German. I know that doesn't include certian dialects. I know chinese has several differences in regions.

	06-02-2002 08:21									#47
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quote: Originally posted by Dissident What's the point of knowing more than 1 language anyways?

Well, that's quite an elitist statement, too... there are ~5 billion people on this planet that do not speak English as their mother tongue. And English is a necessary language in today's world, but many English-speaking persons fail to realize what one's mother tongue (more often than not it isn't the lingua franca) might actually mean for him. I love the tongue my ancestors have spoken for millenia as I love my own life, perhaps more, and would never part with it...
Yeah I know you didn't include us non-English people but what comes to knowing more foreign languages, I only have to say that knowledge is still power.

	06-02-2002 08:23									#48
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quote: Originally posted by Dissident But if you are going to know second languages it might as well be a useful one.

Actually, it's something like my eighth language, or shared sixth anyway

	06-02-2002 08:26									#49
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that's why I included my list above.

I just can't see learning latin.

It is important to learn the language of one's enemy (yeah I stole that from a movie- sue me). Why I included Chinese and Arabic. Of course they aren't our enemies. But who knows the future holds in store.

And Spanish is a must for the U.S. Even my non language learning ass knows some Spanish- and I continue to improve. Although I can excuse it if you live in the north. But Spanish should be taught in elementary schools in most of the U.S.

	06-02-2002 08:30									#50
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There are a lot of reasons to learn foriegn languages, Dissident. I learned (or try to learn) Hebrew so that I could read the bible and visit Israel, German because my school didn't offer any language I actually wanted to take, Yiddish for the look of joy it brings to the faces of those I converse with in it, and Arabic so that I could read Arabic language materials (newspapers, books, etc.) and also so that I could converse with Arabs in their native language.

	06-02-2002 08:31									#51
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quote: Originally posted by Dissident that's why I included my list above. I just can't see learning latin. It is important to learn the language of one's enemy (yeah I stole that from a movie- sue me). Why I included Chinese and Arabic. Of course they aren't our enemies. But who knows the future holds in store. And Spanish is a must for the U.S. Even my non language learning ass knows some Spanish- and I continue to improve. Although I can excuse it if you live in the north. But Spanish should be taught in elementary schools in most of the U.S.

Well, I do know English, German, French and Mandarin Chinese, and my Spanish is improving since we got the Spanish network back

	06-02-2002 09:20									#52
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Why should Spanish be compusarily taught in schools? Shouldn't the immigrant population have to learn English? My ancestors had to...

Oh, and Dissident, certain areas of the country that employ lots of factory workers are seeing an explosion of mexican immigration. Take northern Indiana for example. Manufacturing is one of the largest businesses in the area, and there is a large enough hispanic population that many advertisements are bi-lingual and there are now stores that are all spanish. Pretty bad when I can't read anything about a store...

	06-02-2002 09:25									#53
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Oh, BTW, in High School and now college I'm learning German, because my choices were German, French, or Spanish, and I wanted to learn some about my ancestors. Plus erman is the closest to English.

Ich habe Rollerschuhe. (I have rollerskates)

Prima! Super! Toll! (Great! Super! Great!)

auf wiederschreiben

	06-02-2002 09:29									#54
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I can speak French almost decently, can't write it worth a damn, and can usually understand it when listening and especially when reading it.

*mumbles something about how evil it was to force French onto children in public schools in Canada*

	06-02-2002 09:31									#55
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so what really is "die bart, die" in German?

	06-02-2002 09:37									#56
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I'm only fluent in English. (I'm an American; what do you expect? )

I can speak French adaquetely and *understand* (not speak) Bengali fairly well.

	06-02-2002 10:18									#57
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Bilingual... with some very poor french on the side.

All americans should learn to speak spanish....you'll need it. Heh.


-FMK.

	06-02-2002 10:22									#58
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quote: I love the tongue my ancestors have spoken for millenia as I love my own life, perhaps more, and would never part with it...

Unless you speak chinese, I don't that your ancestors would understand a word you say Languages changed very rapidly in prior to modern times, eg: I'd like to see any englishman talk to Chaucer hehe... A millenium is a long time, much less milinea

(side note: I'm not sure about chinese and other eastern languages and their histories, and that is why i excluded them. They may have changed a great deal as well, even if it was only mixing in a bit of mongolian. The chinese and japanese and others didn't have a great deal a cultural assimilation IIRC)

	06-02-2002 10:39									#59
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Hebrew, Russian, English...

Though I already start to forget words in Russian because I almost never use it.

	06-02-2002 10:47									#60
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I must say i am surprised that trilingualism plus is even with monoligualism. Either the English speakers on this thread are more language educated than I would expect, or they haven't yet voted.

As for moi, I know English and Spanish fluently, with about 5 years of German, though I am pretty bad at it still, since I never practice, and I can read French pretty well, but not really understand it spoken or write it, since I have not practiced it after leaving my trilingual primary school over a decade ago. So, I count myself as bilingual.