25-12-2002 10:59									#61
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Can you write it? I certainly cannot. but I can write Spanish and French easy enough- and I don't even know French.

	25-12-2002 11:02									#62
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Can you write Russian or Greek? They are quite practical in their written form and their alphabets aren't that different.

You can? Fine. How about Navajo or Hebrew?

	25-12-2002 11:24									#63
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The universal language should be Basque.

It shows no similarities between any other language in the world IIRC and has an incredibly complex sentence structure.

	25-12-2002 11:28									#64
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First of all, English is a far more significant language than Chinese. Just because a billion people speak a language doesn't mean it's the most important or significant language - Mandarin is not all that widely spoken or learned outside of China, whereas English is on both counts.

I don't see why I have to learn another ****ing language, seeing as how I already speak the only language that I'm ever going to need. Pisses me off - I could be learning something useful.

	25-12-2002 11:32									#65
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An MNC naturally drives up the price of labor when it enters a country. By increasing the Demand for labor, the price of labor is pushed up.

	25-12-2002 12:03									#66
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The fact is chinese is a difficult language to learn and write.

I think the official language should be one of the easiest languages in the world that have at the very least hundreds of millions of speakers.

Spanish fits this category.

I vote for Spanish as the official world language.

	25-12-2002 12:39									#67
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quote: Originally posted by Odin I must disagree. What if you want to ask a person on the street and he/she doesn't know english? Your view is so Anglocentric that I don't think you care about other people. People in a forgien country perfer to speak in thier native language.

Alright, Odin, how much Japanese do you know? And yet, if you go to Japan, you will be able to get by just fine because many Japanese know English and have embarked on mandatory English in all schools.

I could probably say the same thing about every country in the world.

English is also the common language of science and engineering.

There really is no need to learn any other language.

	25-12-2002 14:37									#68
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BD,

"An MNC naturally drives up the price of labor when it enters a country."

How? You aren't answering the question, just asserting your own point.

quote: Originally posted by Dissident Can you write it?

Why, of course. What kind of question is that?

	25-12-2002 21:47									#69
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quote: Originally posted by mrmitchell Bah. There are 6000 languages, but most are small ones that are dying off all the time. We already are working toward a universal language (sadly).

Sadly??

There is no reason at all to keep artificial divisions between peoples.

	25-12-2002 21:49									#70
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quote: Originally posted by Urban Ranger BD, "An MNC naturally drives up the price of labor when it enters a country." How? You aren't answering the question, just asserting your own point. Why, of course. What kind of question is that?

Because it can. A MNC offering Western wages in an undeveloped country would completely wreck and distort their economy.

	26-12-2002 07:14									#71
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My job is teaching English to people who want to learn it.

I think Bod has drastically overestimated the importance of English in many parts of the world.

Most Koreans still don't speak English at a proficient level beyond hello, goodbye, etc.

If all 'educated' people spoke English I would be out of a job.

I wouldn't dismiss China. More and more Koreans are learning Chinese again, because it is where the jobs are.

If you want to work in another country, or do business with that country, you still really need to know the langauge and culture (with the exception of some wacky European countries)

	26-12-2002 07:51									#72
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quote: Originally posted by Boddington's Because it can. A MNC offering Western wages in an undeveloped country would completely wreck and distort their economy.

You aren't making any sense, Boddie. What can what?

	26-12-2002 10:44									#73
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quote: Originally posted by Seeker I wouldn't dismiss China. More and more Koreans are learning Chinese again, because it is where the jobs are. If you want to work in another country, or do business with that country, you still really need to know the langauge and culture (with the exception of some wacky European countries)

agreed. It used to be easy to see learn japanese for business books but now learn chinese for business is more frequent.

Anyway, how about emphasizing the importance of learning language simply to broaden your horizon? Alot of the reasons why people think differently is because of language. besides its just interesting that in japanese they rarely use the word "you", and if you use that word, it can be really offensive or polite... or even married to the person that ur using it.

	26-12-2002 12:00									#74
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Also another thing to discuss is the U.S. and the U.K. will not be major powers for much longer. The downfall of the U.S. is upon us and the U.K. is really nothing like they used to be anyways.

I don't know who the next superpower will be but I doubt they will speak English. So in 50 or 100 years this same discussion will occur but will focus on another language.

	26-12-2002 12:11									#75
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quote: Originally posted by Dissident Also another thing to discuss is the U.S. and the U.K. will not be major powers for much longer. The downfall of the U.S. is upon us and the U.K. is really nothing like they used to be anyways. I don't know who the next superpower will be but I doubt they will speak English. So in 50 or 100 years this same discussion will occur but will focus on another language.

Huh? Why do you believe the downfall of the US is upon us? Are you actually suggesting that Al Qaida will be successful?

	26-12-2002 12:23									#76
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Al Quida? No. Internal downfall. This is just a hunch, but I still think there is a 50/50 chance of this happening.

	26-12-2002 12:31									#77
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This is extremely basic economics UR. When Demand for an item goes up, both the price of the item and the quantity provided increase.

	27-12-2002 10:51									#78
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On a proportional economic basis, the US has been declining in importance since WWII. The UK since before WWI.

However, English is much more important than Chinese will ever be, considering that India is rising as well. They might be 20 years behind China, but in the scheme of things, this sort of timing is unimportant.

	27-12-2002 12:33									#79
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quote: Originally posted by Dissident Al Quida? No. Internal downfall. This is just a hunch, but I still think there is a 50/50 chance of this happening.

Nah. The US is versatile enough, love them or hate them, to adapt to anything that gets thrown at them.

Like look at the whole terrorism thing, they're all over that, and they're doing a good job too... at least when it comes to protecting themselves. And thats all that counts.

The US isn't going to be like Rome and curl up and die because the goths started riding horses.

	27-12-2002 12:37									#80
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and by collapse I'm not expecting the country to go away. That will never happen. The U.S. will always be around. But I think we will start to drown in poverty, crime, and boy bands.

And I do think the U.S. is a lot like Rome. It will take hundreds of years for anything to happen though. As of now no one can take us, and no one will. But we will become even more fat, spoiled, and lazy. It will reach a point where we will have no one to fight our wars. The military is already having trouble meeting quotas.

And when this terrorism thing started up these panty waists wanted out of the military claiming they didn't sign up for the military to go to war. . They only joined the military for the money and education opportunities. I think those wussies did get out.

	27-12-2002 12:37									#81
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quote: Originally posted by DanS On a proportional economic basis, the US has been declining in importance since WWII. The UK since before WWI. However, English is much more important than Chinese will ever be, considering that India is rising as well. They might be 20 years behind China, but in the scheme of things, this sort of timing is unimportant.

I wouldn't say that. Its just because other countries are gaining a bit of a foothold in the world market place. It doesn't mean the US is declining. And its not like there's a static amount of wealth in the world to be had (where if you have more that means I have less), that kind of thinking is mercantalist and outdated.

The US has, by far, the largest economy in the world. Bar none. Its GDP is 10 larger than China's in fact (although I'm not basing it soley on GDP). Also, this may be slightly off by a place or two, but if you took the state of California and made it a seperate country, it would rank, like, number 3 or 4 as the world's largest economy... and the US would STILL be number 1.

And as for the UK, I bet you in 500 years history books will treat the US and the UK as the same country. It basically is, even now.

	27-12-2002 13:49									#82
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I agree with that whole single language thing. Personally, I think it should be a somewhat simplistic language which uses a basic alphabet, such as our Phoenetic alphabet with Arabic numerals, and a language which is both simple and able to convey complexities in detail. German migh be a good choice, as it can be VERY detailed (geschwindigkeitsbegrendzung ), although it's sentence structure is a little rough.

I know. THere is one language with many standards, and used the Phoenetic alphabet/Arabic numerals: Newspeak!
It would at least be perfect for the business world, as it's quite compact and quick (ie, duckspeak).