Foreign Language

[Siggie]

11 years later, China makes the slippers you wear, and holds your debt. I'd say you better learn the tongue of your soon to be occupiers.

Damn it Moogig... help your fellow forumers then! Teach us the essentials.

[sad_eyes]

French is a very common language in the world, next to english. I would suggest it. Its very simple to learn, really. And very useful. Other than that I would suggest russian, if you do not speak it already that is. Or what about german? Its a harsh language. My "father" speaks it very often, as he is german....definately turns heads I assure you.

[bell-the-cat]

French is definitely a beautiful language, and would make your trips to Montreal (which I recommend) a lot funner.

I was surprised at how unpleasant sounding French-Canadian is. It seems to be impossible to sound polite when speaking it, or when speaking English with a French-Canadian accent. I spent a couple of hours at Montreal airport, and all the tannoy announcements sounded like commands barked out by by particularly nasty concentration-camp guards!

[sad_eyes]

That isnt entirely accurate, bell-the-cat. We like to use hand gestures to make ourselves more clear. lol

[ArmoBarbi]

I've heard their French, it's not so bad actually I think. Although my French professors would say differently. lol

French is not as common of a language as you may think actually. Russian is #4 in the world though. Just do both French and Russian (like me hehehe), and dont forget Armenian of course!

[Anonymouse]

Now that the U.S. is the dominant power English is the universal language. I wonder if people will be comfortable with the idea of Mandarin becoming the next international language.

[ArmoBarbi]

I dont see that happening within our life time, if ever. Its taken English this long, and its easy.

I know I said Chinese is good, but an Indo-European language would be much easier to learn, and you would be better at it most likely. Thats something to consider, no? I personally dont plan to leave the Indo-Europeans.

[TomServo]

You're all wrong. Engrish will become the dominant language.

[Siamanto]

I was surprised at how unpleasant sounding French-Canadian is. It seems to be impossible to sound polite when speaking it, or when speaking English with a French-Canadian accent. I spent a couple of hours at Montreal airport, and all the tannoy announcements sounded like commands barked out by by particularly nasty concentration-camp guards!

I've heard their French, it's not so bad actually I think. Although my French professors would say differently. lol

I totally agree! I wonder what he's talking about? It has its own charm!
Is it the case that your French professor is not French and has a strong accent?
In fact, I have met many Americans with a strong accent who make fun of the Canadians!

First of all, I have noticed that there exists many different French accents in Quebec or Canada in general: the accent seems to become a bit "stronger" in the rural communities.
In any case, it's not particularly stronger than the Southern accent - "accent du Midi" - heard in South of France that I found to be very charming. There's a "singing" that reminds me of Italian!

[Baron Dants]

I was surprised at how unpleasant sounding French-Canadian is. It seems to be impossible to sound polite when speaking it, or when speaking English with a French-Canadian accent. I spent a couple of hours at Montreal airport, and all the tannoy announcements sounded like commands barked out by by particularly nasty concentration-camp guards!

What? You're craaaaaaaaaazy!

Some people speak french in a really ugly way here, but the French-Canadians generally have a very nice accent.

My own accent has a foreign Europeanish touch to it for some reason, which the girls here find charming , but their own accent is actually very nice, in my humble opinion.