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Post by Desophaeus on Jun 9, 2016 18:33:42 GMT
Or we just agree to use English as the functional language and the alternatives is optional. Simple as that. And please don't tell me that kids "need" to learn Spanish. They speak bad English and they really need to work on that one first.
That goes for the kids of Hispanics just same as for any other groups. The melting pot functions on a common thread among all people. If a portion of the nation refuse to learn English, they should have stayed behind in their home countries.
I have many friends from different countries who came here either as first or second generation immigrants. They all work hard on learning English and intergrate themselves as useful members of American society.
Edit: oops I will stop here now before I go any further into poltics. But at least this is a reasonable place to stop here.
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Post by NetherFreek on Jun 9, 2016 19:01:01 GMT
Am i the only one who thinks this is looking like the mobile version of eu4?  |
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Post by Desophaeus on Jun 9, 2016 19:07:57 GMT
Hmm superficially yes. But below the surface, EU4 is way different than AoC.
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Post by NetherFreek on Jun 9, 2016 19:54:13 GMT
Hmm superficially yes. But below the surface, EU4 is way different than AoC. Yes true, anyways curious to this game. Hope it matches my expetations  |
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Post by NetherFreek on Jun 9, 2016 19:56:29 GMT
Nice to see the west coast of europe being united  |
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Post by General William T. Sherman on Jun 9, 2016 20:03:32 GMT
Or we just agree to use English as the functional language and the alternatives is optional. Simple as that. And please don't tell me that kids "need" to learn Spanish. They speak bad English and they really need to work on that one first. That goes for the kids of Hispanics just same as for any other groups. The melting pot functions on a common thread among all people. If a portion of the nation refuse to learn English, they should have stayed behind in their home countries. I have many friends from different countries who came here either as first or second generation immigrants. They all work hard on learning English and intergrate themselves as useful members of American society. Edit: oops I will stop here now before I go any further into poltics. But at least this is a reasonable place to stop here. Well I think Spanish should be a mandatory language for kids to take as a second language, and then kids can go on to learn another language later on such as French, Portuguese, Mandarin, etc. We don't need to, but in a world where Spanish-speaking countries such as Mexico and Chile are becoming rapidly expanding economies and becoming rapidly more important, knowing Spanish would be of great advantage to our next generation of Americans. Im not saying we really need to know it due to our large Hispanic population, I'm saying it more for business purposes and for travel/international purposes. I really think American schools really need to focus on foreign languages. Too small of a number of Americans are bilingual, and even smaller of a number of polyglots. We need to educate our children on new languages, it makes them more intelligent, less ignorant, and gives them more opportunities in business and life. The languages we really need to focus on are: Spanish French Portuguese Mandarin This is all my opinion, and you have the right to disagree, of course. |
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Post by NetherFreek on Jun 9, 2016 20:23:11 GMT
English mandarin german for me
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Post by NetherFreek on Jun 9, 2016 20:23:54 GMT
Long live belgium!  |
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Post by General William T. Sherman on Jun 9, 2016 20:30:40 GMT
German would be good to know and all, but i just don't think its as important for America as there are no countries near us who have German as an official language.
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Post by NetherFreek on Jun 9, 2016 20:56:40 GMT
For the netherlands german is pretty important. The germans are our biggest trade partners so its nice to know. English is logic, almost all people speeks it nowadays. And the dragon is awaking, in the future Mandarin will be really important.
As for spain and portuguese, we are not close to south america so it doesnt make sense to me.
France is the dutch number 1 holiday spot, but outside holidays you barely need to speak french
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Post by General William T. Sherman on Jun 9, 2016 21:19:53 GMT
For the netherlands german is pretty important. The germans are our biggest trade partners so its nice to know. English is logic, almost all people speeks it nowadays. And the dragon is awaking, in the future Mandarin will be really important. As for spain and portuguese, we are not close to south america so it doesnt make sense to me. France is the dutch number 1 holiday spot, but outside holidays you barely need to speak french I understand why German would be useful for you of course, and of course the Germans are a large trading partner of the U.S as well. Im not saying its useless, I'm just saying its not as important for the U.S. I think Spanish and Portuguese will be important to know no matter where you live. Latin American countries are becoming ever more important in the world, mostly economically. And Brazil is on the verge of becoming a world superpower. And have we mentioned Africa? Angola is a rapidly expanding economy on the global stage, and Mozambique will more than likely become more important in the world once it recovers from the turmoil it has experienced. And you never know if Spanish may become the international language one day. French is a lingua Franca in most of Africa, the official language of many African countries and New World Countries, Quebec's official language, and important in much of Europe. While very important, i don't think it will be as important as the Iberian languages. Also, we seem to be forgetting one major one: Hindi/Urdu. With India becoming a world superpower and Pakistan becoming an important nation on the global stage, learning this language would be very important. |
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Post by Jean-Luc Picard on Jun 9, 2016 22:03:44 GMT
Mandarin is important since China is rising in every aspect of business. English is the Language of everything, still. Spanish is somewhat useful, especially in the Americas. French is only useful for Africa and France, and Africa is still an economic backwater. India is rising too, so Hindi is valuable. But a person can't really master many languages, so we should require at least one of them.
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Post by Desophaeus on Jun 9, 2016 22:21:30 GMT
Mandarin is important since China is rising in every aspect of business. English is the Language of everything, still. Spanish is somewhat useful, especially in the Americas. French is only useful for Africa and France, and Africa is still an economic backwater. India is rising too, so Hindi is valuable. But a person can't really master many languages, so we should require at least one of them. During the cold war, the world was under a bi-polar (not bipolar) global system: USA vs USSR. Everything is changing now toward a multi-polar system with rising powers from different parts of the world coming into power. Other than USA, the premier powers of the globe is known as an acronym: BRICS. Those five are highly likely to be part of the next generation of a multi-polar world. Brazil Russia India China South Africa EU can only become a true power as the 7th pole of the multi-polar system if they consolidate into a single state, otherwise... it's a meaningless rabble (such as pre-British India full of petty kingdoms and empires). Those 7 areas would determine what languages would be important in international business and cooperation. |
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Post by Desophaeus on Jun 9, 2016 22:35:44 GMT
Dom, you're forgetting one of the worst overlook happening right here in America and every single nation ever in history all over the world. The Deaf. Hmm maybe I should make a new thread about this. But think about it, most of the time, a Deaf person who knows the sign language (of his country) would also be bilingual because he must know the local language of his country to be a functional adult. So on the average, the Deaf population has a extremely high percentage of bilingual persons in comparison to the paltry percentage found in the hearing population. Think twice every time you see a Deaf person.  |
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Post by General William T. Sherman on Jun 9, 2016 22:38:37 GMT
Mandarin is important since China is rising in every aspect of business. English is the Language of everything, still. Spanish is somewhat useful, especially in the Americas. French is only useful for Africa and France, and Africa is still an economic backwater. India is rising too, so Hindi is valuable. But a person can't really master many languages, so we should require at least one of them. During the cold war, the world was under a bi-polar (not bipolar) global system: USA vs USSR. Everything is changing now toward a multi-polar system with rising powers from different parts of the world coming into power. Other than USA, the premier powers of the globe is known as an acronym: BRICS. Those five are highly likely to be part of the next generation of a multi-polar world. Brazil Russia India China South Africa EU can only become a true power as the 7th pole of the multi-polar system if they consolidate into a single state, otherwise... it's a meaningless rabble (such as pre-British India full of petty kingdoms and empires). Those 7 areas would determine what languages would be important in international business and cooperation. While I agree with most of the choices for BRICS, I think the original acronym of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) is much more fitting. S. Africa is a power, but I don't think it will be as strong as Brazil or India. I do think that if Nigeria is able to deal with Boko Haram successfully, however, they could easily stand on par with the other great powers of the world. So I think maybe it should be BRICN? xD Not to forget Indonesia, a very large powerhouse in SE Asia and can probably become a great power as well in the world. My List of who will be the great powers of the next generation: China India Russia America Brazil Nigeria Indonesia |
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