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We have a german politician that voiced what everyone already new:

English will be the vital language!

Now he was elected to be an EU-commissioner for energy.
I just have to share his speech he recently gave, in english, the vital language in the future...

>>> Günther Oettinger <<<

But he is not the only one!

>>> Dr. Guido Westerwelle <<<

Click and enjoy...

Well, they still speak better English than I speak German ...

Aw, c'mon! Even I, a german, couldn't keep myself from laughing!
And why should you bother to learn german? It's not spoken world wide and really isn't worth the trouble, as it is very complicated.

Besides, I just posted this because of this idiots impertinence to demand that all germans should learn english but he himself can't spit out a flawkless sentence!

Hehe, that was pretty entertaining, but kudos to him for trying. x)

I used to want to learn German but I determined I'm just horrible with pronouncing everything. xD I'm much better at speaking Japanese. I used to know French too, from school, but it's been so long that I hardly remember any of it. >.>

Aber ich finde deutch besser.

Anyway, since english is a germanic language, I found learning it helped my skills at english twofold.
Americans naturally butcher their own language like a meat market.
(american)

Also as american I am fully entitled to diss my own country.
DISS.

Yeah, it was cute. I just didn't want to mock.

And I was told in college to learn German because I was a math major, and many math papers are written in German. (Instead I learned Sanskrit. I prefer languages that no one speaks anymore.)

English is at best a bastardized language on par with ebonics or slang. Heh this thread actually reminds me of one of the languages created for the movie "Blade Runner". It was a mix of english, spanish, chinese, and german if I remember right. Pictureing the sound of that brings to mind 2 hours after a keg party with a stop at taco bell on the way home.

Und ze zhat zist germany.

I ROFL:D. Seriously!

There has been an idea to make german the science language.
German is very good at saying precisely what you mean but the language itself is rather cold, stiff and not very useful when you are trying to write down emotions. Besides, the english language seems to be made of the actual sounds instead of a word made up for it. Go and slam a door and then say "slam". It sounds awfully alike! I just checked www.leo.org and found out this was called onomatopoetic.
Yeah, whatever...

English just sounds so much more cool and easy than german. Well, if you speak it properly, not like our politicians.

I don't really know why, but I found this immensely funny. Karathyriel, your first video has been claimed! "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Center On Capitalism and Society." XD

dragonpuff wrote:I don't really know why, but I found this immensely funny. Karathyriel, your first video has been claimed! "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Center On Capitalism and Society." XD

Are you kidding?

No, you're not kidding...

That bastard!

Yeah, I tried to watch the first one and it's not there anymore. XD

Second one was amusing though How many times can a person 'uuuuh' in their sentences before they look completely silly?

All the same, makes me wish I had any talent with languages. I took three years of Spanish among other things. I was pretty good at the written aspect of the language (y'know...for my beginner level), but when it comes to speaking other languages I fail SO much. My teachers kept telling me I had to think in the language, but it was SO difficult to manage...like slamming my head against a brick wall hoping it would eventually break. Rrrgh.

~VelkynKarma

But your teacher was right.

Thinking in the language is really helping. When I read an english book and someone asks me something, I almost always answer in english. Same happens, when I spend some time here in the forums and then I remember that I have to write an email and suddenly I realize that I wrote it in english, sigh and start over again!

But we (that is people, who don't have english as their first language) have a vital advantage of those who speak english and try to learn another language: English is everywhere! In advertising, in movies, songtexts, names of products or companies, all air traffic is handled in english and so on, and so forth...
Here, in germany, where after the war were so many american and british soldiers (Yep, they were her for a very long time and left only after the reuniting of both parts of germany.), we had the english language "on our doorstep" for about 50 to 60 years. And I'm only 40 years old!

No really, it is easier to learn english than any other language. English being pretty easy itself does help. Example?

• I go - Ich gehe
• you go - Du gehst
• he goes - er geht
• we go - wir gehen
• you go - ihr geht
• they go - sie gehen

See? German is awful!

Yup, having two secondary languages (English and German) I can say that English is without a doubt the easier to learn.

My German skills are so horrible, I avoid talking about them...

All valid points, but there is one problem. Dialects. Of course this include slang, local collocualisms, etc... For example can anyone outside of London understand cockney? Can an aussie understand someone from east LA? There are over 200 dialects of english in the USA alone, and that's not counting Spanglish, Cajun-english, etc... Yes English is spoken world wide, but there are so many variations of it that even though they speak the same language they can't understand the other's dialect.

Karathyriel wrote:But your teacher was right.

Thinking in the language is really helping. When I read an english book and someone asks me something, I almost always answer in english. Same happens, when I spend some time here in the forums and then I remember that I have to write an email and suddenly I realize that I wrote it in english, sigh and start over again!

I certainly don't dispute that! I have a lot of respect for bilingual people that can manage this and I totally agree that it's what needs to happen. My problem is, I have trouble making that association.

For example, my Spanish professor would ask me something in Spanish. But the words weren't really ingrained in my mind, no matter how many times I've written, said, and studied them. So I have to translate whatever she said in Spanish to English in my head. Then come up with an English response, and translate that into Spanish. And THEN, remember how to SAY it properly. By the time I manage all that, too much time has passed and my teacher is usually lecturing me, haha.

I know it can work. With a few words here and there, I hear the word and instantly snap to a picture or image or general understanding of what it is, without going through the 'in-mind translation' hassle. But generally speaking, no matter how hard I try I have ridiculous issues trying to think in another language.

I WILL DO IT ONE DAY though. It is one of my LIFE GOALS to become fluid in another language or DIE TRYING. (Death is not preferable).

~VelkynKarma

Haha, yeah...I find I struggle the most with actually thinking in the other language. If I read a word then I say in my head the name of the word in English. I don't just associate the word directly. If that makes sense...I'm not really sure how to describe that. xD

Though as I'm learning Japanese I'm finding that it's a language I instantly 'click' with. For some reason, it's the first secondary language that I've actually been able to talk and hear directly instead of doing the midway translation to English in my head. I'm not fluent in it at all yet, but I'm picking it up rather quickly and I can't wait to take a proper course in it. So far I've just been learning myself. x)

Haha, I feel the same about my English. It might not be as good as for a native speaker, but I know enough of it, that I sometimes had to correct my teacher. Sometimes I even feel more fluid in it than i feel when talking Swedish.

And I'll thank you not to laugh...

^ By the way Karathyriel, your last post here was totally number 666. xD

*Runs around in circles, clearly panicking*

OMIGOSHOMIGOSHOMIGOSH EVIL!