| Welcome to Exit Mundi Forums. We hope you enjoy your visit. You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
| Ruler of the World; Bow Down | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Aug 8 2006, 04:56 PM (601 Views) | |
| Tom Joad | Aug 9 2006, 01:51 PM Post #16 |
|
Gap tooth so my dick's got to fit.
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
If you say we need an external threat, then we need an alien invasion. English is already becoming a universal language. More people speak Chinese, but English is used in most international business transactions and such. |
| |
![]() |
|
| Necronomicon | Aug 9 2006, 02:57 PM Post #17 |
![]()
omar comin' yo
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
If only Esperanto had caught on. |
| omar yo. omar comin | |
![]() |
|
| 严加华 | Aug 9 2006, 03:48 PM Post #18 |
|
Magister Ludicrous
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Esperanto didn't catch on because it was a crap language. It made every mistake that a truly universal language has to avoid.
Now to be fair to Dr. Zamenhof, most of this is really not his fault. Linguistics as a field didn't exist when Dr. Zamenhof had his idea and the notion of sophisticated languages without alphabets, without inflection--without, in effect, all the stuff we parochial Euro-Indic speakers think "belongs" to languages--was entirely alien to the experience of most. The only two things I really blame Zamenhof for are the really hideous pronunciation scheme and the fact that there's no general mechanism in place to modify and grow the language. But it still doesn't change the fact that Esperanto is a horrible language to use as a universal world language or auxilliary language. What's really needed is a language designed by actual linguists that is field-trialed around the world for ease of learning and adoption.
You're a little bit (but only a little) behind the times. With the Dragon of the East's awakening, more and more businessmen are learning Chinese to be competetive. A friend of mine (best man at my wedding, in fact) took a Mandarin course after coming to China and was in a class of 30. He was the only person there who wasn't sent to the course by his company because they wanted to do business in China. Yes, English is basically the lingua franca for trade right now, but like every lingua franca before it English too will fade away and die. And my guess is that the next lingua franca will be Mandarin. |
LC Sez:
| |
![]() |
|
| Irockwayhard | Aug 9 2006, 05:45 PM Post #19 |
|
Disgraced Dictator
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
More people speak Mandarin as their first language, but how many are taught English along with their native language? I'd think that number would be huge. Also, wasn't William Shatner in a movie shot in Esperanto? |
|
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." - Albert Einstein | |
![]() |
|
| Dr. Jim | Aug 9 2006, 06:13 PM Post #20 |
|
Nihil estis, Omnes sum
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Actually, alien invasion is the perfect one. Another instance might be a major catastrophe that causes us to start from scratch, such as an impact or something. |
|
...Matt was no exception to this. When he stood in the street and noticed his chest started to really hurt again, he made the decision to look down. He screamed like a grown man would scream when that grown man sees a laser burning his chest, and that is like a little girl... -From Super Naked Moose Man | |
![]() |
|
| 严加华 | Aug 10 2006, 03:45 AM Post #21 |
|
Magister Ludicrous
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
There are a billion native Mandarin speakers (sort of -- it gets complicated). There are anywhere from half a billion to 1.5 billion speakers of English (note: not native speakers of English!) depending on how you count it and which dialects you're willing to consider English. (Is Singlish considered English? Not if mutual comprehension is the measure....) But you're missing my point. My point is that English is dominant now. Just like historically many languages were dominant. (Follow the link I provided for a list.) But English is on the decline as America falls. And nowadays more and more heads are turning to China. Several major European corporations (especially automobile manufacturers) require their executives to learn Chinese. (BMW is one of those, as is Citroen.) Increasingly having "Mandarin" as a language on your resume is a foot into jobs. More and more people are learning Mandarin because it is becoming more and more important to trade. My prediction is that before I die I will see the early stages of Mandarin as the lingua franca of international trade. |
LC Sez:
| |
![]() |
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
|
|
| « Previous Topic · Politics and Religion · Next Topic » |
- Pages:
- 1
- 2





![]](http://z2.ifrm.com/static/1/pip_r.png)






12:35 AM Jul 11