Really makes me appreciate the dual langage country I live in, even though most people are not bilingual, it still gave me the tools and opportunity to learn English.
I still feel that if you know English, you can usually get by in most modern countries, so there's not as much encitive for native English speaker to learn another langage.

Honestly, english is boring. I'm not saying that because it's all I've known, but like the Louis C.K. bit goes, it just sounds so unenthusiastic and dull. Other languages have that crackling energy, while english just slides out (barely, for most americans.)

You would get different opinions from non-native english speakers, I tried to post some french music videos and one french person basically told me French was just not suited for musics, and I can relate to that, as it's not as incisive a langage as english is.
French is a complicated mess of rules, grammar and spelling that makes little sense, it's so old and kept so many of the olde ways, english is simpler and straight to the point.

Really makes me appreciate the dual langage country I live in, even though most people are not bilingual, it still gave me the tools and opportunity to learn English.
I still feel that if you know English, you can usually get by in most modern countries, so there's not as much encitive for native English speaker to learn another langage.

Honestly, english is boring. I'm not saying that because it's all I've known, but like the Louis C.K. bit goes, it just sounds so unenthusiastic and dull. Other languages have that crackling energy, while english just slides out (barely, for most americans.)

You would get different opinions from non-native english speakers, I tried to post some french music videos and one french person basically told me French was just not suited for musics, and I can relate to that, as it's not as incisive a langage as english is.
French is a complicated mess of rules, grammar and spelling that makes little sense, it's so old and kept so many of the olde ways, english is simpler and straight to the point.

I guess it's mostly the speakers that I have a problem with, as opposed to the language itself. haha

I guess it's mostly the speakers that I have a problem with, as opposed to the language itself. haha

Can't argue with that!

I'm a Forza 4 widow.

You would get different opinions from non-native english speakers, I tried to post some french music videos and one french person basically told me French was just not suited for musics, and I can relate to that, as it's not as incisive a langage as english is.
French is a complicated mess of rules, grammar and spelling that makes little sense, it's so old and kept so many of the olde ways, english is simpler and straight to the point.

Yep', t'was me. Talking about that, there was a program on TV the other day saying that French speakers have a harder time being good at other languages after 10-12 y.o. than many other people, because IIRC that program, French has less harmonics. They were comparing French to Russian, and Russian had more harmonic, even in normal talking. French also has more pause, Russian has a smoother flow. So basically by speaking only French we kind of limit our learning ability, as we'll struggle speaking languages that require more harmonics (as our throat or something in the brain (I can't remember) has kind of lost the ability to produce those harmonics)
Also I once read a site telling how a large majority of French opera singers come from the south of France, where there's a heavier accent. And also, how many French teachers have voice problems, while this happens much less in countries with a "sung language" (Spanish, Italian...)

There may also be less diphtongs (or less use of said diphtongs) in French than many other languages.

Well for Stubear, my grip with French for singing is that if the singer hasn't a strong vocal personality (and sadly IMO, they're rather rare), the words' meaning will hit me before the words' sound, and I'm more of a "mood listener", than a "meaning listener" (if that makes any sense^^). And, it may be a cultural thing, but it seems like a lot of my fellow Frenchmen prefer meaning over mood.
I would say the same about German, it's tough to make it sound good for singing, though not impossible (Rammstein.

I don't know what I'd think, if I were English. And I can see btw, how it may be more difficult for an English speaker to choose another language, than for a non-English to just learn English^^

Sometimes I speak to people whom I am 98% positive can speak English, but choose not to so they can avoid conversation like the douchebags they are.

Still, I would like to expand upon Spanish, which I took a course for in high school, and I know more than a handful of words. German would be fun to learn, as well (beyond what I've gathered from black metal albums and arthouse films).

I'm pretty ashamed I don't know any other languages aside from English, the American school system really drops the ball on teaching other languages early. Now my brain just doesn't work like that, I can;t absorb languages. And I've tried, 3 years of Italian in high school and two semesters of it in college that actually added up to four semesters as it was a five day a week class. And what do I know of Italian now? Jack.

[Octillus]

I comprehend key phrases of several languages, and I can understand Spanish pretty okay from years of working in a kitchen, nonetheless I can't really speak it beyond several phrases either. American schools fail for many reasons, this being one of them.

In other news, if someone would ever by me this collector's item at the top of this page, I would love them long time: http://www.boneville.com/store/

Bone has always been my biggest influence creatively, at least on the dream projects. Jeff Smith's by all accounts, a totally stand up guy, and did the bulk of his run from the town I grew up in. Completely self-published his cartoon epic. What a champ.



I have the black and white collection which is how the story was originally intended, but wow, the color is glorious:

Really makes me appreciate the dual langage country I live in, even though most people are not bilingual, it still gave me the tools and opportunity to learn English.
I still feel that if you know English, you can usually get by in most modern countries, so there's not as much encitive for native English speaker to learn another langage.

It's funny how in western Canada its mandatory to learn French as a second language until 4th grade. Really kind of useless out here with the way things are going I think learning Arab as a second language would prove to be a lot more useful.

lol

[JuZ]

Sometimes I speak to people whom I am 98% positive can speak English, but choose not to so they can avoid conversation like the douchebags they are.

Still, I would like to expand upon Spanish, which I took a course for in high school, and I know more than a handful of words. German would be fun to learn, as well (beyond what I've gathered from black metal albums and arthouse films).

In my old line of work it used to happen all the time. I'd be talking to someone who clearly understood every single question or direction I gave them and would often actually hold a full conversation with me.

Then the moment they were in what they perceived to be "trouble", even though they often weren't, the lips slammed shut, the hand started waving furiously and the most I could possibly get out of them was "no English".

Never worked though. If anything it just made me wonder what they were hiding.



Tragically I'm yet to visit non-English speaking countries for a significant period of time but I'm planning to do some travelling through South East Asia in a couple of years. I'll let you know then, Silje.

kind of funny, when i worked at the casino there were (and probably still are) lots of chinese and 'american' people playin' and gamblin', and when they approached us asking us to do a credit card transaction or cash a cheque, their spanish-talking abilities just seemed to disappear. granted, some just were downright fucking douches who didnt care for learning the language of the country they were currently living in, reeking of arrogance (and garlic in the case of the chinese dudes).

and once at the pharmacy during a nightshift a dude from the us and his hooker stopped by to buy some stuff, the jerk saw it fit to insult me when i asked them if they had a prescription (for the day after pill), needless to say i told them to go fuck themselves in good ol' english.

for some reason, wherever i go, im the one doing the translation wish these lazy chileans would learn another language or that the arrogant foreign pricks would learn a couple of words in spanish, ffs.

So Chris Brown is playing in my town tonight and everyone is writing about how excited they are on Facebook. I don't get it. He beat the living shit out of a girl so bad she went to the hospital. It's not like he slapped her or something which would be bad enough. No, he fucking went the extra mile and pummeled her face into a steering wheel. And yet people are paying obscene amounts of money excitedly to go see this shitstain. I don't get it.

So Chris Brown is playing in my town tonight and everyone is writing about how excited they are on Facebook. I don't get it. He beat the living shit out of a girl so bad she went to the hospital. It's not like he slapped her or something which would be bad enough. No, he fucking went the extra mile and pummeled her face into a steering wheel. And yet people are paying obscene amounts of money excitedly to go see this shitstain. I don't get it.

the thing is, people are imbeciles.

the thing is, people are imbeciles.

+23

^The three posts above me.

Fucking yes.