Language Policy of the European Union

[Bast]

It should be made into law, IMHO.

English is the best candidate for a lingua franca (appreciate the irony) in Europe. No continental nation speaks it, and except the French nobody hates it too much. And with all due respect to the French, they should shut up already - I see no reason why French should have a better status in the EU than German.

My personal goal is to become fluent in English and then learn German. English+German = ability to communicate with majority of Europeans outside France

Are you not fluent in English?

 

[Mirc]

I mean, in practice, "Native + 2 others" and "Native + English + 1 other" are kind of the same thing.

Exactly. I'm opposed to making Native + English + 1 official "path" of learning, simply because Native + 2 will for now yield exactly the same results right now, but will be more flexible in the future in case that anything happens.

 

[Camikaze]

My personal goal is to become fluent in English

Aw, Winner, you're beating yourself up too much. From what I've read, you are fluent in English.

 

[Cato the Elder]

Exactly. I'm opposed to making Native + English + 1 official "path" of learning, simply because Native + 2 will for now yield exactly the same results right now, but will be more flexible in the future in case that anything happens.

I agree with this lad.

Also, Winner, I agree with all the rest here, your English is near perfect. The only real mistakes I've seen you make occasionally can be blamed on the typical Slavic disdain for articles.

 

[Reno]

As a person who has studied English, German, and Swedish as foreign languages (and plan to continue doing so in University as well), I find it pointless to specify it to native + English + 1 since that is mostly the case already; it wouldn't really make a difference.

Everyone in the European Union should speak Proto-Indo-European. (sorry basques/finns/estonians/hungarians)

Never! We like our language just too much.

 

[Winner]

Are you not fluent in English?

Aw, Winner, you're beating yourself up too much. From what I've read, you are fluent in English.

Thanks for the pep talk, guys, but for me being fluent means that you don't have to think about every sentence you're writing.

Also, Winner, I agree with all the rest here, your English is near perfect. The only real mistakes I've seen you make occasionally can be blamed on the typical Slavic disdain for articles.

Yeah, that's something I've never really understood correctly

Anyway, a lot of people in this country pick German over English at high school. And in any case, English lessons tend to suck due to the lack of good English teachers. If the EU made English mandatory, perhaps the situation would improve.

 

[Truronian]

Thanks for the pep talk, guys, but for me being fluent means that you don't have to think about every sentence you're writing.

In that case I'm not fluent.

 

[Mirc]

And in any case, English lessons tend to suck due to the lack of good English teachers.

I have the same problem. Seriously, my English teacher pronounces English with an accent that makes it impossible even for me to understand it, even though we have the same native language.

"Vile I have bin in za Ünited Kingdom, I have sin ol zose places zat zis book is toking ab-bout, if I would not go zer, I would not now"

What kind of English am I supposed to pick up from her??

Thanks for the pep talk, guys, but for me being fluent means that you don't have to think about every sentence you're writing.

What about speaking? Or thinking, can you think in English? That's the most important step, after you learn the basics of a language, IMO.

 

[Winner]

I have the same problem. Seriously, my English teacher pronounces English with an accent that makes it impossible even for me to understand it, even though we have the same native language.

"Vile I have bin in za Ünited Kingdom, I have sin ol zose places zat zis book is toking ab-bout, if I would not go zer, I would not now"

What kind of English am I supposed to pick up from her??

Sounds awfully like Czenglish

During the 8 years I've spent at grammar school (until this day I have no idea how to translate the Czech "gymnázium" properly), I've had about 7 different English teachers. The last two were good (almost native pronunciation), but they came too late to change anything. If it was up to me, most of my classmates would not have made it through the final exams.

What about speaking? Or thinking, can you think in English?

Yeah, I think I can. I certainly don't think of the sentence in Czech first and then translate it, that would be very difficult.

That's the most important step, after you learn the basics of a language, IMO.

Sometimes I have dreams in English - funny that in the dreams, speaking comes completely naturally Of course when I think about it after I wake up, I realize it was just gibberish

 

[Mirc]

Sounds awfully like Czenglish

Yeah, but this didn't sound like the normal Romglish, I have no idea how she got that accent.... Especially with the inability to pronounce U and to differentiate between W and V (which should be very easy for us).

During the 8 years I've spent at grammar school (until this day I have no idea how to translate the Czech "gymnázium" properly), I've had about 7 different English teachers.

Here "gimnaziu" means "middle school", grades 5th-8th. Doesn't it mean the same over there? Or does it mean 1st - 8th?

Yeah, I think I can. I certainly don't think of the sentence in Czech first and then translate it, that would be very difficult.

Sometimes I have dreams in English - funny that in the dreams, speaking comes completely naturally Of course when I think about it after I wake up, I realize it was just gibberish

Maybe you don't remember it after you wake up...? I had my first dream in English when I first went to an English-speaking country (Britain was my first).

Anyway, if you don't need to translate the sentences from your language, I'd call that a reasonable amount of fluency, even if you sometimes require time to think the wording over. Just my opinion.

 

[Verbose]

I don't think we need an actually enforced EU language policy. The kind of recommendations there are now is just fine by me. Who is against people knowing languages? It's like being against knowledge in general.

But IF there was going to be some kind of legislation enforced, I would accept going with two compulsory foreign languages: English, for now, and Latin, for the future.

If there's enough political will to do something as radical as this, to regulate language use, then making everyone develop and working knowledge of Latin for EU purposes isn't that much harder than making everyone communicate in English. There are nice historical precedents for Latin, and it is the "neutral" choice.

 

[Winner]

I don't think we need an actually enforced EU language policy. The kind of recommendations there are now is just fine by me. Who is against people knowing languages? It's like being against knowledge in general.

But IF there was going to be some kind of legislation enforced, I would accept going with two compulsory foreign languages: English, for now, and Latin, for the future.

If there's enough political will to do something as radical as this, to regulate language use, then making everyone develop and working knowledge of Latin for EU purposes isn't that much harder than making everyone communicate in English. There are nice historical precedents for Latin, and it is the "neutral" choice.

I don't know why, but the idea of Latin-speaking European Union seems very cool to me I'd love to see all the US religious nuts rambling about the resurrection of the Beast, the final reappearance of the Roman Empire and whatnot

But I heard that Latin is really difficult to learn.

 

[Krill]

Anybody that speaks just one language, and has never bothered to learn any other, is an ignorant idiot, or English.

Some of us have difficulty remembering one language, and thanks to government policy to not teach a foreign language in primary school, my generation will have few linguists. I'd love to be able to speak another language, but unfortunately that's a skill I'll likely never have now.

 

[Mirc]

I don't know why, but the idea of Latin-speaking European Union seems very cool to me I'd love to see all the US religious nuts rambling about the resurrection of the Beast, the final reappearance of the Roman Empire and whatnot

Same here.

But I heard that Latin is really difficult to learn.

I don't think we'd learn the most correct and literal classical Latin if we'd do that (after all that was a constructed language!), so I don't think we'll have problems with that.

 

[Winner]

Here "gimnaziu" means "middle school", grades 5th-8th. Doesn't it mean the same over there? Or does it mean 1st - 8th?

5th - 9th + high school, all in one. Basically, these schools have a good reputation here in the Czech Rep.; people who go there are expected to go to college after they graduate. The education provided there is more thorough than that you receive at high school; usually, "gymnázium" offers a specialization in something (languages, mostly).

 

[Mirc]

5th - 9th + high school, all in one. Basically, these schools have a good reputation here in the Czech Rep.; people who go there are expected to go to college after they graduate. The education provided there is more thorough than that you receive at high school; usually, "gymnázium" offers a specialization in something (languages, mostly).

I see... I don't think English has a term for that... So you have 13 years of school? Or is highschool just 3 years long?

 

[innonimatu]

It should be made into law, IMHO.

English is the best candidate for a lingua franca (appreciate the irony) in Europe. No continental nation speaks it, and except the French nobody hates it too much.

What irony? Don't think that lingua franca originally had anything to do with french - when the expression was created french didn't even exist (or rather, existed as a collection of different dialects).

And why make any laws about languages to be taught for the EU? What right, or need, does the EU bureaucracy has to rule over what languages its citizens learn?
Well, I can see the need, or at least the use of it - bureaucracies always try to reduce their subjects to an easy-to administer mass...

 

[Winner]

Same here.

I don't think we'd learn the most correct and literal classical Latin if we'd do that (after all that was a constructed language!), so I don't think we'll have problems with that.

Well, you people who speak Romance languages would surely find it easy. The rest of us not so much

 

[Mirc]

What irony? Don't think that lingua franca originally had anything to do with french - when the expression was created french didn't even exist (or rather, existed as a collection of different dialects).

Ironically it meant Frankish language, and that was a Germanic language. But the language itself (the one that was originally referred to under this name) was a mix between various languages of the Romance arch. That's pretty ironic IMHO.

Well, you people who speak Romance languages would surely find it easy. The rest of us not so much

Of course it will be easier for us, but what I meant is that we wouldn't need to learn the difficult thing they are teaching in universities today, since nobody ever actually used that language for everyday communication. (Classical Latin having been constructed from Vulgar Latin as a literally language)

 

[Winner]

What irony? Don't think that lingua franca originally had anything to do with french - when the expression was created french didn't even exist (or rather, existed as a collection of different dialects).

It means "language of the Franks" as far as I know.

And why make any laws about languages to be taught for the EU? What right, or need, does the EU bureaucracy has to rule over what languages its citizens learn?
Well, I can see the need, or at least the use of it - bureaucracies always try to reduce their subjects to an easy-to administer mass...

It's in the EU interest to create a European demos. EU should make a directive asking the member states to make English (or some other language chosen by the member states to become the new official language) compulsory at schools. If the directive was observed and suceeded, in 30 years we'd have a population which would be able to communicate in one language.

This would boost the formation of European nation immensely - we need to get rid of the language barrier.