does any1 know y brits cant speak german/french/hindi but every1 can speak english to a fluent level?

i know some people on the english forum are german and their english is better than most people i know who are white british male! this has been confusing me how every1 is gd at languages aside us brits?

I second that. I've seen many people here with english as their second language, and they wrote it much better than you :P

Don't have to rub it in, you know ^^

hahaha

P.S. Another non-english foreigner

maybe because there is a general aversion against learning other languages in some coutries ...
and funny enough ...
in school we had to write english test with less faults then english people have to write their english tests ...

:beer: Gentlemen,
I just thought that I should keep the British end up by admitting that I am born British and I speak Spanish, French and Indonesian all to a high degree of communicative efficiency. I have lived all over the world and have always endeavoured to learn the local language - even learnt some Swahili when I was in Kenya.

I suppose it depends on what age the person is when they start to learn another language at school.

Secondary education is where most english students start to learn a second language. I for one hated it, probably because I had no choice of the language I wanted to learn. To be honest, I would have prefered maybes Spanish or Portuguese, but no, forced to learn French and German of which I had no interest in learning.

It has been proven that kids at a young age who are just picking up there first language also pick up a second language just as quick. Study was of Indian kids who had been born in England but who's parents couldn't speak a word of English.

I have a basic understanding of French and German. Can just about understand something that is typed, but if spoken, I haven't got a chance

Right I've looked through this reply, corrected most of my mistakes, but im sure you will all find more!

Peav

Pretty simple:
English is by far the easiest language on the planet (besides some rather unknown ones). english speaking people dont really need anything else than english. people who dont speak english need english because they are being confronted with it all the time in TV, on computers, in manuals, etc. I for one could speak english when I was 8, even though I am completely german. I was confronted with it everywhere, computer, TV (loved eurosport and sky channel) and other things. besides, american english sounds cool.
I wouldnt learn any other language, only japanese maybe because its used very much in some industries. and funny thing is that there are still only a few japanese who can speak english.

i never thought my english was that bad....

im fluent in english and hindi (but i cant write a thing in hindi lol); but my parents speak english much better than i can speak hindi (grammaticaly) and they learnt from school in india.

i know that a lot of the other members here have much better english than i do but i managed 2As in english gcse... this probs means that our educational system sucks (which is scary as i find things hard!)

could the reason also be that england had in the past such a large empire and so every1 was forced to communicate in english and it just stuck?

another thing that is confusing me is is can you get keyboards that will, say have cantonese instead of querty. i choose cantonese as its got a much longer alphabet than most languages?

I am French, go to a school in Britain (lived in the UK most of my life) and I have to say most british people are just really full of themselves and refuse to acknowledge anything non-british -> no one really wants to learn another language (seen easily in enthusiasm in lessons).

They also don't really like people coming from other countries -> I was less than welcome in my class

Maybe this applies more to people living in Kent, when I lived in Bristol I was generally welcome.

:beer:
Hi to the Forum
Some very interesting observations here in this thread. I do have to agree with 'KillerKebab' when he says that most British people are just full of themselves. I really think that this is a hangover from the days of empire, almost a learnt response.

Alas, this island is now nothing more than a little offshore nation in the north-west part of the greater Europe but it is painful for the inhabitants of said island to see themselves in this light. Time will heal this pain I am sure.

The reason for the omnipotence of the English language nowadays has much more to do with the political,economic and cultural hegemony of the United States in the post WWII environment than with any particular influence that Great Britain may have once exerted. Though, clearly, the primary language of the USA is English because it was once British.

I must take issue with MB who claims that English is the easiest language on the planet to learn. I have taught EFL around the world and my experience tells me that English is not the easiest, though it is the one that most appeals perhaps. Our language is like our nature - a bastardisation of many influences and types.

Wow, I don't think I meant to post so much!

it really would be very interesting to know what happened when german language would have won the election as world language ...
but yes english is just a better language in sound ... damn I really hate games or apps in german ... unless there is much content to understand like in Baldurs Gate
any english app always looks much more clear in english then in german

:beer:
Hi Mertsch
I think the answer to that was a lot closer than many of us care to think!

It is the American world domination that brings the English language in our livingrooms, it's everywhere, especially on the Internet where most of the sites are of course in English, I'm typing it right now!
From this perspective the development that English is so common is fairly logical.

In Holland, my beautiful country *cough*, we learn English, French and German at school and I'm glad to.

What disrupts me though is the lack of other countries which language we learn here, to learn some other foreign languages.
My French skills after a few years out of 'high school' have dropped to very little, but talking English with a Frenchy will only succeed in a few cases with some younger internet users amongst them.

The biggest agony to me however is that Germans always have to translate movies in their own language, ever heard of subtitles? I wonder if the (especially elder, not internetwise) Germans will even recognize American actors if they hear them using their own language and I guess some of them might even be disturbed that they can't speak German anymore, while they did it so fluently in the movies. :finger:

Lo ppl,
the reasone why us Brits cannot speak other languages is because of the education system here... it is not up to the standards of other countries!
Yes we get taught French, weather we like it or not... and sometimes German, but it is no way near indepth as it should be. This is due to our British stubbourness to learn other languages, when English is universally spoken.

They also don't really like people coming from other countries -> I was less than welcome in my class

I am sorry to hear about that... unfortunatly it goes on, In any country!!!

We are not full of ourselves, just proud to be British...
just like we dont all have a problem with other people comming over to our country. I for one have no problem with any nationality... Unfortunatly at the moment there is a big problem with people comming over here taking the piss out of our generosity!