Do you think it's mandatory to learn English?

[Ailcua]

Chinese may have the numbers, but English is universal. Do you think it's necessary for people to have at least an understanding of the English language? 

[nkaretnikov]

Hello! 

I believe that English is one of the most '"translated to" languages, so as nowadays computers use vast number of people translated text to find the perfect match in the translate to language pair, learn it and then using google translate apl talk to anyone

[Alina K]

English is a lingua franca of XXI century. And in my opinion, it should be the primary competence of every single millennial to speak it. 

If you don't speak English in our time you're handicapped, same like if you never learned to use a computer and Internet. It's not deadly, you can survive without it for sure, but a huge chunk of good stuff will necessary get past you.

Just compare how many awesome books there are in English that are not translated (and will never be) to other languages. And I'm not talking about fiction; I'm talking about practical books on fastly developing subjects: marketing, business, investment, programming and SEO, personal development, skill acquisition - I can continue forever.

English opens you doors to the whole world (unlike Chinese, by the way). There is not much difference between the total number of speakers of these two languages: it's around 1,1 billions both (Ethnologue, 2017), but there's a difference in the quality of these speakers. With Chinese you can connect to a single nation solely. With English - to everyone who managed to learned it; and I'm sorry but it's around 750 millions of L2 speakers from all around the globe!

If you don't plan to travel, it's not gonna touch you anyway, so you may not speak English very well. But you should have at least reading competence. 100%

[linguaholic]

19 hours ago, Alina K said:

English is a lingua franca of XXI century. And in my opinion, it should be the primary competence of every single millennial to speak it. 

If you don't speak English in our time you're handicapped, same like if you never learned to use a computer and Internet. It's not deadly, you can survive without it for sure, but a huge chunk of good stuff will necessary get past you.

Just compare how many awesome books there are in English that are not translated (and will never be) to other languages. And I'm not talking about fiction; I'm talking about practical books on fastly developing subjects: marketing, business, investment, programming and SEO, personal development, skill acquisition - I can continue forever.

English opens you doors to the whole world (unlike Chinese, by the way). There is not much difference between the total number of speakers of these two languages: it's around 1,1 billions both (Ethnologue, 2017), but there's a difference in the quality of these speakers. With Chinese you can connect to a single nation solely. With English - to everyone who managed to learned it; and I'm sorry but it's around 750 millions of L2 speakers from all around the globe!

If you don't plan to travel, it's not gonna touch you anyway, so you may not speak English very well. But you should have at least reading competence. 100%

Hey Alina

I do agree with most of what you said. However, Chinese is pretty useful too. and it is a fascinating language, after all. But English does make more sense from a "lingua franca" point of view. At least for now. There is no doubt about that. 

Oh and by the way. Thanks so much for joining linguaholic.com. It is great to have you here!

Best, 
 

L

[Alina K]

14 hours ago, linguaholic said:

Hey Alina

I do agree with most of what you said. However, Chinese is pretty useful too. and it is a fascinating language, after all. But English does make more sense from a "lingua franca" point of view. At least for now. There is no doubt about that. 

Oh and by the way. Thanks so much for joining linguaholic.com. It is great to have you here!

Best, 
 

L

For sure, speaking any foreign language is a huge advantage, whether it's English, or Mandarin, or Haitian Creole. Otherwise anglophones could just relax and wait when the rest of the world learn English

I think the "value" of a language always depends on specific needs of an individual. If I'm planning to study in Athens, I better learn some Greek. If I'm packing for pilgrimage to Tibet, I would rather speak Tibetan.

English is the most valuable for the majority of people not because it is better in any way, but because of its status of international language. So you're right, if one day the situation changes, it will make sense to learn another lingua franca.

P.S. Thanks for your warm welcome! It's always great to join like-minded community

[linguaholic]

2 hours ago, Alina K said:

For sure, speaking any foreign language is a huge advantage, whether it's English, or Mandarin, or Haitian Creole. Otherwise anglophones could just relax and wait when the rest of the world learn English

I think the "value" of a language always depends on specific needs of an individual. If I'm planning to study in Athens, I better learn some Greek. If I'm packing for pilgrimage to Tibet, I would rather speak Tibetan.

English is the most valuable for the majority of people not because it is better in any way, but because of its status of international language. So you're right, if one day the situation changes, it will make sense to learn another lingua franca.

P.S. Thanks for your warm welcome! It's always great to join like-minded community

Completely agree with you, Alina. 

[Evakone]

On 8/14/2018 at 5:13 AM, Alina K said:

For sure, speaking any foreign language is a huge advantage, whether it's English, or Mandarin, or Haitian Creole. Otherwise anglophones could just relax and wait when the rest of the world learn English

I think the "value" of a language always depends on specific needs of an individual. If I'm planning to study in Athens, I better learn some Greek. If I'm packing for pilgrimage to Tibet, I would rather speak Tibetan.

English is the most valuable for the majority of people not because it is better in any way, but because of its status of international language. So you're right, if one day the situation changes, it will make sense to learn another lingua franca.

P.S. Thanks for your warm welcome! It's always great to join like-minded community

I think so too