elice_in_oz

It's not about best choice, most useful whatever. It is about using your BRAIN!



I give up...
You are so typically English in your outlook, you'll fit right in in Ibiza or the Dordogne.
When are you off again? Soon I hope.

chris955

You really are a very offensive person, you are French arent you?

carolinephillips

French is still a diplomatic language, and is spoken in many places worldwide- the French had an empire and colonies just like Britain did.
My daughter is off to New Caledonia at Easter for a French immersion course where she will be staying with a host family and having lessons entirely in French during the day. She did this last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. She is also having conversation classes with a native French teacher and is starring in a play entirely in French. She also corresponds in French with an artist in France and is going to do some artwork for a game he is developing.

She is quite bright, unlike her mother, who has to dig up 35 year old French to converse with her to help her practise.

chris955

Yes exactly, it is the details you dont learn from a teacher that make your spoken language so much better. I actually started to learn Indonesian when i was at school, back then it was thought that Indonesian would help in business etc, in hindsight of course Mandarin would have been a better choice

chris955

I dont doubt some others speak French, my whole point which seems to have been (deliberately) missed is that if an English speaker has to choose another language to learn what would it be seeing as English is pretty much the universal language around the world. Apart from Kevin Rudd I dont know anyone who speaks a second language

elice_in_oz

Not offensive, arrogant! Get your stereotypes right!

Lorna at Vicenza

This still begs the question though why some people get it -and so many don't.

I used my OH as an example before. He still lives in Italy but has picked up the little prepositions we use.

I have watched programmes like Gordon Ramsay Kitchen Nightmares and you can bet your boots that even though the Italian owner has lived in wherever for 20 bloody years he still says " ehii - turn off light ...... close cooker ..... mamma mia - you forget turn off gas."

Like somebody said - is it all about a good ear and pronunciation? I speak Italian very well. By all accounts people from the South can tell I'm from the North of Italy. I'm not of course. I just picked up their "twang". I know other UK people and as soon as they open their mouths you can tell they're Brits - even with brilliant Italian grammar and vocab.

elice_in_oz

You either live in a VERY different Australia from mine, or you have your head in the sand... The majority of people I know, born and bred Australians most of them, speak a language other than English. That is one of the things I love about this country

carolinephillips

My daughter chose French. That was what was offered at primary school, but she chose to continue it to IB level. She also did Latin later from Y7. She wants to learn Japanese and is teaching herself.
Some people have a love of languages and relish the opportunities to learn about different cultures. In Europe, French is very useful. Over here, Mandarin and Japanese would be better. However the school would not let her start Japanese, and now she is in Y11, won't let her continue Latin.

People with a good ear, often with musical abilities, make good learners of languages, and can more readily pronounce things correctly.

chris955

I think we are both right.

chris955

My boys are learning Japanese at school, they both seem quite good at it to be honest. I dont personally know anyone that can speak another language. It reminds me of someone on one of these forums that said all his friends know all the words of the national anthem, how would you possibly know that?

Lorna at Vicenza

Is that true?

I think I have a good ear for music and although growing up I was in the choir etc - I was never brilliant at French at school. Not brilliant but never failed.

Now I know Italian so well I have asked myself why I can speak it like a native and other Brits can have all the grammar and vocab and still sound dead English.

chris955

Of course migrants from a non English speaking country will speak a second language. You obviously move in better circles than me, i dont know a single Australian that speaks a second language (that i am aware of).

elice_in_oz

There is a thing called fossilisation in language acquisition theories. Very basically (going on what I remember from my psycholinguistic classes from almost 20 years ago ), it means that some people, most likely adult migrants, will learn the language of the country they moved to, but only to the point they need, eg. enough for their everyday or immediate needs, but will never really progress beyond that level. The level achieved will often be dependent on outside circumstances like whether they settle within their own linguistic communities, whether they need a high level for their job, etc.

There is of course a lot more to language acquisition than that, but fossilisation can explain the low levels of English in the first-generation Italian population in the USA. Often, those were people who had to leave their native country and learn a new language under difficult circumstances. It is probably quite different these days for the wealthy migrants, but it's still the same for refugees and people who are escaping from their country out of need rather than wanting to go for a different life experience like most of us on BE.

Other than that, acquiring a second language well is of course down to age, cognitive ability and more than likely a good ear for the sounds of the second language. I know of some people (the French are notorious for it ) who will consciously or not, never give up their accents, because it makes them different and for some that is a good thing. Others will be keen to blend in and try to mirror the accents around them.

elice_in_oz

You have missed the part in my post where I said