Is English Nativity a Blessing or a Curse? - SPEAK 'MURRICAN

[Unassuming Local Guy]

Learning English as your second language is like making your own primitive tools in a survival situation. You can exist without them, but you'll prosper with them.

Learning a non-English language with English as your first language is like making your own primitive tools in your backyard. Fun if that's what you're into, and it's good to keep your brain sharp, but completely unnecessary and you'll forget they ever existed in a couple years.

 

[Dick Justice]

Learning English as your second language is like making your own primitive tools in a survival situation. You can exist without them, but you'll prosper with them.

Learning a non-English language with English as your first language is like making your own primitive tools in your backyard. Fun if that's what you're into, and it's good to keep your brain sharp, but completely unnecessary and you'll forget they ever existed in a couple years.

Surely that assessment is location dependent, no?

 

[Unassuming Local Guy]

Surely that assessment is location dependent, no?

20, 30 years ago yes. In an extremely interconnected world that's only going to become moreso as time goes on, I don't think so. The earth has chosen its universal language and you will always be at a disadvantage not knowing it unless you've somehow managed to avoid the tendrils of globalism. Maybe if you live in a remote village somewhere, but most people don't.

I don't like it any more than you do, but that's the way of things now. In 50 years every country is going to be the same global consumer blandscape as every other country. We're already basically there.

 

[LinkinParkxNaruto[AMV]]

would not call it a blessing, it more of a requirement since so much stuff is in english and you miss out of engaging with it if you don't understand it. Even as a kid i knew i had to understand english just to get through the legend of zelda dialogues and be able to read Mtg cards because media usually is imported directly from the States so it was always more common to find the US version in english rather than native language localizations.

But i was never a big fan of the language though, i like latin tongues way more, learning english was always just an utilitarian choice. Its just what you use to communicate online.

 

[Aidan]

I think #2 is the most practical and easiest to manage. There seem to be far more English-learning resources out there and it's easier to get embedded in English-speaking culture since that's most of the normal internet. You will inevitably find a corner of the English-speaking internet that you like and can stumble around in until you're more fluent and can branch out.

As an English speaker doing the same to try to pick up on other languages it seems more difficult and when you do, people tend to want to speak English with you to practice their own fluency.

 

[jje100010001]

1. People who learn English as their first language
2. People who learn another major language such as French, German, Russian, Hindi, etc. as their first language.
3. People who learn a minor language as their first language and by necessity have to learn another language to engage with the wider world.

Ignoring any notions on the quality of English vs other languages, being bilingual in the second category is a blessing especially if you gain total English fluency at a younger age and hit that accent sweet spot (though it depends on what language you speak, some languages have awful accents) IMO. US-Anglo culture is like a powerful background noise- omnipresent and nearly impossible to avoid in many countries, and learning English allows you to engage with that culture.

I think it's apt to compare learning other languages to acquiring keys- like what many people are saying, learning English basically unlocks most of the West for you, while speaking another major language (i.e. Spanish, French) unlocks those specific areas of the world for you.

The first option is harder because you can navigate most of the developed world with English and thus you won't be pushed out of your comfort zone as often (but end up locked out of getting the full potential of other language zones), while the third option essentially only unlocks the West for you as minor languages, are often useful only in specific regions- though still useful for getting intermediary positions like translation. That being said, in most parts of the world, you will usually learn a secondary major language (i.e. Belarusian > Russian) before you learn English, so you'd be talking about trilingualism.

On the other, I do wonder if it would have been harder to learn another language if English was my first. There's no gendered language, very weak conjugation and suffix use (e.g: Amo, Amas, Amant) and it's in my personal opinion very....Blunt.

To an extent, I think language and the ability of it to express certain ideas can alter or shape how you think. I find it very difficult to express more nuanced feelings in English; the word for love is the prime example. Anglophones have a single word to cover everything from "I like this" to "I would die for you right now". Contrast this to Sanskrit with at least ninety-six and the ability to specifically identify different strengths, types and levels of attachment.

IMO, English is a great language for business and factual discussion but with exception to some Germanic influenced ones like Swedish and the very reserved modern Japanese possibly one of the single worst for a deep personal conversation or literature.

I do wonder if it's the product of Anglo society itself, which might value directness over nuance (which also ends up influencing things like contracts and law).

 

[HunterHearstHelmsley]

English is the best language but unfortunately the advent of mass media has made Anglosphere a monoculture. At least being Japanese or Vietnamese or Italian or Swedish you will have a significant amount of domestically produced media. Hollywood and the American TV studios have hollowed out the Canadian, Australian and UK industries. There’s a reason we all support globalhomo now.