Joy Depression
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Aug 8, 2024
As a Brit and addressing the topic of the fact most of us know fuck all except English and kids all over Europe can speak 3 or 4 languages fluently by the time they are 5.
To start with European schools teach foreign languages to kids as soon as they start school- the best age to learn, it's easy for kids to learn anything. British schools it isn't an option until you reach secondary at age 11 or 12, where you study it a little for a couple years then you have a choice what subjects to study for your GCSEs where you can drop it if you want. Once you reach adulthood, learning something like a foreign language to fluency from either scratch or very little takes a lot of time and effort (this has to include immersion and speaking it with other speakers, not 5 mins on an app every other day).
Depending where you live in the island of Great Britain- yes we all know London and the big English cities are multi-cultured as fuck, but live in a small town in the North there isn't so much. And in Scotland there are more sheep than people. So if you live in a town with little multiculturalism who are you going to speak your French to? There's probably a French person there somewhere if you go out of your way to seek them out, and they're going to wonder why the hell you are stalking them.
What about online to try out your foreign language? Isn't the internet English? Where the fuck do you even find French or German websites, again you'd have to intentionally seek this shit out.
Schools teach us French to speak it in France right, what if we visit Paris on a holiday (vacation) and want to order in a French cafe or ask for a ticket to the Louvre? Little snag there- the Parisians can speak English much better than most Brits can, and at any tourist attraction (the areas you would be going to) people will be fluent, so you aren't going to actually need any French. Not to worry, you can still try out your French so all those dozens and dozens of hours learning it didn't go to waste right? If you mangle it and say it in your own accent (which you probably will) then even if you are understood chances are they will just reply to you in English. Yes a waiter here and there might entertain you by acting impressed you can ask fpr l'addition svp but most people are busy and can't be arsed being your personal French tutor.
You trying to speak French in Paris: Excuse-moi, ou sont la magasin pour les nouritture j'ai suis la faim pour le mangez sil vous plait et merci beacoup [said in heavy Scouse accent]
French person: For the love of Christ please just speak English. If you're hungry there's a bakery around the corner there
If you didn't learn French properly at a very young age and your knowledge comes from one year of seconday school from 20 years ago topped up by a couple of Youtube videos and a few rounds of Duolingo, that's what you're going to sound like.
I've had people (including older than myself) learn x and y on DuoLingo and ask why am I not learning French or German? I don't know any French or German people, I'm an adult and if I go on holiday(vacation) it will be to a tourist area where people speak English and only want to speak English to non-locals. It's a lot of effort for fuck all other than the novelty of telling people I have a higher leaderboard score on duo fucking lingo.
One more point- French looks similar to English and if you are navigating your way around Paris with zero knowledge of French you could easily use context to work out what French signs mean.
I'm not saying knowing a 2nd language is bad (it's not, it's great), I'm saying for a lot of people who are adults there isn't any point.
To start with European schools teach foreign languages to kids as soon as they start school- the best age to learn, it's easy for kids to learn anything. British schools it isn't an option until you reach secondary at age 11 or 12, where you study it a little for a couple years then you have a choice what subjects to study for your GCSEs where you can drop it if you want. Once you reach adulthood, learning something like a foreign language to fluency from either scratch or very little takes a lot of time and effort (this has to include immersion and speaking it with other speakers, not 5 mins on an app every other day).
Depending where you live in the island of Great Britain- yes we all know London and the big English cities are multi-cultured as fuck, but live in a small town in the North there isn't so much. And in Scotland there are more sheep than people. So if you live in a town with little multiculturalism who are you going to speak your French to? There's probably a French person there somewhere if you go out of your way to seek them out, and they're going to wonder why the hell you are stalking them.
What about online to try out your foreign language? Isn't the internet English? Where the fuck do you even find French or German websites, again you'd have to intentionally seek this shit out.
Schools teach us French to speak it in France right, what if we visit Paris on a holiday (vacation) and want to order in a French cafe or ask for a ticket to the Louvre? Little snag there- the Parisians can speak English much better than most Brits can, and at any tourist attraction (the areas you would be going to) people will be fluent, so you aren't going to actually need any French. Not to worry, you can still try out your French so all those dozens and dozens of hours learning it didn't go to waste right? If you mangle it and say it in your own accent (which you probably will) then even if you are understood chances are they will just reply to you in English. Yes a waiter here and there might entertain you by acting impressed you can ask fpr l'addition svp but most people are busy and can't be arsed being your personal French tutor.
You trying to speak French in Paris: Excuse-moi, ou sont la magasin pour les nouritture j'ai suis la faim pour le mangez sil vous plait et merci beacoup [said in heavy Scouse accent]
French person: For the love of Christ please just speak English. If you're hungry there's a bakery around the corner there
If you didn't learn French properly at a very young age and your knowledge comes from one year of seconday school from 20 years ago topped up by a couple of Youtube videos and a few rounds of Duolingo, that's what you're going to sound like.
I've had people (including older than myself) learn x and y on DuoLingo and ask why am I not learning French or German? I don't know any French or German people, I'm an adult and if I go on holiday(vacation) it will be to a tourist area where people speak English and only want to speak English to non-locals. It's a lot of effort for fuck all other than the novelty of telling people I have a higher leaderboard score on duo fucking lingo.
One more point- French looks similar to English and if you are navigating your way around Paris with zero knowledge of French you could easily use context to work out what French signs mean.
I'm not saying knowing a 2nd language is bad (it's not, it's great), I'm saying for a lot of people who are adults there isn't any point.
