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Here is the main value I see in knowing other languages in actual practice and to use them as opposed to just learning them academically.

A language represents a framework of how people see the world around them. To know other languages is to understand how different peoples perceive the world and respond to it. Vocabulary, constructs, and ideas which can be communicated are not universal constants, they vary from people to people. Sadly, too many around the world are caught in the trap of thinking there is but only one framework in which to understand everything, and they, their culture, and their language is that framework. Such is a guaranteed recipe for dissaggreement and conflict. On the flip side of the coin, if you have to dissaggree and have to conflict then it pays to understand your enemy and how he/she thinks and sees the world.

I've gotten zero work related bonuses out of knowing anything but English (except when I was overseas in the Far East). Yet, languages other than English and the interactions with non-English speakers has broadened my life in only the way that perhaps world travel (not tourism) can.

My $0.02 for the highjacked thread.

A language represents a framework of how people see the world around them. To know other languages is to understand how different peoples perceive the world and respond to it. Vocabulary, constructs, and ideas which can be communicated are not universal constants, they vary from people to people.

Very ture.

As Douglas Adams correctly observed in HHGTTG

"The best way not to be unhappy is not to have a word for it"

Eddy
 
That Euro-English is a freakin riot.  I will be forwarding this language breakthough to mutiple parties this evening.  Perhaps the USA should join in the use of this simplified language-what a vonderful vorld it vud be.

ORIGINAL: alaric99x
...I mean the Euro-English thing.

It's a copy&paste of a very old joke someone send me - somehow I thought of it when reading the thread and had to dig deep in my mailbox to find it again

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

ORIGINAL: MarkShot
A language represents a framework of how people see the world around them. To know other languages is to understand how different peoples perceive the world and respond to it. Vocabulary, constructs, and ideas which can be communicated are not universal constants, they vary from people to people. Sadly, too many around the world are caught in the trap of thinking there is but only one framework in which to understand everything, and they, their culture, and their language is that framework. Such is a guaranteed recipe for dissaggreement and conflict. On the flip side of the coin, if you have to dissaggree and have to conflict then it pays to understand your enemy and how he/she thinks and sees the world.

"Your language defines the way you perceive the world" is an old idea and a very recent study by neurolinguist Henny Bijleveld as it appeared in the French language magazine Equilibre shows there's actually some truth behind it.

It starts from the observation that there's some sort of border running through Europe, dividing it into a northern half that's more pro-active and a southern half that's more conceptual/argumentative in their actions and thought. A comparative study between the Dutch (northern) and French (southern) languages show that this is reflected in their respective languages

My initial thoughts on this is that it's a chicken and egg situation - are the Dutch more pro-active because of their pro-active language or did the language evolve to become pro-active to better mirror their reality and way of life ? I'm more inclined to think the second, but I'm not a scholar.

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

ORIGINAL: alaric99x

Sorry I started all this.  It was just meant to be a little joke.  "Yes, a very little joke," all the Brits are saying.

Eddy, I don't know where you got that from, but I like it.

What's to be sorry for?

We're just having some good natured fun.

I have a tendency to poke fun in a tongue-in-cheek manner, aimed as much at myself and my culture, as at others.

I learned a long time ago the importance of being able to laugh at yourself and your culture and not take yourself, or your culture too seriously.

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

ORIGINAL: alaric99x

Sorry I started all this.  It was just meant to be a little joke.  "Yes, a very little joke," all the Brits are saying.

Eddy, I don't know where you got that from, but I like it.

What's to be sorry for?

We're just having some good natured fun.

I have a tendency to poke fun in a tongue-in-cheek manner, aimed as much at myself and my culture, as at others.

I learned a long time ago the importance of being able to laugh at yourself and your culture and not take yourself, or your culture too seriously.

Interesting questions to ponder.

My profession and one of my many passions throughout my life are graphic art oriented. I design buildings for a living and am an amatuer portrait painter. One of the graphic art courses I took in college utilized a text book titled Exercises in Visual Thinking.

The gest of the book was that before we acquire this communicative tool we call language we start off in life thinking in visual images, rather than in words, as we have no words. As we come to rely on this magnificent tool called language we allow our ability to think visually to atrophy. Those who display an inate talent for artistic expression seem to maintain a stronger hold on the ability to think visually than those who display no such artistic inclinations. The course was designed to get students back in touch with their ability to think visually.

The ability to think visually, rather than verbally, can be both a boon and a bane. I gave a talk to my local astronomy club a few years ago on the subject of cosmology (two more of my passions) where I explained the difficulties I have in understanding cosmological concepts when the scientists use terminology that, for me, invoke incorrect imagery. When physicists decided to categorize the different characteristics of quarks, they chose words like "green", "up", "down", "strange", and denoted that quarks had non-integer "spin" denoting them as "+2/3", "-1/3", etc.....and then go on to state that it isn't REALLY "spin", they just chose the word "spin" as a categorizing moniker. [8|]

As you can imagine, for some one who strives to understand things by visualizing them, this kind of visually incorrect nomenclature is cause for serious brian knots. I wish they had made up new words to describe these characteristics rather than choosing words that evoke incorrect imagery........

geeze where the heck am I going with this early morning ramble......who knows?

anyway, the mention of language as it relates to how we see the word and our place in it got me to thinking again on the subject.........[:)]

ORIGINAL: alaric99x
Sorry I started all this.  It was just meant to be a little joke.  "Yes, a very little joke," all the Brits are saying.

I think I'm the only True Brit (excepting al the Colonials) that has joined this thread and I think it was a great joke. You see, if we were wrong about how to spell, then, maybe we would get a bit vexed. However as the Brits are ALWAYS right, them we don't mind you poking fun. [;)]
Cheers
Ray

OK, I think I can remember that, you're always right and you never lie.
 
Whenever I'm in Canada, I tell them, "I'm from your colony to the south," I hope that's showing appropriate humility.
 
But, wait a minute, if you guys are so right how come they spell Warwick the way they do and misapprunciate it as War-ick?  When I was up there people were constantly correcting me.  Why did they put the extra W in there if they weren't going to use it?
 
...and don't get me started on "Worcester."
 
 

ORIGINAL: alaric99x
But, wait a minute, if you guys are so right how come they spell Warwick the way they do and misapprunciate it as War-ick?  When I was up there people were constantly correcting me.  Why did they put the extra W in there if they weren't going to use it?

Well, that all started as an elaborate ploy setup during the early days of WWII. The Brits had strategically withdrawn from Dunkirk and were expecting to be rudely interrupted during afternoon tea by a party of Huns who got across the Channel and would ask for directions to "Warwick" - at which point they all could have a jolly laugh and pretend they never heard of the place - which technically was not a lie. The word "Worcester" was invented back then as well - it's no coincidence it sounds remarkably like the German word for sausage (Wurst) - the idea was that the Jerries would not dare to ask for directions to find their "sausage".

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

Eddy, did these facts become apparent to you before, or after your meeting with the aliens from Epsilon Eridani?

"After" of course but even more obviously "after" several bottles of that wine he's supposed to be hording for Ray.

Right, I see you're with me on this, and what's he doing talking about "strategically withdrawn," wasn't that more like a "rout?"  I applaud the RN, and all the civilians that helped out, but it wasn't as if the operation was planned like a strategic withdrawal.

for every american who complains about the foibles of english spelling and pronounciation i say one word to you in reply "Arkansas" !

vive la difference


oh, and by the way, congratulations to COTA and the Panther lads as well [:D]

ORIGINAL: alaric99x
Right, I see you're with me on this, and what's he doing talking about "strategically withdrawn," wasn't that more like a "rout?" 

I see that you are still doubting my ethymological (and if I might add : perfectly logical) explanation of why certain words came into existence so I'm going to give you another example :

The word "rout" you used above obviously comes from the French "route", meaning "road" - so it wasn't a "rout", it was simply the shortest and quickest road back to England. Now, as to why they seemed to be in such a hurry : as everyone knows the weather at Dunkirk in late June can be atrocious so there was no point in hanging around for long.

To arc this back to Cota : if while playing you get the message that unit x is routing, it simply means they've taken another road to the objective, a detour, probably due to road maintenance, and might be a bit late getting to it.

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

ORIGINAL: Arjuna
"After" of course but even more obviously "after" several bottles of that wine he's supposed to be hording for Ray.

Only the best for my friend Ray, so *somebody* has to drink that Australian Shiraz

Or as the Egyptians would write it :



Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

And all that from a man from a country that, not only did we set up for them, but allowed them to use TWO languages!
However, I must confess, with humility (you see we can be humile), that Eddy speaks, understands and certainly spells English much better than this native.
He is right about the 1940 Order in Council (Amended) Temporary Provision for Re-Spelling of Certain County Towns in the Event of an Influx of Enemy Alien Tourists. We have chosen not to rescind this Order as it suits us very well. As you may know, we did rescind the law that prevented young ladies of a certain disposition from asking foreigners about the size of their wurst. [:-]
Cheers
Ray

ORIGINAL: RayWolfe
And all that from a man from a country that, not only did we set up for them, but allowed them to use TWO languages!

And because we're pig-headed when it comes to ferengi telling us what we can do, we decided to have THREE (check it, it's true) [;)]

ORIGINAL: RayWolfe
However, I must confess, with humility (you see we can be humile),

I'm not quite sure what "humile" means - is it a contraction of "human" and "smile" - the Englishman's superior, knowing smile when he meets poor & stupid Continentals - or worse : deported convicts ?

ORIGINAL: RayWolfe
we did rescind the law that prevented young ladies of a certain disposition from asking foreigners about the size of their wurst. [:-]

Unless she's sausy [;)] - http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Sausy

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

ORIGINAL: sterckxe

ORIGINAL: RayWolfe
However, I must confess, with humility (you see we can be humile),

I'm not quite sure what "humile" means - is it a contraction of "human" and "smile" - the Englishman's superior, knowing smile when he meets poor & stupid Continentals - or worse : deported convicts ?

It's the past participle or transitive verb or future perfect progressive of humility ... and I just invented it; I am English; English is my language; I can invent any word I like and frequently do. [:'(]
Cheers
Ray

Still telling myself, "They're always right and they never lie."