How many languages are there in the word?? I tried to
find an answer to that question but I cold not find it. I wondered how these
languages developed and why there are specific areas with high linguistic diversity
as the 2.197 spoken languages in Asia. And much amazing number is the 832
languages spoken by a population of 3.9 million in Papua-New Guinea. Even for
the same language there are different accent or writing system. Surprisingly,
numbers of linguistics died and the number of languages decreases by the time. While
it keeps on decreasing, I wonder if there will be finally a union language! If that is going to
happen which one it is? I wants it to be Arabic as there are millions speaks it
and it is the first language of 22 countries but there are other millions
speaks English, Spanish, Chinese ... so, it will never happen. And that's why
we are learning the widely used language such as English. For me I don’t think
that I need more than that.
One of the most things surprises me, are the people
who speaks more than three languages. Do they really use them all? How do they
can manage? Last month, I meet an interpreter who speaks 8 languages Arabic,
English, French, Spanish, Barbary, Russian and …..I forgot what ells, and she
is only 34 years old. When I asked her how and when you learn them all? “I
don’t know”, she answered. I feel shame somehow, not because I did not speak 8 languages,
but because I did not properly speaks my second language and find it very
difficult to state a simple sentences, so what I usually do is, pose, think,
think and think then it becomes even more complicated. So, the conclusion is,
to say ABRAKADABRA and keep it flows and whatever will come. Still, there is a problem..
“Words are flying out of my head”! Do I forget what I studied at 2004? Should I
go back from the begging and study English again? No, I’ll not. I believe that
to learn a second language you don’t have to remember when you got it. In
another word, it should be started from the childhood, to speaks it properly or
practice practice and practice with speakers using it as a mother language.
Even that I
speaks English as my second language; it is too different than the native
speakers. I can see the difference here in the Blog. When I first came to US, I
knew that my English was not perfect, but it was not bad. And when the quarters
started, every thing was OK, until the exams time. Many times, I found that I
can’t explain my answers or the most disappointing part is misunderstanding the
questions. That was a cause of losing many points. But, I already got the
benefits, as I learn a lot. So, I never mind.
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ReplyDeleteI still remember how one of high accomplished professors answered my question. I asked him, Professor XXX, would you like to give us more useful advice about how to learn English or improve English? He said, I never learn English, just use it. I remember that and never forget. Share with you. Hope it helps.
ReplyDeleteNorah,
ReplyDeleteThat's a very interesting question. What if one day the world did only have one language? I think it could happen but probably not in our lifetime.
Grad school is hard enough. I don't think I could do it in a foreign language. How challenging! It’s very impressive what you are doing. My advice would be to talk and write as much as you can in English like Yuan Li’s professor said. You’ll be excellent! Keep it up!
Yuan, loved your comment. So true it is. I speak three languages but really never learnt it just for learning.
ReplyDeleteRight now, English is the universal language, even though; the numbers of the people who speak English as native speakers are less than others like Spanish or Chinese people. However, this may give us indication about one language in advance future. There are few people who can speak English as a second language like native speakers, so, don't worry about this point.
ReplyDeleteI think the more often we use a language, the more familiar and comfertable we feel when we speak it. Back in high school, I could barely speak English though my English grammer was amazingly great!! (as the way I see it now...) However, now I get to speak English more fluently but I found that my grammer is amazingly poor!! I guess practice is the best way to improve our language skill. One good example is that, my Manderine speaking ability is "degenerating" since I don't speak it often, even it's my native language....
ReplyDelete