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Post #548165 - Reply to (#548161) by doki-doki-kimochi
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An F to judge M!
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8:57 pm, Apr 28 2012
Posts: 386


Sure, sure... but when you think about it, "American" is actually pretty vague terminology. North American? Latin American?

Now I'm confused.

Seems the poll maker lacks the English proficiency to write a coherent, politically correct jab.

Ohhhhhh, we all know he meant U.S. citizens, but let's be ignorant if it helps us sleep at night, yes?

Post #548167 - Reply to (#548161) by doki-doki-kimochi
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9:19 pm, Apr 28 2012
Posts: 362


Quote from doki-doki-kimochi
But seriously...I would expect that most Americans would pick choice two...considering that it's a 'melting pot' and so diverse and all, but whatever. I'm guessing most of the population don't even have much of a cultural background anyways, unless you count the people who say they're 1/4 Irish, 1/4 Scottish...


Yeah I mean as an American I have some German and Native American blood running through my veins but when you get down to it I'm just your average white-boy. I never had any attachments to my heritage thus I never had a need to learn those languages.

As far as language goes I only know English proficiently.

proficient:

noun:An expert; an adept.

I'm certain 95% of the people in the world can't truthfully claim to be proficient in another language than the one they grew up using.

As far as Americans only knowing English for the most part.

Consider these points:

It is our main language.

Most other countries may have a high population that knows two languages but it is only because they have their main language and they usually learn English as a second language because it is deemed the most important language to know from a business standpoint.

They might also learn another language based on the fact that they are surrounded by many countries that use other languages as their main language(European and Asian countries are surrounded by many diverse countries thus they would probably learn some of each others languages)

Americans don't pursue another language diligently because most of us already know English and that is what most of the world uses from a business standpoint. It would only make sense for us to teach our kids Spanish since we have a high population of Spanish speaking residents or Chinese as from a business standpoint they are a fast growing market and we do a lot of business with the Chinese.

So from an educational standpoint it doesn't make much sense to make our kids learn a different language if there really isn't a need to. We are required to take language courses(I took Spanish) but it isn't something that is important from a career or societal standpoint so most of us don't pursue it diligently. (Meaning I don't really remember too much of the Spanish I learned)

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Post #548207 - Reply to (#548165) by Badkarma
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1:48 am, Apr 29 2012
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Quote from Badkarma
Seems the poll maker lacks the English proficiency to write a coherent, politically correct jab.

Ohhhhhh, we all know he meant U.S. citizens, but let's be ignorant if it helps us sleep at night, yes?

If you only know English, there's a good chance you're from the US. That's all the first choice implies.

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Post #548213
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2:37 am, Apr 29 2012
Posts: 278


Interesting poll, it's just not really about manga...

And as there was some sort of definition given in the first post, why whine about the correct use of "proficiently"? (though independent user might have been better)

Anyway, Dutch native speaker C2 Everything
English, Second language, C1 (exept for listening and reading C2)
German, Mostly, B2 some B1 (hoping to study in Heidelberg next year to increase this)
French, Mostly A1(A few years of classes in highschool)

Anyway, want to know how good you really are, just look at this table where one can find out how good one is.

-I chose three languages-

Post #548251
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5:34 am, Apr 29 2012
Posts: 208


It's not just Americans that only know English- what about New Zealand, Australia, and England? I won't say Canada since there appears to be many bilinguals (with French as L1 or L2) there.

Not to mention, all the monolingual asian countries like Japan and China, where many people can sort of read/write English, but are not necessarily proficient, hence being monolingual with a non-English language as L1, which is not accomodated for in the current poll.

I'm an Australian of south Asian ancestry, but English has become my first language, since it's the only langauge I can read, write, and speak proficiently. I can manage my 'native' language at conversation level, but my reading and writing are at the level of a 7 to 8 year old, apparently! laugh

Interesting poll again, this week! smile

Post #548255
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6:02 am, Apr 29 2012
Posts: 60


In this self-bragging poll I agree above average should be the four language option, because in some places they have two languages from the place plus english.
And about the question, it says "proficiently know" not "proficiently speak" or "to be proficient" so if you only know how to write and read that could be an OK language for the poll, and not a lie.
I can get by in Spanish, Catalan (mother tongues) and English. Studying currently French and German and I know a bit of Japanese (the "I studied for a year in the past" level).
My sure bet would be the three option, but I think my French could be added so I choose four wink


Post #548256
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6:03 am, Apr 29 2012
Posts: 25


I'm Finnish so it's mandatory to know at least three languages, Finnish, Swedish and English. I also studied French, German, Spanish and Japanese, but French is the only one of them that I know well enought to read books and magazines.

Post #548276 - Reply to (#548165) by Badkarma
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Local Prig
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9:23 am, Apr 29 2012
Posts: 1899


Quote from Badkarma
Sure, sure... but when you think about it, "American[/url]" is actually pretty vague terminology. North American? Latin American?

Now I'm confused.

Seems the poll maker lacks the English proficiency to write a coherent, politically correct jab.

Ohhhhhh, we all know he meant U.S. citizens, but l ...


Don't forget your [homeland] security blanket!

On topic: I know two (English, Japanese) well enough to actually be certified as 'proficient,' and if I hadn't spent a couple years in Japan, I probably wouldn't even be able to claim two. I'm always working on more, but beyond a third or fourth grade level I quickly become quite useless.

Let's be honest, guys. Studying a language alone does not make one proficient. I know a guy who studied Japanese for a good five years and is still utterly useless in actual conversation. He's not even much of an anomaly. I used to see that all the time with random foreigners. It's just that practical usage often requires a totally different skillset from what you learn in a classroom. You need a combination of education and practical application for proficiency, so please excuse me while I scoff at anyone in this thread that uses 'studied' as a barometer for their abilities. It's a very poor indicator.

On the US: The vast majority does only speak one language. Our school system doesn't support anything else, and an alarming number of voters seem to think that foreign language education is a waste (that same subset tends to fail to comprehend the notion of globalization and the economic interconnections it creates, but that's an overly politicized rant for another time). It's a part of the culture; don't be insulted when the statistics suggest that to be the case. Take pride if you are honestly able to proficiently function entirely in another language, though not if you've only dabbled- again, that doesn't count and you shouldn't pretend it does.

The exception tends to be the second generation of immigrant families. By the third generation, things are often homogenized down to English again.


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Post #548279
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Piano-rose
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9:44 am, Apr 29 2012
Posts: 155


French, Dutch, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Russian, a bit of Chinese and sign language smile

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Post #548289
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10:56 am, Apr 29 2012
Posts: 11


I am also american and know two languages fluently, English and Spanish. With that being said I am a language lover! I have studied at one point in time Japanese, Albanian, Italian, Russian and Turkish. I'm currently studying Persian (Farsi). Knowing Spanish, I can get by in reading things in French. My goal is to become proficient in at least one language from every continent (minus Antarctica of course)

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Mmm...Tasty
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11:12 am, Apr 29 2012
Posts: 497


Dutch, English, and German; in that order.

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Post #548310 - Reply to (#548255) by ebisu
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1:11 pm, Apr 29 2012
Posts: 71


Quote from ebisu
I can get by in Spanish, Catalan (mother tongues) and English.


Plus a little of French


Post #548312 - Reply to (#548292) by WandereroftheDeep
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1:14 pm, Apr 29 2012
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Quote from WandereroftheDeep
Dutch, English, and German; in that order.


For me it's English, Dutch and German, in that order strangely enough.
Too much English TV as a kid. biggrin

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Post #548335 - Reply to (#548099) by giinko
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3:31 pm, Apr 29 2012
Posts: 27


1) Being "proficient", as you claimed in your initial comment in response to the poll, generally requires knowing how to at least read the language. See "...I guess the typical meaning would be that you can more or less read, speak, and listen..." regarding a typical meaning. I guess you can cut reading out of your personal definition, but I personally feel that it's really an essential component of any language.

2) I never made any such claim to "not get annoyed by your comments". I am merely responding to your claims and adding my own input, rational, and some opinion. You might find that annoying, but it's not my prerogative to annoy you. However, I never made any personal attacks on you, but you were passive aggressive towards me, as denoted in my previous quote. I noted it wasn't appreciated and moved on. Please do the same.

3) <redacticed> - I'm not looking to start any kind of argument or flame war. I'll just leave it knowing the entire kana (meaning both hiragana and katakana) are critical components to the Japanese language. Usually they are covered early on, and whichever one you learn first is irrelevant. Learning both eventually is crucial, and institutions that put an emphasis on one over the other is doing a disservice (although it's not uncommon anymore).

I don't think there's anywhere else to take this conversation so I'm bowing out. I sincerely wish you good luck in your studies of the language.

Last edited by geowrian at 8:44 pm, Apr 29 2012

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3:41 pm, Apr 29 2012
Posts: 142


Proficient in my dialect (not sure if that counts), my country's language, and English.

3 years of French. Can converse with locals with no problem, but I wouldn't say proficient yet. I'm on my way there, though, in a few years! biggrin

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