Kinda feel guilty...

[BEANFro Elite]

Back in secondary school, didn't you just hate being forced to learn a foreign language?

Well I did, "Pfff, why learn French? I'm never never gona go to France" I'd say when another French lesson reared its manky head...

Playing online with the likes of the French, Spanish, Dutch, Belgians and the Germans, I can't help but feel guilty for not being open-minded enough to learn a foreign language as the majority of the people I've encountered can all speak English and have a grasp of the slang here too.

Okay, so fairenough the French are generally unpleasant and choose to ridicule you for speaking English "Goh a-way Ameeerikan!" but I find that the other European people to be very friendly and welcome an englishspeaking person like myself with open arms (guns ), the Germans are by far the most friendly and vibrant and funny of them all unlike the ignorant, miserable French.

All I'm saying, is that I regret not learning a language, I wanted to learn Japanese or German, but I was forced to try to learn French in school.

[BlackDwarf]

I keep wanting to learn Dutch... its such a lovely language. I picked up a fair amount when i spent some time in Holland, but I'd love to learn to speak it properly.

As for French (and the fact I dispise them as a nation, however saying that, we have a French student teacher where I work who is fit-as ), I can understand and translate a fair amount of what's said, but I can't for the life of me speak or write it.

[rox0r]

Know what you mean, me n the missus went to Paris last year and I felt such a tw*t for not being able to speak the language. Vowed that from thereon in any other country we go to I'm going to at least do a basic language course for it.

[Lee H]

I wouldn't worry about feeling a bit guilty at all. Theres no pleasing some of the French at all.

While we we're passing through France going to Germany once, we stopped off and I thought I'd get in the Spirit and order some food in their native tongue.

After I ordered the guy just looked at me as if I'd kicked his dog, called his wife and told everyone in the country his duck a lá orange was rich in HN51 and then turned and said " ohhh zeee wants zeee steak and cheeeeps"

[Spud1]

I feel guilty a fair bit now for this reason. I moved to switzerland 6 months ago today (6 months already...doesnt feel like it) and only spoke a few words of french/german.

Now I can do a bit more, but it's like learning from scratch here anyway as swiss german is totally different to 'normal' german, but I still can't really get past the basics. That is, I can cope in a shop/restaurant, but a conversation? Not a chance. The vast majority of people here speak english so well, yet I struggle with seemingly basic things.

The worst thing is at work. Officially the company language is English, but since the majority of the employees are swiss/french/german (Basel is right on the border of all 3 countries) you often get phone calls in german/french. So you get a situation like 'grüsse herr kinder, bla bla bla blah' where they talk at me until I can butt in and ask if they can speak english please (at least I can say that in french/german lol)

So if you are still at school, it's a really good idea to pay attention in language classes I never imagined I would be working abroad, but now I really really wish I had paid more attention in my language classes ;/

[XA04]

I took French at school but decided to drop it.. Wouldn't mind learning a second language though. (Not french, would love to speak German!)

[TiG]

The problem you have beanFro, is what language to learn, We are in the unenviable position in that we already know the worlds leading language, so what do we learn, Spanish, French, German?.

A recent BBC news article suggested in shouldn't be any of these BUT Chinese(Mandarin)

Good idea?.

TiG

[XA04]

The problem you have beanFro, is what language to learn, We are in the unenviable position in that we already know the worlds leading language, so what do we learn, Spanish, French, German?.

A recent BBC news article suggested in shouldn't be any of these BUT Chinese(Mandarin)

Good idea?.

TiG

They would of only said that because it's infact more used than English (strangely).

[TiG]

I said "Leading" language, because of how many countries can speak English not on quantity of people speaking it.

TiG

[Mimp]

I'd love to be able to speak a foreign language, i'm just really rubbish at it.
Have had two bashes at learning German and haven't really got anywhere.

Bags of admiration to anyone who manages to be bilingual, they should start us learning at primary school like they do in Europe - When i went on a German exchange, my exchange partners 6 yr old sister spoke better English then I spoke German, which was a tad embarassing.

[TooNice]

I am feeling guilty now too, even though I speak more than one language.

I was raised in a french education system before I came to the UK. So I am pretty confortable with conversational french (having the accent and all). English was compulsary and I was quite happy taking it (grammar wise, I find it far less painful than french). I didn't even classify it as a "foreign" language since we had to start really early. But they (whoever design the french education system) didn't consider that enough. So by the time you start your O-Level/GCSE here, we had to pick another foreign language. Choices: Spanish, German or Italian. I picked Spanish (supposingly the easiest of the three if you are from a French background), but didn't put nearly as much effort as I should. Result? I can't even handle a simple conversation in Spanish. Totally wasted.

Now I can also speak mandarin (conversational), and understand some Taiwanese... but I am pretty much illiterate when it comes to reading/writing chinese. I was encouraged to pick it up myself, and was kinda given one or two opportunities to learn, but I never took it seriously enough. Well, I now have less than two years to sharpen my written french and learn to read some chinese before I run out of time (i.e. start full time work). And I still fancy learning some Japanese lol..

edit: About the mandarin thing. Well, people from China speak Mandarin. MANY international companies see China as £££, $$$ or €€€ (you get the idea), which is probably where the idea of learning mandarin is gaining popularity. Out of my own lazyness, I have previously argued that chinese businessmen most likely speak English, and how do we know the bubble won't burst before I am "ready". But now... well, I do think that if I have any thought of going back to Asia in the future, then learning to read chinese will have to be in my list of "things to do".

[dangel]

Well if they taught us something useful - like mandarin (number 1 in the world) - then you'd (potentially) use it lots in life. Instead they choose something spoken in relatively small area of the world - like german and french. Life sucks.

[TooNice]

I think it vastly depends on what your plans are though.

Most of the billion+ mandarin speakers are concentrated in Asia. So if you don't go there, then it is not as useful. Even here, most BBCs speak cantonese. This is applicable to a large number of Canadian born chinese as well.

French is usable in France (duh), but also in a fair number of countries in Africa, some areas in Belgium, Canada, Switzerland etc.

And until the last decade or so, China wasn't exactly seen as a gold mine. And people probably didn't have any incentive to live/work in a communist country (or whatever). If China maintains it's momentum, then I can imagine more people picking up Mandarin over French though.

[Nick F]

I got an "F" grade for my French GCSE's. I could not care less aout the subject. We had 11 teachers in the space of 15 months. Pure rubbish

Still mananged to come away with some great results in the other subjects though. I spent 55 minutes of the 1 hour French paper eating M&M's from my desk

[BEANFro Elite]

well don't look at me, I wasnted and STILL want to learn Japanese, I'm just sick of not being able to kick back and relax whilst watching the likes of Naruto, Bleach etc.

I love Japan, the culture, everything...

Someday I WILL live there

On the subject of what languages to make compulsory, I'd say French, German, Spanish, Portugese should be the standard choice, but if you like I did (and still do) want to learn a non-mainstream language, then the government could help put you in touch with the appropriate teacher / tutor and perhaps help out with costs.

Hey, just an idea eh?

And for the record, I'm not in school anymore, but I got a straight no faffing about 'F' for French.

[smtkr]

Most of us have the handicap of speaking English and never had any incentive to learn another language. It's not as important for us to learn another language as it is for, say, German people to learn English. I grew up in a small town with ignorant parents who did not nurture me to appreciate other cultures (in fact, they are fairly xenophobic). By the time I realized that I enjoy learning about other cultures and that I might want to learn another language, I was well past the critical age of 12 by which one needs to have learned a large portion of another language to speak without an accent (not to mention ease of learning).

I can't regret something that was not within my control. I am somewhat bitter about it. Oh well. No one ever said that life is fair.