Russian is a great language. It will continue to be the lingua franca in the new countries that make up the former USSR. However, here in Central and Eastern Europe Russian largely only played an important owing to Soviet domination and thus it was artificial. Thus German and English have assumed their former positions owing to geography and economics.
In my country, there seems to be an ongoing language conflict that arose from the polemic over which language to teach in for Science and Math lessons in school: English or vernacular. I think I am among the few in my country which has a clue that English as a lingua franca is facing a precarious future. Lately, I've looked back to understand that English grammar and orthography is riddled with irregularities and that's a very shaky foundation for a global language.
i heard once that even though the east european countries have a lot of russian speakers, a lot of them refuse to speak it because it symbolizes the opression they suffered under the soviet union, etc. so i dunno about russian. very interesting video, makes me hopeful since i wasnt exactly happy that english was gonna take over the world...now i know someone thinks it wont!
As for the Russian language, I have my doubts, because after the collapse of the USSR most countries of Central/Eastern Europe have English as their second language, Russian is frowned upon because it's associated with the communist oppresion, Russian population is in a free-fall and there is no hope that the situation will reverse, the importance of Russian is going to decline, slowly, but steadily. It saddens me because that's my mother tounge, but I'm a realist and that's just the way it is.
@CYBERianBoi - that is only partially true. I spent 5 years in the Czech Republic and you are completely right! The Czechs refused to speak Russian even though everyone over 30 still knew it. BUT during my last 2 years in Prague, I was competing against Russian teachers for lessons in the banks and institutes that was teaching English. So many people are having Russian lessons instead of English. Now I live in the Republic of Georgia, and I would not survive without my Russian.
It's a very interesting video, I've been thinking about the same thing for a long time and I do believe that probably after the year of 2050, the world will become a more multi-lingual place because it would require an economic power equilibrium. But I have no doubts that English will remain the principal foreign language for the majority (2 billion people studying it, too much time and effort have been invested), other "big" languages (Mand, Span, Hind, Arab, Port) will also become popular.
It is important to study the languages that you like. But English, Mandarin,Spanish would be the big three. Then it is a matter of taste and interest.
Thanks for the comment Steve. Too bad though there isn't a standardized list of for example 7, or 12 maybe 32 (any round and nice number) of languages that "if you learn them you'll be able to communicate with 95% of the world" or "if you know them you'll learn 80% of the other languages in 1 2 3". You know something big to aim/live for not just shooting in the dark :/
I've found something . Wikipedia has a "List of ISO 639-1 codes" which narrows the number down to 185. I guess that's pretty much what people use nowadays. Now I just need to group them in some meaningful way, group them again and voilà!
As much as I love the concept of multilingualism, I think there is just too much power behind English in everything. The entire internet. All computer programming languages. Modern science, modern medicine. We have the same problem on a smaller scale in computing. For example, The GIF standard is a horrid defacto standard made in 1987 and updated in 1989 by CompuServ. It is by all means a relic... yet so much is invested it will not go away. On this very web page, Youtube's logo is .GIF -so sad!
I hope people don't forget their roots/culture/ancestors. I had so many people giving me funny looks wondering why I was on a quest to learn my native languages. They just don't get it. Since English is such a standard it is kind of forced on to people in so many ways. Even without preference it remains. It's almost impossible to remove old habits. I think QWERTY keyboards will never go either. Ever! Since they were designed to slow the typist down it's even crazier to keep it but we still do!
Very informative !! I live in Japan where a second language generally means English. Its clearly easier to learn English here given the fashion popularity. But it would be great to see a more open attitude towards other languages besides just English. I speak five languages but have a hard time using anything but Engl and Jpse here.
By the way I did not mean to belittle Portuguese or to suggest that Portuguese and Brazil were not important in Latin America, but it is just that Spanish is more widespread and more widely understood and not really a big deal for Brazilian speakers to learn.
Russian is a great language. It will continue to be the lingua franca in the new countries that make up the former USSR. However, here in Central and Eastern Europe Russian largely only played an important owing to Soviet domination and thus it was artificial. Thus German and English have assumed their former positions owing to geography and economics.
rickjones53 1 week ago
In my country, there seems to be an ongoing language conflict that arose from the polemic over which language to teach in for Science and Math lessons in school: English or vernacular. I think I am among the few in my country which has a clue that English as a lingua franca is facing a precarious future. Lately, I've looked back to understand that English grammar and orthography is riddled with irregularities and that's a very shaky foundation for a global language.
fanatix2008 4 months ago
interesting upload..babels tower will be bult after all
ByronLeeMae 6 months ago
lol leave it to a guy who speaks like 10 languages to say multilingualism is coming
superdog797 1 year ago
i heard once that even though the east european countries have a lot of russian speakers, a lot of them refuse to speak it because it symbolizes the opression they suffered under the soviet union, etc. so i dunno about russian. very interesting video, makes me hopeful since i wasnt exactly happy that english was gonna take over the world...now i know someone thinks it wont!
xnightxamex 2 years ago
As for the Russian language, I have my doubts, because after the collapse of the USSR most countries of Central/Eastern Europe have English as their second language, Russian is frowned upon because it's associated with the communist oppresion, Russian population is in a free-fall and there is no hope that the situation will reverse, the importance of Russian is going to decline, slowly, but steadily. It saddens me because that's my mother tounge, but I'm a realist and that's just the way it is.
CYBERianBoi 3 years ago
@CYBERianBoi - that is only partially true. I spent 5 years in the Czech Republic and you are completely right! The Czechs refused to speak Russian even though everyone over 30 still knew it. BUT during my last 2 years in Prague, I was competing against Russian teachers for lessons in the banks and institutes that was teaching English. So many people are having Russian lessons instead of English. Now I live in the Republic of Georgia, and I would not survive without my Russian.
kshanafelt 7 months ago
It's a very interesting video, I've been thinking about the same thing for a long time and I do believe that probably after the year of 2050, the world will become a more multi-lingual place because it would require an economic power equilibrium. But I have no doubts that English will remain the principal foreign language for the majority (2 billion people studying it, too much time and effort have been invested), other "big" languages (Mand, Span, Hind, Arab, Port) will also become popular.
CYBERianBoi 3 years ago
It began with the international Jewry of the monetary system.
mitchhsansom 3 years ago
yahags, here are the languages I'm working towards learning: spanish, russian, hebrew,
french, italian, mandarin, japanese. I think in terms of the number of speakers, culture
and business these 7 may be the ones to look at for you. Take care.
odessa321 3 years ago
I see, thanks odessa321! It seems you forgot to mention english so that makes 8 languages in total.
What about arabic, it's spoken by ~500M people while hebrew only by ~7M (according to wikipedia). Also, hindi - around 500M.
yahags 3 years ago
It is important to study the languages that you like. But English, Mandarin,Spanish would be the big three. Then it is a matter of taste and interest.
lingosteve 3 years ago
Thanks for the comment Steve. Too bad though there isn't a standardized list of for example 7, or 12 maybe 32 (any round and nice number) of languages that "if you learn them you'll be able to communicate with 95% of the world" or "if you know them you'll learn 80% of the other languages in 1 2 3". You know something big to aim/live for not just shooting in the dark :/
yahags 3 years ago
Hmmm ok I've created a list based on the wikipedia "most spoken languages" article and personal favorites. :)
yahags 3 years ago
Well, the 6 official languages of the UN at English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Mandarin, and Arabic.
crazyparkourkid 3 years ago
7000+ languages
lol
good luck!
sk8tertater 3 years ago
omg english has ~500,000 words, wtf how did you learn them u must be a genius >________>
...NOT
yahags 3 years ago
I've found something . Wikipedia has a "List of ISO 639-1 codes" which narrows the number down to 185. I guess that's pretty much what people use nowadays. Now I just need to group them in some meaningful way, group them again and voilà!
yahags 3 years ago
Loquamur latine ut lingua universalis! :D
Goldenage84 3 years ago
Which 5 (or more) languages would you Steve recommend to learn to people who want to be all international and GLOBAL and why?
yahags 3 years ago
As much as I love the concept of multilingualism, I think there is just too much power behind English in everything. The entire internet. All computer programming languages. Modern science, modern medicine. We have the same problem on a smaller scale in computing. For example, The GIF standard is a horrid defacto standard made in 1987 and updated in 1989 by CompuServ. It is by all means a relic... yet so much is invested it will not go away. On this very web page, Youtube's logo is .GIF -so sad!
rsherfan 3 years ago
As entrenched as English is in many spheres, I think that if the prestige of
English declines, then there will be more people learning other languages.
lingosteve 3 years ago
I hope people don't forget their roots/culture/ancestors. I had so many people giving me funny looks wondering why I was on a quest to learn my native languages. They just don't get it. Since English is such a standard it is kind of forced on to people in so many ways. Even without preference it remains. It's almost impossible to remove old habits. I think QWERTY keyboards will never go either. Ever! Since they were designed to slow the typist down it's even crazier to keep it but we still do!
rsherfan 3 years ago 3
@rsherfan What percent of Brazileans understand and speak Spanish fluently ?
rickjones53 1 week ago
Hmm... I sure hope you're right!
YouStoleMyTube 10 months ago
Very informative !! I live in Japan where a second language generally means English. Its clearly easier to learn English here given the fashion popularity. But it would be great to see a more open attitude towards other languages besides just English. I speak five languages but have a hard time using anything but Engl and Jpse here.
saiyouken 3 years ago
By the way I did not mean to belittle Portuguese or to suggest that Portuguese and Brazil were not important in Latin America, but it is just that Spanish is more widespread and more widely understood and not really a big deal for Brazilian speakers to learn.
lingosteve 3 years ago
yeah... why should we all learn English?
LET'S BRING ESPERANTO BACK!!! :-)
paulinobrener 3 years ago