The International Language

frogus · Post by **frogus** » Thu Apr 04, 2002 5:03 am

alright, I may be treading slightly dodgy ground here, but I assure you I have no intentions of racism or hatred or anything...just curiosity. One of those questions which seems like just this thing that doesn't really need answering.
How come everyone speaks English?
We have SYMers from about every country you could care to mention, a great many non-English speaking. So how come everyone can not only speak English, but speak fluent English including slang, acronyoms and technical terms? I'm sure that there are not many people I know who could go on Swedish, Brazilian, Austrian etc websites and talk...
So is English taught to a high level all over the world?
Is SYM a select band of the few people from whatever non-English speaking country who do speak English?
Does it just happen that the same people who are into fantasy RPGs are the same people who want to learn English?

anyway thanks if anyone can clear this up for me...

Tamerlane · Post by **Tamerlane** » Thu Apr 04, 2002 5:07 am

I was suprised by the amount of Europeans when I first came to GB ages ago. I guess the old Commonwealth Empire is to blame. And lets not forget the influence of the US. English truly is the universal language.

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Thu Apr 04, 2002 5:09 am

The level of English knowledge in Scandinavia is not connected to interest in CRPG:s - we all start studying English in school around age 9. English today is like Latin were in the former days - the international scientific and academic language.
Why English? Well, you know the history...the British Empire took colonies all over the world. The US has a leadning position in the world.

Beldin · Post by **Beldin** » Thu Apr 04, 2002 5:11 am

I think it's quite simple.....only people who have a reasonable grip on the english language venture to post on an english spoken forum...the rest stays on "native" boards - there are always some local forums, but the real action is on the international communities - and THEY are mostly english since a very high percentage of "Internetties" are from Northern America and Australia - both "english" countries....even if that's stretching it a bit with our southern brothers.

I ended up here because the german RPG forums are simply crap.

No worries,

Beldin

EDIT: BTW - English is taught here at school from the age of 8 or 9 onwards - but the quality is less than convincing. If I hadn't started to read SF & F in English some years ago (just because I liked it) I wouldn't be able to post here...

Morlock · Post by **Morlock** » Thu Apr 04, 2002 5:17 am

I don't know about others, but the reason I speak english so well is because I was born and raised in NYC- and I always liked english better than the alternatives.

Maharlika · Post by **Maharlika** » Thu Apr 04, 2002 5:18 am

Can't speak for the others...

...but as I see it (like Beldin I suppose), it's very interesting to learn from others when they come from different places, culture, etc.

And to be able to do that, English is the medium for communicating, being the lingua franca of the world.

As for The Philippines, we have English as a Second Language --- thanks to the American teachers(The Thomasites) aboard the ship, Thomas, some time in the turn of the 20th century.

RPGs and other games as well, are already available in languages of that particular country. Here in Thailand, most of the games are written in Thai.

As for slang, and other stuff... well, blame thatm to Hollywood stuff and Sesame Street!

frogus · Post by **frogus** » Thu Apr 04, 2002 5:33 am

well, blame thatm to Hollywood stuff and Sesame Street!

you blame everything on sesame street!

Leonardo · Post by **Leonardo** » Thu Apr 04, 2002 6:05 am

English is taught on most Brazilian schools since around age 8 (don`t know the equivalent grade because Brazil uses a different grade system). However, the level and quality of the teaching is outstandly bad, being that most graduates have problems to say "the book is on the table". There are plenty of extra-curricular courses to take, but most of them add very little.
I learned english almost by myself (with the "basis" taught at school) reading comics, watching movies without subtitles, and such. My domain of the language improved a lot since 1999 when I started joining forums and discussion lists abroad. But it`s still far from perfect, every now and then I make a mistake.

Several comics and RPG fans in Brazil are fluent in English IMO because the available translations are usually bad (except for the GURPS one), so they learn the language to read the originals.

Delacroix · Post by **Delacroix** » Thu Apr 04, 2002 6:33 am

Don't know if it occurs in other places(I'm talking based in Brazil reality). I do not choose to learn English, Here in Brazil(in oposition of France, for example) the Law of protection of culture and language do not work in any way. So, lots "things"are in English here, especially in Rio, because is a turistic city.

This natural learning is the purpose of my mistakes in english, and it is only alowed for "elite" members; the majority of the population, who don't have acess to CPU, book and such are ignorant in english. As Leonardo say, there is English discipline in private schools, but normally is very poor too.

By C Elegans:
English today is like Latin were in the former days - the international scientific and academic language.

English is the cientific language, OK , but others lines of knowledge don't have English as standart language. Rights, for exemple, is dominated by French and German. I think English is a little distant of Latin until now.

Mysteria · Post by **Mysteria** » Thu Apr 04, 2002 9:43 am

Re: Re: The International Language

Originally posted by C Elegans
The level of English knowledge in Scandinavia is not connected to interest in CRPG:s - we all start studying English in school around age 9. English today is like Latin were in the former days - the international scientific and academic language.
Why English? Well, you know the history...the British Empire took colonies all over the world. The US has a leadning position in the world.

I side with CE, though we start learning English at age 13/14 and then it's already our fourth language.

Our teaching is quite good, but I further improved my skills be reading, reading and reading.

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Thu Apr 04, 2002 9:50 am

My own feelings are that english isn't really its own language. It's more a sum of the parts of languages all over the world. I've studied latin, french, and spanish and noticed they have a consistency about them with respect to verb conjugation, sentence structure, etc... English doesn't have that as it is a conglomerate of borrowed parts. Couple that with our involvement in affairs all over the world (much like england many years ago as they colonized the world) and I think that perpetuates how widespread the english language is.

Aegis · Post by **Aegis** » Thu Apr 04, 2002 12:19 pm

I'm speaking english!

Minerva · Post by **Minerva** » Thu Apr 04, 2002 12:19 pm

Spent hours in GB...