America needs China to become powerful, we have no one to compete with since the USSR collapsed. The American drive to be number 1 in everything only kicks in when we have a definate rival.

The Lakers can't be the Laker's with out the Celtics.

About Spanish in Japan-- I wonder if it isn't like 2nd as far as recent popularity gain goes. I've heard quite a few people talking about it recently. I met a woman recently who actually married into a Spanish speaking family! As far as "Spanish being far" goes, on the contrary, I never imagined I'd meet as many Filipinos in Japan! I know it may not be their first language, but a lot of the ones I've met can speak a fair amount of Spanish (and really decent English).

By the way, why is English number one? I thought English is required and everyone have to learn it, so having a certain percentage learning English over other languages doesn't make sense, because everyone has to learn English and other languages are being learned in addition to English.

I really wish America would have more diversity in what languages they teach but it's basically like this: if you live near Canada you'll most likely learn French. Live near Mexico, more Spanish options. Up north, most grade schoolers are given the option to learn either Spanish or French from childhood and it's their choice to continue on with it. And about the Filipinos... Oh. Mon. Dieu. They're pretty great at speaking Spanish. Of course when it comes to English, some still retain their accent but I love them talking Spanish.

*plooka plooka*

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I think Japanies people use to speak japanies and other people use american English.

I disagree. I like the thought of having a language that everyone in the entire world can speak fluently, but I doubt we'll live to see that happen. It'd be very convenient, but I still think it should be thought of as a second language, and we'd still speak our native tongue like we do today.

Oh and also, British English all the way! :mtongue:


EDIT: Does anyone know how popular Swedish is in Japan? I mean, we've got a lot to offer! Like... Caramelldansen, and.. other stuff...

Canadian English rocks British English any given day, ;)

And Swedish is not so popular here (Japan) at all, it's never even entered into any one of the conversations I've had since being here lol.

Pfft!! Yeah, right! Canadian English... hah! ;)

Ahh, that's too bad. I guess I can understand why, though.
I mean, only about 9m people speak Swedish, and like 95% of us speak English as well, so you don't really need to know any Swedish at all even if you were to go here. And besides, I don't even like Swedish, so maybe that's a good thing lol.

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to accept that Sweden will always be ABBA, Swedish Fish, snow, reindeer and "hot blonde chicks" (:rolleyes:) to the rest of the world.

The universal trade lanquage is primarily English because England commanded the oceans for so long and the US has run them since WW2, basically both English speaking countries that oversaw world trade. If Spain had won the battle of the Spanish Armada against Britain world trade language might be Spanish, or if France had beaten Britain it coulda been french. If China manages to command the oceans world trade lanquage might become Chinese.

It's basically based on wich ever nation commands the world trade routes.