Are there too many foreigners in our country?

lyrical_gaah52:

Really, now. That was just bait. I never said it was difficult, my dear. I just said that it was one of the more complicated languages in the world. And it is. And I actually found Spanish grammar to be quite easy. Not fluent, but I know enough to speak simple sentences. If I have to work in a Spanish country, I'll be able to communicate on a basic level. BTW, the Telugu alphabet has 56 letters. 19 vowels and 37 consonents. Hindi has about 30 letters as well. But that doesn't make it more complicated.

And yes, it does depend upon the person. I take fault for not reading the last line of your post. Also, many of the people on GSB live in European countries or countries that speak a European language. And Chinese cannot be compared to most languages because it is a tonal language. Fun fact: that's actually why a lot of Chinese children are good at music.

stop patronising her!!

lyrical_gaah52:

Really, now. That was just bait. I never said it was difficult, my dear. I just said that it was one of the more complicated languages in the world. And it is. And I actually found Spanish grammar to be quite easy. Not fluent, but I know enough to speak simple sentences. If I have to work in a Spanish country, I'll be able to communicate on a basic level. BTW, the Telugu alphabet has 56 letters. 19 vowels and 37 consonents. Hindi has about 30 letters as well. But that doesn't make it more complicated.

And yes, it does depend upon the person. I take fault for not reading the last line of your post. Also, many of the people on GSB live in European countries or countries that speak a European language. And Chinese cannot be compared to most languages because it is a tonal language. Fun fact: that's actually why a lot of Chinese children are good at music.

So.. tell me.. Whats so complex about English?

Bloodraine:

lyrical_gaah52:

Really, now. That was just bait. I never said it was difficult, my dear. I just said that it was one of the more complicated languages in the world. And it is. And I actually found Spanish grammar to be quite easy. Not fluent, but I know enough to speak simple sentences. If I have to work in a Spanish country, I'll be able to communicate on a basic level. BTW, the Telugu alphabet has 56 letters. 19 vowels and 37 consonents. Hindi has about 30 letters as well. But that doesn't make it more complicated.

And yes, it does depend upon the person. I take fault for not reading the last line of your post. Also, many of the people on GSB live in European countries or countries that speak a European language. And Chinese cannot be compared to most languages because it is a tonal language. Fun fact: that's actually why a lot of Chinese children are good at music.

So.. tell me.. Whats so complex about English?

Ladies and gentlemen, I have officially been pwned.

Bloodraine, I'll write you an essay. Wait for a month or two, and I'll submit it to you by PM.

lyrical_gaah52:

Really, now. That was just bait. I never said it was difficult, my dear. I just said that it was one of the more complicated languages in the world. And it is. And I actually found Spanish grammar to be quite easy. Not fluent, but I know enough to speak simple sentences. If I have to work in a Spanish country, I'll be able to communicate on a basic level. BTW, the Telugu alphabet has 56 letters. 19 vowels and 37 consonents. Hindi has about 30 letters as well. But that doesn't make it more complicated.

And yes, it does depend upon the person. I take fault for not reading the last line of your post. Also, many of the people on GSB live in European countries or countries that speak a European language. And Chinese cannot be compared to most languages because it is a tonal language. Fun fact: that's actually why a lot of Chinese children are good at music.

In all honesty, the only people who say English is complicated are those who speak it as their first lanuage Im learning German and Croatian and Im at a disadvantage because Im use to something so much more simple. The only thing remotely complex about English is the way words are spelled, and how the order of the letters effects the sound, and that only applied in certain cases.

Also, meg is not your dear. If you have to make posts in a patronic fashion is only shows you lack the capability to debate in a respectful way. I assure you, patronising people helps no argument.

and if you were calling her dear in a loving way, back off, shes mine.

Yes, I apologize. And I accept that I'm a pissy bitch. I do lack several things and common sense seems to be one of them.

One of the things that makes English more complicated than other languages is stress. In Spanish and French, the stresses are specified with accents. Perhaps with all European languages, I don't know. But as far as South Asian/Middle Eastern languages go, there aren't stresses. The words are flat. The languages are totally musical, but the words themselves do not have stress. Perhaps English is only difficult for Indians. For example, the word conscience. A lot of my friends (until I rudely corrected them) pronounced it con-science. Science as in biology or whatever. And eloquence. the "quence" part should be stressed. They stress the "lo" so it becomes "ellahquence."

lyrical_gaah52:

Yes, I apologize. And I accept that I'm a pissy bitch. I do lack several things and common sense seems to be one of them.

One of the things that makes English more complicated than other languages is stress. In Spanish and French, the stresses are specified with accents. Perhaps with all European languages, I don't know. But as far as South Asian/Middle Eastern languages go, there aren't stresses. The words are flat. The languages are totally musical, but the words themselves do not have stress. Perhaps English is only difficult for Indians. For example, the word conscience. A lot of my friends (until I rudely corrected them) pronounced it con-science. Science as in biology or whatever. And eloquence. the "quence" part should be stressed. They stress the "lo" so it becomes "ellahquence."

Well, see even if you don't catch the stresses right away, you can still be understood, and you'll get it eventually, and there is only one Stress in a word, and you know it has to be on a vowel. Most two syllable nouns and adjective's you stress the first, and on 2 syllable verbs you typically do the second. But, whoever invented English had problems following rules and there are alot of exceptions to that. However, once you start speaking the language it comes pretty natually. So thats one thing, however lots of languages have stress.

I can give you 43751876 reasons why German is confusing.

doesn't this debate belong in Knowing the language....just a thought.

NeoSteph:

doesn't this debate belong in Knowing the language....just a thought.

Nick started it.

I_worship_tre_Cool:

lyrical_gaah52:

Yes, I apologize. And I accept that I'm a pissy bitch. I do lack several things and common sense seems to be one of them.

One of the things that makes English more complicated than other languages is stress. In Spanish and French, the stresses are specified with accents. Perhaps with all European languages, I don't know. But as far as South Asian/Middle Eastern languages go, there aren't stresses. The words are flat. The languages are totally musical, but the words themselves do not have stress. Perhaps English is only difficult for Indians. For example, the word conscience. A lot of my friends (until I rudely corrected them) pronounced it con-science. Science as in biology or whatever. And eloquence. the "quence" part should be stressed. They stress the "lo" so it becomes "ellahquence."

Well, see even if you don't catch the stresses right away, you can still be understood, and you'll get it eventually, and there is only one Stress in a word, and you know it has to be on a vowel. Most two syllable nouns and adjective's you stress the first, and on 2 syllable verbs you typically do the second. But, whoever invented English had problems following rules and there are alot of exceptions to that. However, once you start speaking the language it comes pretty natually. So thats one thing, however lots of languages have stress.

I can give you 43751876 reasons why German is confusing.

I will probably second all of your reasons concerning German. Because according to my grandfather (who really is a scholar in every sense of the word) German and Sanskrit are very very very close in terms of sentence structure, grammar and even many words. with the exception of the script, of course. And let me tell you, Sanskrit is hard.

I just read this whole thred..
And um..Ok
My opinions suck.

now that we have had two more countrys join the EU over the new year we are going to get more and more poeple come into the country to work,

We are all a country of foreigners in the first place, so people should be allowed to come here if they become a citizen or something.
As for speaking our language, English is one of the most complicated languages to learn. Come on, it takes us all of our years of school to fully understand it, and even some college. So, if someone speaks in broken English, I'm fine with that. They are new and need a chance, just like how all those years ago the native americans taught the people who came here how to fish and all.
So, we are all foreigners.

Bloodraine:

lyrical_gaah52:

Really, now. That was just bait. I never said it was difficult, my dear. I just said that it was one of the more complicated languages in the world. And it is. And I actually found Spanish grammar to be quite easy. Not fluent, but I know enough to speak simple sentences. If I have to work in a Spanish country, I'll be able to communicate on a basic level. BTW, the Telugu alphabet has 56 letters. 19 vowels and 37 consonents. Hindi has about 30 letters as well. But that doesn't make it more complicated.

And yes, it does depend upon the person. I take fault for not reading the last line of your post. Also, many of the people on GSB live in European countries or countries that speak a European language. And Chinese cannot be compared to most languages because it is a tonal language. Fun fact: that's actually why a lot of Chinese children are good at music.

So.. tell me.. Whats so complex about English?

I have to agree with her on this one, English is a very difficult language to learn.
I remember having to learn it. It was horrid. -shudders-

Brett Anderson:

We are all a country of foreigners in the first place, so people should be allowed to come here if they become a citizen or something.
As for speaking our language, English is one of the most complicated languages to learn. Come on, it takes us all of our years of school to fully understand it, and even some college. So, if someone speaks in broken English, I'm fine with that. They are new and need a chance, just like how all those years ago the native americans taught the people who came here how to fish and all.
So, we are all foreigners.

And have you learned all of the languages to say "english is one of the hardest language"?
No.
It takes years for anyone to learn their native language.
I also have a thousand reasons to tell you that french is hard, and spanish, and croatian. It's just hard when the language you learn doesn't follow your native - therefore logical - way of speaking (accents, order of the words in the sentence, pronunciation, sounds, intonation and so on).

As for "too many foreigners in the country" topic, I'm now a foreigner in my country so I don't think that my opinion is acceptable ><

No, there are too many illegal aliens in our country.

Launage doesn't really matter,
You can learn hard or not,
Over time.

I don't think that there are to many foreiners.
Nope.
;].

we're all foreigners. i do believe that the gov't should be particular about who they let in though. i think people who work hard and save their money up to come here should be allowed in because that's how my ancestors came here.

I don't think that we are all foreigners.
Not if you're full Native.
Because that means your people were here first...you know?

Also,
I will be the first to admitt that it's annoying when you're asked if you want english in America.
But I mean, give them time to pick up on it.
I mean, try putting yourself and family in there shoes,
And going off to mexico,
You wouldn't just know Spanish like a second nature.

I'm a foreigner. I'm American.

My family moved here when I was four because my Dad was in the US Air Force and we got stationed here. We loved it so much we did three three-year tours and my Dad ended up getting a job on the local base as a contractor for Lockheed Martin.

I love it here... I consider myself an adopted Yorkshire-person, but I still have a loyalty to Florida, where I'm from, and West Virginia, where the majority of my family live.

I'm currently going through the process of getting my visa in order to stay in the country 'definitely', as opposed to 'indefinitely'.

It's the most stupid process ever. I've lived here for nearly 16 years, I have a British driver's license, I pay taxes, I give blood (!) and I have a National Insurance number and a good job. My entire life is here.

And yet I'm having to go through a huge, complicated process to get my visa. I haven't sent off my application yet as I have to wait until just before my current one expires (either when I turn 21 or when my Dad leaves the country, whichever comes first) to send it. I had to go and take a 'Life in the UK test' which the majority of my friends couldn't've passed as the questions were so odd.

And they want to know every time I've left the country, even for a day, for the past 15 years. So every school trip, day trip... everything.

The process just seems a little bit too long-winded... I can see that they need to check that I'm not going to sit at home and cheat the benefits system but surely there's an easier way of doing it than this?

Alessandra_:

I had to go and take a 'Life in the UK test' which the majority of my friends couldn't've passed as the questions were so odd.

I've seen some of the questions for that, I would never ever have known any of the answers and i've lived in England my entire life.