Learning from scratch - any recommendations? [with OT additions]

[Richmond]

I think that that has little to do with how people acquire other 
languages, but quite a lot
to do with concepts of inclusiveness and tribalism.

I doubt whether those Slovakians are consciously setting out to be rude, 
but:

1. They probably feel that it is easier to convey certain concepts to 
their compatriots in their mother tongue.

2. I felt, on my visit to the USA last Summer, that  people seemed less 
friendly than when I was there for 3 years in the early 90s. Put this 
down to a cultural shift if you will, put it down to the effect of 
everyone's favourite
half-Hebridean if you will, put it down to some sort of rise in racism; 
I honestly don't know.

Of course if one wants to be tribal and rude (which are often confused) 
a person like myself
educated in England could get "all b*tchy" about your "perfectly good 
english." :)

Which does rather prove the point, that all of what you have mentioned 
about Slovakian volleyball players comes down to perceptions and 
manners: not how languages are learnt.

On 4.11.19 17:54, Bob Sneidar via use-livecode wrote:
> I'll just throw this in the mix. I find in America that where once people spoke the language common to their immediate society (the people around them) now people seem to not care. We have 3 slovakian volleyball players at the beach who in spite of speaking perfectly good english, revert to slovakian often, for which I chide them regularly. It's like walking over to a corner in a party and whispering to each other while everyone looks on. I find it rude.
>
> Bob S
>
>
>> On Nov 3, 2019, at 17:33 , Alex Tweedly via use-livecode <use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 03/11/2019 22:04, Richmond via use-livecode wrote:
>>> I'm not sure if in some countries kids learn languages more easily than in others.
>>>
>>> But, I do think:
>>>
>>> 1. In English-speaking countries there is an unconscious feeling that learning a foreign language is not 100%
>>> serious as "all the world learns English."
>>>
>> No, it's surely simpler than that.
>>
>> For an English speaker, a rational analysis shows that the Return on Investment for learning *any* other language is much lower than the RoI for anyone else thinking of learning English.
>>
>> Learning another language is (for most of us) difficult - it takes a lot of time, energy and effort; so it's a legitimate question whether or not it is worth that investment ?
>>
>> Although Mandarin and Hindi are spoken by more people than English, the great majority of those people are  very unlikely to be encountered by any English speaker.
>>
>> Spanish has some claim - but outside of South America its numbers are much smaller - and the percentage of those outside South America who don't also speak English is (I suspect - can't find reliable numbers to back it up) probably low.
>>
>> There are many good reasons to learn another language, ranging from the well-proven neurological benefits of multiple languages to the simple common courtesy of doing so - but in straightforward "increase in ability to communicate" I'm unconvinced that an English speaker gains enough to justify the effort.
>>
>> Better to put the time / money into supporting EFL / ESL for others :-)
>>
>> Alex, only partially tongue in cheek.
>>
>> P.S. hmmm  does that argument also apply to Livecode ??
>>
>>
>>
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