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We’re not native English speakers, English is our second/third language. Chinese is also already available in our schools. It’s just not a high priority. It’s

We’re not native English speakers, English is our second/third language. Chinese is also already available in our schools. It’s just not a high priority. It’s on par with Spanish, Greek, Russian, Japanese and some such. This doesn’t correlate to the importance Chinese has on our society these days though. English used to be the most important language, these days it’s German and Chinese and I see nothing on the horizon to change that outlook, so it’s kind of silly to weigh it’s importance in our school system as low as Korean or Greek. I realize it’s harder to learn, but that’s what schools are for. I mean, when I was young we didn’t teach English until the 4th grade, these days we start teaching English by age 6 and everyone learns 3-4 languages.

learc83 9y ago
You've not mentioned where you're from. You're on an American site, and you talked about Brexit, so I assumed British or American. >English used to be the most important language, these days it’s German and Chinese I'm having a very hard time thinking of a country where both German and Chinese are more important than English. Where is this?
- orf 9y ago
  China and Germany?
  - smcl 9y ago
    Chinese is more important than English in Germany, and German is important than English in China? Remember the point the GP was trying to make was that it's hard to imagine a country where both languages are by some measure more important than English.
- rypskar 9y ago
  >You're on an American site No, that isn't really how the internet works. The site is owned by an American company, but HN is an international site with visitors from all around the world
  - learc83 9y ago
    >but HN is an international site with visitors from all around the world It's site that focuses specifically on the startup culture centered around SV. The site if full of American idioms, cultural norms, and people regularly discuss American politics and the American regulatory environment. There are far more people living in America participating than otherwise. In most cases the default behavior is to speak about American issues without prefacing with "this is about America." There's clearly nothing wrong with speaking about non-American issues, but if you don't specify, most of us are going to assume you're talking about America.
- eksemplar 9y ago
  I’m Danish. I did specify “native > English > ..,” though, so I figured that gave the non-English native thing away. Our most utilized languages in business and tourism used to be English, German and French. It’s now German, Chinese and English, in that order. In everyday usage English is still important and will remain so for years to come. But if you’re looking for languages with professional application Chinese is at the top.
  - learc83 9y ago
    >It’s now German, Chinese and English, in that order. >business and tourism A search of the number of tourists from different countries visiting Denmark shows that the number of tourists from the UK and America still dwarf the number of visitors from China. So I'm not sure why you'd say that Chinese is more important than English for tourism. It also looks like Germans have always been the largest group visiting Denmark--that hasn't changed. As for business in general, China makes up about 4% of exports and 7% of Danish imports. So I'm not really sure by what metric you're putting Chinese above English. > But if you’re looking for languages with professional application Chinese is at the top. If that's true, it's more likely because 86% of Danes speak English so it's not really much of an advantage within Denmark. China is a growing economy, but English is still the language of world commerce, science, and entertainment. I think that you're mistaking growth rates with absolute values.
    - eksemplar 9y ago
      We’ve had 300.000 Chinese tourists since August. I’m not sure how many Americans have been by in the same period, but in a typical year we get maybe 10.000.
      - learc83 9y ago
        Where are you getting these numbers from? The CIA factbook says over 300k Americans visit Denmark every year, and the information I can find on Chinese tourists says Denmark was estimated to get less than 300k Chinese tourists in all of 2017 (it was updated in Nov 2017). Also Denmark gets close to a million British visitors per year. And then add to that the number of visitors from countries who are very likely to speak English as a second language, and the people from countries like Ireland, Canada, and Australia. I think the problem here is that you don't notice all of the English speakers because they just don't stick out as much as Chinese tourists do. Sure you can notice the obvious tourists, but there are plenty of them that you wouldn't know were tourists unless you talked them. Chinese culture is also much different, so they are even more likely to stick out. In addition, I'm going to guess that Chinese tourists are a common topic of conversation and news coverage, at least more so than English speaking tourists are because it's a change from the norm--you have to change if you want to accommodate them. This can lead to you over-representing Chinese tourists in your mental model.
deleted 9y ago
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learc83 9y ago

You've not mentioned where you're from. You're on an American site, and you talked about Brexit, so I assumed British or American. >English used to be the most important language, these days it’s German and Chinese I'm having a very hard time thinking of a country where both German and Chinese are more important than English. Where is this?

orf 9y ago
China and Germany?
- smcl 9y ago
  Chinese is more important than English in Germany, and German is important than English in China? Remember the point the GP was trying to make was that it's hard to imagine a country where both languages are by some measure more important than English.
rypskar 9y ago
>You're on an American site No, that isn't really how the internet works. The site is owned by an American company, but HN is an international site with visitors from all around the world
- learc83 9y ago
  >but HN is an international site with visitors from all around the world It's site that focuses specifically on the startup culture centered around SV. The site if full of American idioms, cultural norms, and people regularly discuss American politics and the American regulatory environment. There are far more people living in America participating than otherwise. In most cases the default behavior is to speak about American issues without prefacing with "this is about America." There's clearly nothing wrong with speaking about non-American issues, but if you don't specify, most of us are going to assume you're talking about America.
eksemplar 9y ago
I’m Danish. I did specify “native > English > ..,” though, so I figured that gave the non-English native thing away. Our most utilized languages in business and tourism used to be English, German and French. It’s now German, Chinese and English, in that order. In everyday usage English is still important and will remain so for years to come. But if you’re looking for languages with professional application Chinese is at the top.
- learc83 9y ago
  >It’s now German, Chinese and English, in that order. >business and tourism A search of the number of tourists from different countries visiting Denmark shows that the number of tourists from the UK and America still dwarf the number of visitors from China. So I'm not sure why you'd say that Chinese is more important than English for tourism. It also looks like Germans have always been the largest group visiting Denmark--that hasn't changed. As for business in general, China makes up about 4% of exports and 7% of Danish imports. So I'm not really sure by what metric you're putting Chinese above English. > But if you’re looking for languages with professional application Chinese is at the top. If that's true, it's more likely because 86% of Danes speak English so it's not really much of an advantage within Denmark. China is a growing economy, but English is still the language of world commerce, science, and entertainment. I think that you're mistaking growth rates with absolute values.
  - eksemplar 9y ago
    We’ve had 300.000 Chinese tourists since August. I’m not sure how many Americans have been by in the same period, but in a typical year we get maybe 10.000.
    - learc83 9y ago
      Where are you getting these numbers from? The CIA factbook says over 300k Americans visit Denmark every year, and the information I can find on Chinese tourists says Denmark was estimated to get less than 300k Chinese tourists in all of 2017 (it was updated in Nov 2017). Also Denmark gets close to a million British visitors per year. And then add to that the number of visitors from countries who are very likely to speak English as a second language, and the people from countries like Ireland, Canada, and Australia. I think the problem here is that you don't notice all of the English speakers because they just don't stick out as much as Chinese tourists do. Sure you can notice the obvious tourists, but there are plenty of them that you wouldn't know were tourists unless you talked them. Chinese culture is also much different, so they are even more likely to stick out. In addition, I'm going to guess that Chinese tourists are a common topic of conversation and news coverage, at least more so than English speaking tourists are because it's a change from the norm--you have to change if you want to accommodate them. This can lead to you over-representing Chinese tourists in your mental model.

deleted 9y ago

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