Spanish

[Jessica]

My brother says that people who learn Spanish are stupid. that's not true. He's learning Latin, and he keeps on jeering how I should've learned Latin like him, because Latin is better and would help me with words easily. well I don't care. I am proud of learning Spanish and I wasn't interested in Latin since 7th grade. Who cares what he says. Unfortunately, it's a huge possibility that my little brother will learn Latin just like my older brother. I am the only one in my family that knows Spanish. My brothers know some, but not as much as me..
Latin looks very interesting, but it looks hard. Was my brother right? Should I have learned Latin instead?

[CrOtALiTo]

Jchen, firstly I don't think so that this place be the correct place for your question above your brother, and second you brother is silly, he is sillier than the people who learn Spanish, I haven't nor idea what is Latin, I don't know anything above that language, but I can tell you that if you keep his game, never he won't leaves to bothering you.

[Jessica]

Latin is a language..but it isn't spoken. Words come from Latin as well as Greek as some others.

[lee ying]

look, as you know , if we can learn whaterever languages if very important for us.
nobody can`t stoping you. you`re frre in your life,
first. you`re a student and you can see how important is to know several languages doesnt care what language are you learning the most important is to know them.
do you understand me.
each languages takes time to learn it, but your brother doesn`t care for you. because he doesn`t have to say that. he has to say. !cool! my sister is very smart. ^ _ ^.
well that`s my opinion.

[CrOtALiTo]

I don't care.

[Jessica]

about what?

[lee ying]

jeesica, what do you think to do?
after that.
what are you going to say to your brother?
teach him the importants things.
how importants is to learn several languages.
You have to make it right. (never back down) (nunca te rindas) ^ _ ^`

[Jessica]

Right now, the languages he know are Chinese and Latin....and a little bit of Spanish...
I'm sure he wouldn't want to learn more Spanish....he's too mean... :P

[ElDanés]

What language to choose highly depends on what you want to archieve with learning this language. Latin is not the right language to choose if you want to be able to talk with lots of people in lots of different parts of the world - Spanish is (now when we are comparing these two languages only). Latin is a good language to choose if you want to get a better understanding of other languages. Lots of Latin words have been borrowed into other languages, and it was very inflectional, which means you have to think a lot about grammar. And Latin won't help you getting most jobs nowadays, while knowing a major language as Spanish will in most cases. Latin will probably only help you in special cases and in linguistics-related jobs.

Remember that there's nothing magical about Latin. Latin derives from Indo-European, just like more than 400 other languages do. Latin just happened to be the language of the Roman Empire and slowly began to become a lingua franca (along with Koine Greek in the east-center, in the area around Greece). Even after the fall of the Roman Empire, Latin kept its position in Europe, which it held for a long time (while Medieval Greek was used in North Africa, the Middle East and some of Europe, as it became the language of the Byzantine Empire) And that's the reason for why Latin have had such a great influence on other languages without being magical or something similar, which some people tend to think, because there's so much talk about the language.

[Jessica]

that's the reason why my brother wants me to learn Latin.....not to speak a language..but to understand other languages...maybe he was right. I don't like talking and I'm bad at speaking Spanish (makes me really nervous talking to someone I don't know). Latin isn't spoken.

[ElDanés]

Latin was spoken, and you are still able to speak although it may not sound exactly like it did back then. But languages evolve, and even Latin evolved both in sound and grammar in the time while it was being spoken, and not just after it died - just like all other languages, from Egyptian to English.

[lee ying]

I'm bad at speaking Spanish (makes me really nervous talking to someone I don't know). that`s why you have to practice more and more.
i fell the same speaking english but make you sure to know it and when you speak you`ll know what are you saying. spanish.
if you know one word, the pronuntations are the same .
first you have to learn the abc`s, and then its more easy to speak it.
you will see that.

[Jessica]

okay I will make a note of that.
in the TV show, Jeopardy, most of the clues have something to do with Latin (if it's with words) like "comes from the Latin.." and not many categories are Spanish related. If they are, for some reason, I don't know the answer :P

[CrOtALiTo]

Jchen, you need to learn Spanish, because the Spanish is the second language most important in the worldwide, U.S.A on you will find alots jobs related with the speech in sundry places, you only will find jobs with people to speak English or Spanish or others languages, but seldom you will find jobs where you can speak Latin, I can give you a hint, you should keep with your learning in at Spanish, because I feel to the Spanish will cans help you soon most in your school, I don't know if your brother feels to can't do anything for learn other language or perhaps he wants learn necessarily Latin for choice or taste, I don't which is his truthful reason for learns Latin, but you without suffix any other comment more above this situation with your brother, if you keep with your learning at Spanish you will can tend the language, then I don't know maybe, you being a person very important in some company, because you know Spanish, What do you think above that?

[Jessica]

well yeah I guess you are right Crotalito. Spanish is spoken a lot, but isn't Mandarin Chinese the 2nd most spoken language in the world after English? well anyways, you are right. I'm not sure if I will find a job that actually has to do with Spanish, but maybe I will make some Spanish friends. All i have to do is improve my speaking.

[Rusty]

The world language statistics can be found on the Internet by doing an appropriate search.

Even though there are a few conflicting figures, the number of native Mandarin speakers far outweighs the number of native English or Spanish speakers.

On the Internet, however, Spanish is the second most-used language in web sites (English is first).

[ElDanés]

Many estimates on the amount of speakers of languages exist, and most of them vary a lot from each other. They all share the same languages in specific ranges, like a top five, but the places of each language is then changing from estimate to estimate, which makes it hard to give a correct answer.

Mandarin Chinese is generally considered the most spoken language - in fact, I haven't yet seen any up-to-date estimates not having Mandarin Chinese as number one. Normally, Hindi is said to be second, Spanish third and English fourth, followed by Portuguese on a fifth. But others put English both in front of Hindi and Spanish, and some put Arabic on the fifth place instead of Portuguese, so like you can hear, there isn't really any good answer to this.

[CrOtALiTo]

Yeah, Danes you are right, we never will know which is language most used in the world.

[poli]

I really think you need to distiguish mother tongue from ability to speak a language. My guess English is the most widely spoken language (even if it is not well-spoken English). As far as mother tongue is concerned I agree with others who suggest Hindi, Mandarin and Spanish, may outnumber native English speakers. It should be noted that a lot of Hindi speakers also use English.

[Jessica]

right right. thanks all of you