What is the best language for me to learn?

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I only just started after that (2002-2003), I managed to get well paid contract work from the off but recently I find myself earning less than when I started despite having several years experience.

I enjoyed it while it lasted but I seriously question if it was a good decision now, no other industry is as cut-throat at the moment, companies aren't investing and everything has to be cheap, cheap, cheap and that includes the staff.

 

Someone who can manage well and interface with the Indian team lead - one who better darn well speak passable English! I've got firsthand experience with seeing this in action (and, might I add, what a horrible experience that was!).

It's absurd to think that an English-speaking country will outsource to a bunch of people who don't speak English at all. My point is... they can speak English (to varying degrees). So learning Hindi isn't likely to give someone a big advantage.

I've got Mandarin Chinese under my belt... and I can practically guarantee you that I'm not gonna use it in IT.

So... how again would learning Hindi help you with all that?

Best thing you can do is to improve your skill set and experience. There are still experienced-level positions available... it's the entry-level IT jobs that are taking a huge beating.

 

Really? Wait until the chinese wall comes down within the next 20 years like the berlin wall did. We'll have a billion chinese that will scatter to the rest of the world. Like it or not China is a major superpower these days and it's only going to get stronger as the Americans lose their dominant position.

 

Except that most Chinese natives (certainly those tempted to emigrate) speak better English than some people in England. Communicating with these people in their native language isnt going to be an issue.

You realise too, that the Great wall is a national monument, not some **** method of trying to split a superpower and potential threat we had just thrashed from uniting again. It wont ever "come down". And there is nothing stopping Chinese Nationals from leaving the country and "scattering to the rest of the world". If they want to, its just a matter of securing a visa with the intended country.

 

China has been the worlds economic superpower for 18 of the last 20 centuries, the west dominance was just a blip and now the party is over, whilst we maxed out the credit card the Chinese government bought our government bonds so we could pay for the bank bailouts.

In effect China makes the goods and lends us the money to buy them!!

 

I think you spend too much time listening to the soundbites and propaganda. My wage has jumped upwards 16 grand in the last 2 years, so I'd say your lack of earning is down to you.

Economic superpower? in what terms? because we all know who really has control over most of the worlds work force, and it isn't some Chinese trainer maker. It's the European, American and Japanese companies that constantly and consistently top the tables of wealth. I find it hard to say China was a superpower in real terms, ever. It has a lot of manpower and personal wealth, that was about it. We live in a globalised world and they have yet to step up the plate, they have had just as much opportunity as us, they don't have any excuse either, there was no big bad Europeans throwing our power onto them. In fact, China has been the biggest disappointment of last 400 years. Creating the firework doesn't make you a superpower, neither does inventing anything. Cashing in on it makes you a superpower and then projecting that across the globe. China has never done any of it, so when the wall comes tumbling down, they certainly won't come flooding to the UK, in fact, they are likely to take another step back 100 years like they usually do when they **** it up. They have made the same mistakes, over, and over, and over, as for buying debt and bonds? look up the real figures mate, China is a lot more dependant on the West than the West is on it because cashing in your chips doesn't mean a thing unless you get paid. It's a balancing act that is weighed heavily in our favour for a number of reasons.

Superpower? not bloody likely, powerhouse maybe and don't forget, you can only produce cheap goods for so long, we've all been there remember and ultimately it either of two directions: It implodes inwards because people demand a better living condition and you don't provide it or you're forced to provide a decent living condition upon which point you stop being able to produce mega cheap goods therefore losing your competitive edge.

I actually think the former is the most likely.

 

Think this thread is close to being derailed

 

So what resources apart from nightschool, watching the tele in the language you wish to learn or reading the papers, books in the language you wish to learn would you use to learn the language of your choice. I am eager to learn German and to add to the list

Has anyone used rosetta stone?

 

100%, I would need to visit the country every so often, but I find that when I go to France and speak in french they notice the English accent and they reply in English, but if you start off speaking in English they pretend not to understand. Same in Italy, those crazy Europeans.

 

Rosetta Stone is good, I used it a couple of years ago for German.
This is also a good site to pick up some basics, loads of languages listed there.

 

Cool, I will have a look on fleabay for a set.

 

You think you lot have got problems. When I speak in Spanish (my Spanish isn't bad, but not fluent) I actually speak it very well, with a good accent. This lands me in all sorts of bother because instantly anyone I'm conversing with assumes I'm a native speaker and flies into hyperspeed - cure embarrassing comedown as I have to explain that I'm a native Londoner, not Valencian or Catalan (and don't get me started on that, My Catalan is woeful)

Also, my missus is Sicilian, and every time I go there I'm reminded by her and her family/friends, that when I try to speak Italian (or, God forbid, Sicilian) I speak it with a heavy, almost comical Spanish accent.

I can't win!

 

What do we make? What does the US make? Who has superfast broadband? S Korea, Japan and Taiwan are streaks ahead of us, it's not just China you should be wary of. BTW government bonds are what legitimises a country economically, fail to honour and it's game over. The west was once rich but we lived beyond our means for the last 20 years to keep the bubble going, now we are stuck in the longest recession in history and I don't think you can dismiss all this as just 'sound bites'.

Every economic event in the last 3 years has pointed to the wests decline and the rise of the tiger economies, I'd rather not go into to the next decade with my head in the sand, thats all.

 

Bloody Sicilians, they get everywhere.

When I go back to the land of goats and old ladies even my Gran speaks Italian, I speak Sicilian to the locals and they think I am a hitman from the new country come to take care of business.

Still, never say to a Sicilian that they are Italian.

 

When you go to Spain do you just shout loudly in English with a spanish accent?