Why do we have a second language again?
 

Posting here because this has nothing to do with Politics and Religion.

Why do we have to have a second language (or more) on almost everything we buy?

I realize there are visitors in our country who do not understand English but English is our language and having other languages to sort through is a pain.

I guess it boils down to manufacturers marketing their goods to more than one market.

http://marcjager.com/images/facepalm.jpg

If a manufacturer can sell his product in the USA & Mexico with ZERO changes it saves them money. Many electronic gizmos come with instructions in several dozen languages.

Here in Canada it's the law. We have two official languages, therefore all packaging must be in both.

Beat me to it and I hate that about Canada.

The additional manufacturing and other resources we expend on it makes it almost not worth selling our products up there.

S. America has some of the same issues.

Forget Brazil. We sell to a distributor and let them grey market it in. Money loser for us to do directly.

French and Canadian, eh? ;)

I think we miss out on a lot of products for that reason. It's not as bad now as it was several years ago, though. I remember when I was a kid I was fascinated with American chocolate bars. Of course, you guys never did get Smarties!

Its to remind you there is a whole world outside of USA. :)

+10 freaking million.

I can tolerate multiple language labels, but what irks me currently is "press 1 for english" on a phone.

Hahaha. Now that's funny.

When you need to press "1" for Spanish and "2" for English, one tends to throw the phone through the wall.

Lompoc School District......

They have three languages in Arizona. English, Spanish and whatever the hell it is that OJU speaks

Isn't Smarties English and not Canadian?

I think he really works for the gov't as a code talker....

Nailed it. I work with a scientist from Africa who speaks 7 languages. He told me a joke one time:

Q: What do you call a person with an college degree who only speaks one language?

A: An American.

Both.

Why do I have to select the language at an atm? I honestly doubt I am going to suddenly feel the need to use the atm with my card in german or arabic.
Can't I have my language preference coded to the card? Or is this a fraud/theft protection thing?

This answers the question
 

And what do you call a lot of the world that speaks English as a 2nd language? Knowing the advantage.

You better learn Chinese if you want to hold that advantage.....

¿Qué dijiste?

¿Mande?

bums me out. i used to be fluent in spanish and cantonese. now i just know broken sentences. my english is suspect too.

wish i kept it up.

In NZ we hace two official languages and I speak three of them.

African Scientist is hillarious! I bet he kills them in Cameroon! I can see it now - African Scientist Comedy Jam, African Scientist at the Improv, Two and a Half African Scientists. :rolleyes:

But seriously, I just got back from the Middle East Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition in Bahrain(and are my arms tired!). It's a week of vendors, scientists, geologists and engineers right in the heart of the Middle East. Very technical presenters from all over the world, experts in drilling, well testing, reservoir management, unconventional gas, fracking etc. The one thing they had in common - every paper, exhibit, presentation, and document were all in English.

I've lived all over the world. In such exotic places as Algeria, Saudi Arabia, St. Croix, American Samoa and New Jersey. Everywhere I go, they speak English or wish they did. Even the guy who sells me donuts on my way to work in Dhahran speaks English. There are 540,000 words in the English language with more being added every day. In the Kingdom, every billboard, menu, street sign, and newspaper has Arabic and English versions. I'm trying to learn Arabic, but all my colleagues speak English! It's the official language of Aramco. All the specs and procedures are in English.

Yea, we're very isolated and colloquial here in the US. But they are still paying Amurikins ungodly amounts of jack to come and work in other countries. They can't get enough of us! It's not just a language thing either. It's cultural.

There are about 7,000 distinct languages being spoken in the world right now. Half of those, and the people who speak them, will not survive this century. You can go ahead and fire up your Rosetta stone and make the effort, but if you speak English, you're way ahead of the game communication wise.

The project I'm running right now - $145 million pipeline - has vendors in Belgium, Italy, the US, Spain, and KSA. Every bit of communication is in English. All my contacts speak English. You can still do business even if you don't know Spanish, French, Italian etc.

Now, my colleagues in SA all appreciate the effort I'm putting in because they are naturally proud of their Arabic - a really beautiful and ancient language with huge cultural and artistic significance (Arabic writing is a form of art as well as communication). But it doesn't keep me from my work. I would encourage Americans to at least put forth the effort. It's pretty fun learning a new language.

What's really sad is all my foreign business contacts who speak and write English better than their US counter parts.

Agreed. I work with Phillipinos, Saudis, Canadians, Brits, Germans, etc. Their English is amazing. They even get the slang. It's sad that we (Americans) don't pay more attention to our communication skills.

No sé por qué necesitamos incluso inglés, también me habla habla del Sur.

The United States does not have a legal official language.

I don't have anything that I want them to have and there's nothing they have that I want that I can't have with English.

Pretty much says it all about anyone I deal with. It's kinda like me having to speak Spanish to get my lawn mowed. That won't happen.

I know what you meant, but that's some funny $#!T right there :D

I always look forward to reading the instructions translated from Chinese. Just hilarious.
After reading this post, us prefer you go have happy fun time.

Yea, I should have said Scots! I can't understand a word they're saying.

Yo no creo que tu sabes espanol.