Re: On Topic Wednesday: Universal Synthetic Languages

Peter Bruells wrote:

Blech. I really, really, really hate French. Possible the worst
sounding language on Earth apart from Bavarian.

This says more about you than it does about French, I think.

*) Why French by the way? Where I live, there's hardly a French to
see, but we do have a goodly number of Dutch and Frisians around,
even though the latter are being poilte enough to learn Standard High
German.

It depends on how much relative weight you give to the two reasons for
learning second languages -- namely, to be able to converse with people
you otherwise couldn't converse with, and to read the literature of
other cultures. The primary argument in favor of French is to be able
to read its literature, especially if your native tongue is one that is
a common second language. Current political clout notwithstanding,
there is much more literature of note in French than in Dutch (much
less Frisian).

David Tate

.

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