Re: [OT] Re^5: [PT_BR] Escrever em Português no Perlmonks

[Anonymous Monk]

Hmm. You seem to have overlooked the second column labeled "Including second language speakers". The breakdown?

• English: 503E6
• Spanish: 417E6

[fokat]

Hmm. You seem to have overlooked the second column labeled "Including second language speakers". The breakdown

No, I did not.

In my second paragraph, I mention 50E6 current students. Many of them will take spanish lessons. All of them reside in the US. Let's say only 50% does that, we'll be talking 25E6 with english as 2nd language. I also mention a reference to some 41E6 hispanic US residents. Those add up to 66E6 (or a total of 483E6 vs 503E6, a difference of 20E6 or ~4%.

But according to the same source, that is precisely the fastest growing minority in the US.

I would say that a difference on less than 4% is dubiously decisive with this kind of sources / metrics. That is why I granted the point for a few years :)

Let's reopen the debate in a few years, if this is so important a question. :)

[Anonymous Monk]

In my second paragraph, I mention 50E6 current students. Many of them will take spanish lessons. All of them reside in the US. Let's say only 50% does that, we'll be talking 25E6 with english (sic) as 2nd language.

You can prove almost anything if you get to invent your own facts.

There are over 4 million children in Venezuela. All of them reside in Venezuela. Let's say only 50% take English lessons. That's 2 Million extra English speakers.

But wait, for every English/Spanish bilingual, you add a number to both the English column and the Spanish column. So its a wash.

I also mention a reference to some 41E6 hispanic US residents.

What kind of funny math are you trying to use here? Those 41 million are already counted among the Spanish speakers (whether as a first or second language). Adding them in means you're double counting. What we really need to further the debate is a source which measures growth rate of languages, and maybe a human interest story about what they're teaching as second languages in India and China.