Papiamento? Dutch?

[baluba]

Hi.
Wondering how many of you living full time in Aruba speak Papiamento?
Can "things get done" without speaking it full time?

Or would Dutch be more useful?

Or perhaps the question I should be asking is "which language is useful for what"?

Here in Shanghai, without at least some Chinese you won't be able to take a cab or get a lightbulb fixed.

My mother tongue is Portuguese, seems like a lot of words in Papiamento are the same.

Tks
Baluba.

[Andrea J.]

English is widely spoken.
Papiamento is widely spoken by Arubans to Arubans.

In schools, the follow languages are taught:
Dutch
Spanish
English

To the best of my knowledge Papiamento had not been not taught in the public schools, but i think it is in the schools now.

Sorry i could not have been more helpful.
Most Arubans and Aruba residents are MULTIlingual

The Papiamento language has origins of Portugese language.


check this link http://www.aruba.com/explorearuba/culture/language.aspx

[Eagle Beach Boy]

As Arubans speak about 3-4 languages I would think Spanish would good to know to talk to the Columbian and other workers.

[danadog56]

it amazes me all the time how our foreign couterparts can all speak at least 2 languages fluently and we amercians are lucky to be able to speak our own language.....we had 2 foreign exchange students and one could speak french, german(her native tongue), english and spanish...the other could speak german, english, french, japanese(her native tongue), spanish and dutch....
and me......english.....
embarrising...AIN'T IT ????

[Andrea J.]

it is embarrassing indeed.
the usa, the most powerful and envied country in the world and we are put to shame with our "lingualitites" hahahaha is that a word?

with the amount of spanish spoken in the usa, i am (speaking for myself) surprised i haven't caught on.

Originally Posted by danadog56

it amazes me all the time how our foreign couterparts can all speak at least 2 languages fluently and we amercians are lucky to be able to speak our own language.....we had 2 foreign exchange students and one could speak french, german(her native tongue), english and spanish...the other could speak german, english, french, japanese(her native tongue), spanish and dutch....
and me......english.....
embarrising...AIN'T IT ????

[Love Aruba]

My hubby and I were talking about how much things get lost in translation. We would ask a question and get this off the wall answer, but ask it a different way and we would get an answer. Also, one of our favorite waiters was not there this year and I inquired about him. The answer was "his foot is sick" I had to laugh (on the inside) I wanted to say "does it have a cold" hahaha Bless his heart, from what we could gather, was he had a blood clot and his leg is still swelling. But I just thought it was so cute that his foot was sick.
I do agree with you guys, it is a shame we don't know more languages. Especially spanish, since we have so much of that here. I want to know if someone is talking about me. hahaha
Pat

[ChuckiesDad]

Imo, teaching foreign languages will never become the "norm" in the U.S.

Right now the U.S., due to "No Child Left Behind", has most of its focus on teaching to the "test"- reading, writing and math.

After physical education, in order to combat obesity, there is barely room for fine arts whether it be a foreign language, art or music.

There has always been more emphasis in the U.S. on art and music.

Parents in the U.S. ideally, want their children to be taught math, reading, writing, science, social studies/history, art, music, physical education and now a foreign language. Again, due to our government's laws, this is not possible in the framework of a 7 hour school day.

[tavilas]

Originally Posted by ChuckiesDad

Imo, teaching foreign languages will never become the "norm" in the U.S.

Right now the U.S., due to "No Child Left Behind", has most of its focus on teaching to the "test"- reading, writing and math.

After physical education, in order to combat obesity, there is barely room for fine arts whether it be a foreign language, art or music.

There has always been more emphasis in the U.S. on art and music.

Parents in the U.S. ideally, want their children to be taught math, reading, writing, science, social studies/history, art, music, physical education and now a foreign language. Again, due to our government's laws, this is not possible in the framework of a 7 hour school day.

ITS AMAZING how it cant be done in the USA and all others do, what am I missing here?

[Andrea J.]

my take on the whole thing is that CHUCKIE'S DAD is right and due to the education reform, there is little time left for anything else in the classroom. add to that a huge bureaucratic nightmare with education funding and last but certainly not least the parents aren't demanding it. and i will NOT get going on parents and their indifference as to what is going on in the classrooms. (of course not you fine folks....but many many many other parents that expect the school to do it "all". either way, we as americans are "dumbed down". sad. so, tavilas i think it is not that it cannot be done in the usa, it won't be done.

QUOTE=tavilas;204950]ITS AMAZING how it cant be done in the USA and all others do, what am I missing here?[/QUOTE]

[baluba]

There are several reasons why expecting the US to be as focused in foreign languages is unrealistic.

The three main ones imho:

-Geography: differently from Europe, where a few hours in a car can take you to a place with a completely different language, America is so big and separated geographically that there is very little need to learn another language. Big countries with isolating geography like Brazil (where I am from) and China (where I currently live in) are somewhat the same way: they just aren't very good at languages because they don't had too, to a large degree.

-Hegemony: English is by far the most important language in the planet, and will continue to be for a long time. All emerging economies are desperately trying to master English as fast as they can because they know that the key to be integrated in the world is to learn English. No other language delivers the benefits that English delivers. Politically incorrect / insensitive? Maybe. But realistic. So, here in Shanghai we have people from all over the world, just the other day I was in a meeting with a Pole, a French guy, a Chinese engineer and guess what, everybody spoke ENGLISH. English is the lingua franca of the world and if you master it the benefits of acquiring a new language compared to the costs are so high that I guess it just doesn't make sense economically / time wise.

-Structure of the language: English is so beautifully simple and efficient that I am sure that to some degree it makes learning other languages more difficult, but that is purely speculation on my part.

If you are American and don't speak other languages, there is nothing to be ashamed of. You won the language lottery already. True learning languages is a great way to enrich ones life but I don't think there's anything to be ashamed of for not speaking other languages. I would say that there is much more to be ashamed if you don't speak English, regardless of where you come from.