LICA98 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 29, 2022 9:44 pm
@panyamnyenyekevu I'm not saying that English should be the lingua franca but rather that it is
@Stasia
in Latin America literally people speak their native language to other speakers of their native language even when Spanish and Portuguese speakers speak to each other usually each uses their own language (rather than both using Spanish) as they're mutually intelligible
I totally agree that Brazilian Portuguese is closer to Spanish than Portuguese from Portugal, allowing for a basic conversation between speakers of these two. Been there, done that!
That does not change the fact that Spanish is the lingua franca. Indigenous languages are not mutually intelligible, hence the need to use Spanish as the common language. So when a Quechua native speaker meets an Aymara native speaker, they will usually converse in Spanish. Unless they are monolingual (then hand gestures have to suffice), or at least one of them is trilingual (Aymara, Quechua, and Spanish) allowing for a conversation in one of the native languages.
in Central Europe Russian hasn't been the lingua franca for a long time, like a Polish person speaking to a Hungarian or Romanian would much more likely be speaking English
What you say is true for people under 40, give or take, in urban areas. Older people tend to be either monolingual or know their language and Russian. Rural people of all ages tend to be monolingual. In Romania, in my personal experience (not a scientific study, just a few weeks hitchhiking), it's similar, rural people tend to be monolingual, but if they speak a second language it could be any European language, like German or French. In Hungary, the longest conversation I ever had with a Hungarian, was in Spanish.
Of course you are not going to note that, if you come to, say, Poland, and stay within the beaten tourist track. In the foreign-tourist areas every barista knows enough English to sell you a latte (but don't expect a deep conversation about the nature of human nature). But if you venture out of the foreign tourist enclaves (into rural areas, or even within the cities, but away from the tourist areas), your English won't take you far - you'll have to go back to hand gestures.
And as you rightfully say, Russian was forced, so you will find people who understand Russian, but won't admit it. Back to hand gestures again, unless they're selling and you're buying, then they usually miraculously remember their Russian.
Similarly, you will find people in Latin America who resist learning English because they feel that English/American influence is forced. Which again steers us into the dangerous waters of the intersection of language and politics, so I'll just leave it at that.
so it's just a fact that the percentage of people speaking English is globally much higher than any other language, idk why people keep denying this when it's completely obvious
Sure, when you combine numbers of native speakers and English as a second language speakers (which I'm guessing, but don't know for a fact, includes people who can sell you a latte but cannot have a meaningful conversation). But if you just look at the numbers of native speakers of each language, the picture is somewhat different:
Image (2017 statistics) source: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/02/ ... languages/
Data from 2021: https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/the- ... -the-world