I think that this is a good time of the year to say something which I have often thought. I frequently come across items in the free stuff files that include explanations written by someone in a "foreign" (not U.S.) country, and often a country which does not have English as their native language. On these occasions, I am always favorably impressed with the command of the English language that these people have, even though some will apologize for their "poor" use of English. It makes me feel a bit guilty that I did not keep up with the non-English languages which I studied years ago (German, Russian, French). I offer my strongest congratulations to those of other countries who have taken the time to learn English. Your use of English is mostly very good and certainly commendable.

I second the motion!

It is an unfortunate reality that the U.S. position in global markets tends to drive the need for business use of English. This has the unfortunate side affect of making American's less interested in learning second languages. I frequently work with counterparts in other countries that have an excellent command of English as well as two or three other languages, and often feel foolish for not being fluent in even one other. Which begs the joke: What do you call a person who speaks three languages? Trilingual. What do you call a person who speaks two languages? Bilingual. What do you call a person who speaks one language? American. :-/ :-)

LOL @ post 2 and 3 Being danish I must say that in order to communicate with the "outside world" it's crucial to be able to speak english, at least if you want to get around on the Internet, which is mostly english (american) based. After all we're only 5.000.000 danes so even if I would suggest each of you to learn danish ;o) I think it will be easier for all of us if we stick to english here :o)

Well, as a scotsman who has lived in italy for 20 years, I have to say that I've always been impressed with other people's grasp of English. I speak italian fluently and french fairly badly, so I know what's involved in learning other languages. But it don't think it's fair to say that 'the U.S. position in global markets tends to drive the need for business use of English'. IMO, use of english is driven by the simple fact that it's the most widely used language on the internet. This is partially to do with the US, but America is only one of many countries where english is the first language. Any kid growing up now in italy or wherever, already knows some english just from surfing. So, at school, they concentrate on english because how useful it will be to them. mac PS I wasn't going to say it, but..... oh well..... "Americans speak English???" LOL j/k

As an almost deaf German who happens to be able to read, write and talk in English, let me thank you for your kind words. In Germany you start learning English very early in basic school. If you go further to advanced schools, then you will have to choose usually between French, Latin or Spanish as a second foreign language to learn. I think in many European countries it is similar - like in the Netherlands, in Sweden and Denmark. Dunno about France - in Paris I've met people who have been talking English and one guy at a hotel even tried to speak German with me, but I am not sure about the majority of the French people. I think in Britain they tend to speak only English too - cause almost everyone on earth seems to be able to at least understand a bit of English. In my days on chat I've learned many different ways between British English, American English, Australian English which was very interesting. I enjoy the ability to be able to read a book in its own native language - translations often misses sensitive points in a foreign language and it is a lot of fun to read the original meanings. I also enjoy the ability to make new friends cause I can communicate with them. I just wish I would be able to learn French, but I found it too difficulty to remember the rules and they write so many things which they don't speak...LOL! English just was easier on me, cause I am from the Northern part of Germany and many many times we do use similar words. I encourage everyone to learn more than the own language, it opens up such a large horizont and enjoyment.

Exactly, Bryde. When I learnt italian, I began to realise how much english originally came from latin, then afterwards from german, french and italian. Fascinating stuff. mac

To maclean: of course Americans speak English; we invented it! It's those people in Great Britain that have trouble with it! :-) One of my business associates when working a GEMed was a Scottsman living in France. He'd been there 24 years, and spoke English with a heavy Scottish accent, but his friends there indicated he spoke French with a Belgium (?) accent. He had no idea why...:-) He and I had a great time discussing Scottish (and not so Scottish) accents in movies. Although I absolutely agree that the Internet is driving much of the global use of English today, the Internet is only 10 to 12 years old. English in global business has been fairly common for 30 years or so.

Interesting points ravenfeeder. I am also impressed with the English ability shown by non-native speakers. I think that we Americans have always been rather insular in our views toward other nations, a phenomenon which seems to be especially relevant today. Generally, we expect other people to conform to our ways of doing things. Learning about other languages and cultures has never been a high priority except out of necessity, such as during the cold war when learning Russian seemed of great importance in certain circles. We see the same thing today with the CIA and others scrambling to find more Arabic speakers. If a major crisis erupted in sub-Saharan Africa tomorrow, we would find ourselves equally unprepared to cope with that area. I think two factors have drove the (pre-internet) dominance of English. Commerce, as mentioned is one. The other is the worldwide popularity of American popular culture. Hollywood movies, rock and roll, etc. have played a part in the process.

Hi Ravenfeeder, These are very kind words. As a non english speaker I really appreciate. Robin

Good point, Rattler. Before there was Commerce, there was Imperialism. One of the most efficient ways to spread culture (although kind of hard on the receiver) :-) In an attempt to keep this thread even slightly Poser based, Do the Mimic-compatible phonemes she comes with work with foreign languages? :-D

i believe the documentation and archives stored in human resources of the world are most written or translated in English, it is a widely-used communication tool as the internet, which in most pages happen to uses English as main communication language. most, i believe most countries in the globe teach more or less English in their education period, some earlier, so later, but even one learning more than 10 years can barely speak it well. it just need interactivity with people who speak or write in it. it is just a way of comunication tool or mean which one needs to adjust or learn to use, like how to use Poser :P

On the contrary. At the moment, english is becoming one of the minor languages on the net. Although most of us do not realize yet, a great amount of pages is written in Mandarin. Most pages accessible via Google and other search-engines are still english, but this will change in the next few years. Chinese will sooner or later become a very important language on the net. Important enough for my boss to force me to learn Mandarin... Joerg

Thanks ravenfeeder, This is the first time I've ever I said ever a nice post like this one over the net! I agreed English took latin's place as universal language an I'm agreed that in these days to learn English is a basic need, well at least from my point of view. I must admit that I'm not able to command the language as I wanted, and I still doing a lot of grammar/spelling mistakes but you can be sure that I'm always do my best effort to fix those mistakes. Here in Mexico have a said. There is 3 kind of analphabetisms. 1.- People who can't read/writte a Language. 2.- People who don't know any foreing Language. 3.- People who den't know how to use a computer. Thanks again for this kind message, for people like me who don't has the english as their native language, I really apreciate it. Best Regardings Virus

Ratteler, "I think it's amazing that you have about 5 different languages in Europe", actually, we have lots more :0) Not sure about the exact amount.... but LOADS ;)

Urk. I see that even I have trouble writing in English. The Poser-related question was supposed to read: "Do the Mimic-compatible phonemes V3 comes with work with foreign languages?" sigh.

'The other is the worldwide popularity of American popular culture. Hollywood movies, rock and roll, etc' I agree with lmckenzie on that one. In almost every country in europe the charts are generally dominated by music either from the US or the UK. This has a huge influence on kids. And the same goes for movies. Even though the movies are dubbed into different languages, the atmosphere and locations (mostly american, in the case of movies) become a part of popular culture. There can't be many people in the world who don't know that San Francisco is hilly or that Caifornia has great beaches. As far as Joerg Weber's comment about mandarin is concerned, I'm afraid I have to disagree. Mandarin speakers may have a numerical advantage, but they don't have a technological one. All you need to do is look at a world map of poser users or internet users in general to see the way things are going. Two big clusters on the east and west coasts of America, another smaller one in the UK/western europe, and another small one on the east coast of australia. I don't see many users in china. And the internet will always be driven by technology. A piece of trivia. The second most known word in the world is 'coca-cola'. The first? Obvious. It's 'OK' mac

I am bi-lingual, Texican and "some" English. I have a Chinese friend teaching me some common Chinese phrases... otta hear it in a Texas Tone.... :)

It has bothered me over the years to see the de-emphasis on learning a foreign language in American universities. A few years ago, when I was going through in science, at least one foreign language was mandatory. I took three years of German, even reading Faust in German. In graduate school, I had to do a second language and chose Russian. Seemed like a good choice at the time. Now it seems that no one is compelled to learn another language in our schools. Sad. By the way, there were comments about "Scottish" English. That is one of my very favorite things - to listen to a true Scotsman. It is a lovely variation on English.

Spanish is probably going to have more influence and be spoken as a second language by more people than any other immigrant tounge in America in the next decade or so. At least that seems to be the trend. I've always heard that English was dificult because of the idioms, grammar, etc. Having taken a brief whack at Russian, I can say a totally different alphabet definitely makes things harder. I think in other countries, forein languages are probably taught earlier and more consistently. Not being exposed until the later grades makes it tough since the natural childhood language learning ability isn't there. At some point, translation technology will likely advance to the point where the internet will be largely language transparent and you can access anything in your preferred language. Looking at the way they currently mangle Japanese to English though it may be quite a while.

ravenfeeder: Merci. Q

lmckenzie: Regarding translation technology... I think most of the "flame wars" in this forum (hey, that's latin, meaning market place; commerce where ever you look tsktsk) are driven by slight misunderstandings, more or less. So, considering the state of translation technology, this opens up a real cosmos of new misunderstandings, where only some 4-letter-words might get through loud and clear. s We're going to live in interesting times! For my part I prefer to understand at least a little bit of my partner's language than to depend on technology. Even given my rather reduced vocabulary I can always give the benefit of the doubt and not assume worse than is written. Willy (51YO German, languages: English, Latin)

"I can always give the benefit of the doubt and not assume worse than is written." Unfortunately, too few people do that, even when they speak the same language. Without body language, knowleddge of slang and local dialects and even the individual's personality, it can be difficult at best, though "emoticons" help :-) Perhaps super translation combined with an intelligent avatar that knows your personality and can pop up to say "He's really kidding you know."

Right on, Imckenzie and Jobcontrol! I think that is imperative that when we write anything to those with whom we are not familiar, or even acquainted, we use carefully selected words to properly express our thinking. That is, of course, the mark of a good diplomat, and is something the rest of us should practice. It is difficult enough to get your meaning across sometimes when standing face to face. That difficulty is multiplied many times in written communications, especially when you get into technical discussions, like how to do something in Poser. (See, I managed to bring the discussion back to art and graphics.)