THIS 2008, one of the hobbies you can probably have is learning various languages. Actually here in Salamanca, people here speak several languages aside from Spanish and the usual regional dialects. Of course, Salamanca is home to the pure unadulterated Castilian dialect which comprises the bulk of the Spanish language just like Tagalog comprises the bulk of the Filipino language and Nippongo comprises the bulk of the Japanese language. Yet people in Salamanca still desire to learn English with both accents (the rhotic and the non-rhotic) because there are a lot of English-speaking tourists here. The normal tourists come from Britain and they of course are the non-rhotic accented English speakers. But in 2007, a lot of Americans including such stars as Sigourney Weaver, Matthew Fox, William Hurt, Dennis Quaid and Zoe Saldana converge to Salamanca to shoot the movie Vantage Point. Of course, these American actors speak the English language with the rhotic accent, which is the letter r is pronounced. Aside from English, people here in Salamanca especially those working in the hospitality industry also manage to know a little bit of Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Icelandic and German because most of the non-English visitors and expats in this city come from countries where the aforementioned languages are used. Also, Portuguese is widely learned in Salamanca of course because it is used in their neighboring country which shares location in the Iberian Peninsula, Portugal.

In the United States, if you are a Hispanic, you are lucky because you will be learning two languages – Spanish and English. If you are from New England, you may be compelled to learn both the rhotic and non-rhotic form of English because New England is the only place in the United States where the non-rhotic form of English is used. In New Orleans, majority of the people speak French but to conform to the rest of the population in the United States, people again need to learn English. Offshore in Hawaii is a diverse population. Most people speak Hawaiian, however there are people there who are Japanese-Americans and who speak Niponggo as well as Filipino-Americans who speak Tagalog. But these diverse groups of people must still need to learn English which is the most widely used language in their nation. On the other hand in Canada, half of the population speaks English while the other half speaks French. The English-speaking population needs to learn French while the French-speaking population needs to speak English.

Now let’s discuss the etymology of each country in the world as well as the etymology of the languages therein. For instance, the Spanish language is a Romance language because it originated in Rome. But Roman in turn is influenced by two ancient European languages, Frankish and Germanic which become precursors to the present day German language. The English language used in Britain and in the United States across the Atlantic is likewise a Romance language. And so is French and German.