Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack
French is still a language with international pretentions.
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I was talking about this with some Swedes over Midsommar. They are raised with the perspective that Swedish is not a "world language", so if they are curious about travel and the world beyond the Nordics, they should pay attention in English class (English being the best bet here, although there are still French preschools and schools in Stockholm).
When I asked about the "world language" category, the consensus was "English, French or Spanish". Obviously this could be seen as Eurocentric, but then these are Europeans in Europe.
As an aside on the whole outward vs. inward thing, a lot of the most compelling places go hard on both, with this usually being divided by class. World cities like New York and London, for instance, also have very inward-looking working-class traditions with their own dialects and such. Stockholm and Toronto are more biased towards the "out" half of the equation. A large city like Cairo would be more biased to the "in".