English is spoken in every major city in the world, especially tourist destinations. Terry Dip thinks there’s a problem with that.
Photo by BingBing
Paris. At a cafe outside the Pantheon, I see a group of Japanese tourists, all women between their 20’s and 50’s, telling a waiter in broken English, “Something to drink, please… non-alcoholic.”
Costa Rica. Far away from any major city, I get an ear infection and go to the doctor, who asks me if I speak Spanish. I can chat in the language, but I couldn’t discuss my medical status in necessary detail. The doctor speaks to me in English.
Ho Chi Minh City. I go out with a friend who is bilingual in Cantonese and Vietnamese. I speak neither language. We stay at his friend’s house who speaks only Vietnamese. The friend tries to communicate with me in English.
These scenarios happen the world over.
English is spoken in every major city in the world, especially tourist destinations. You might think that means it has the most speakers. Not true – Mandarin is spoken by more people, but Mandarin is not spoken much outside China.
Mandarin was never a colonial language on a global scale. English claimed the title from French, which was a colonial language but has been losing power ever since America became the dominant world power.
If there’s a world language, it is English.
A Lack Of Colour
I find myself annoyed when Americans tour the world expecting to be understood whenever they speak in English.
I find myself annoyed when Americans tour the world expecting to be understood whenever they speak in English.
I am even more irritated when I hear travelers from outside the English-speaking world visiting another foreign country where English is not the official language and trying to get around by speaking English.
To be fair, there’s nothing linguistically wrong with the English language, and I admit it’s very convenient (for Americans, Brits, and Aussies).
But I strongly believe the prevalence of English is one of the biggest reasons the majority of America’s youth know next to nothing about the outside world. And the ignorance is not limited to just that age group. FDR ended American’s “age of isolationism” more than half a century ago.
It’s time Americans did some serious footwork to catch up.
Studying Abroad
Studying abroad has become more popular over the years for cultural immersion – yet the most common destinations for Americans are still Britain and Australia, followed by Italy, France, and Spain.
You couldn’t live in Rome without speaking Italian, Paris without speaking French, or Seville without speaking Spanish, but English could arguably get you through a summer or semester, which is typically the amount of time college undergrads spend abroad before they get back to the U.S. in the fall.
Even if American college students stay abroad long enough to understand the language and culture to a modest degree, most are still studying in the West.
In comparison, India and China send more students to America for higher education than any other countries in the world. This is a severe global cultural imbalance (not unlike the import-export gap America has with China, and look where that’s gotten the US economy).
Pop Culture USA
Photo by Terry Dip
American movies and TV rule the world. That’s a fact. When was the last time you saw a TV ad or a billboard for a foreign film? Yes, we all know Bollywood, but the Indian actor/character Americans are most familiar with is undoubtedly Apu.
Advertisements for Hero, House of Flying Daggers, and Fearless have gotten some airtime, but any publicity is minuscule compared to what any standard American movie gets. Furthermore, even big foreign films have only limited releases.
During my time own study abroad term in Sweden, Pirates of the Caribbean II and Superman Returns were playing in major movie theaters whereas domestic Swedish films had posters in alleyways and were played in small movie houses.
Friends is insanely popular in France. I know friends who stay up watching 24 in Hong Kong and Japan.
I myself spent many weeknights watching Family Guy, in the original English (Swedes never dub their imported American TV shows), with fellow international students when we could’ve been exploring the nooks and crannies of Lund, the local town.
In Sweden, I had the privilege of taking an academic trip to Brussels with a number of colleagues. While at a mini-conference with some representatives from the EU Commission, an American student raised her hand and asked, “Is the EU thinking about having a single official language?”
The EU now has over 20 official languages, and annual translation costs are over $1 billion USD – so if if her question was thoroughly impractical, it did show some concern for the cost.
But then she added, “Maybe English?”
War Of Confusion
While it’s possible that miscommunication due to ignorance of each other’s languages has been a driving force of ethnic wars, I don’t think having an international language is the solution.
Our entire concept of everyday reality is shaped around language. Language, more than anything else, I think, defines a people.
If English is the world language, it could burn away the cultural differences that make our world so interesting, reducing our vibrant global inheritance of culture to ashes (does anyone remember The Giver?)
Our entire concept of everyday reality is shaped around language. If you speak multiple languages, you start to see things in many more shades because some concepts just cannot be translated, directly or indirectly.
Language, more than anything else, I think, defines a people. You can’t fully understand a culture without first learning the language. Forgive me for mentioning pop culture, which some might find vapid, but you can’t deny the influence it has on the members of our society, especially the young.
Have you ever tried to call someone a chicken in Spanish by directly translating the word? Didn’t make much sense, did it?
Did you know that the famous Japanese phrase itadakimasu, said before every meal, simply means “to receive with gratitude” in formal speech? Imagine saying “Receive!” right before dinner.
Even “Let’s eat,” which is the typical translation in anime and Japanese dramas and movies doesn’t quite have the same effect.
Our different languages have shaped who we are, our history, our heritage, our culture, our identity. Why should the world have one language when it can have many?
The Power Of Words
In the end, it is unclear whether our global America-dominated media culture is an advantage to Americans or not.
When I was in Sweden, most Swedes knew more about American politics than I did. The reason is simple: economically and politically, it is more important for them to know about America than it is for Americans to know about Sweden.
If you’re an American, are you comfortable with the rest of the world knowing more about you than you do about them?
English shouldn’t be the international language. Neither should Spanish, French, Mandarin, or Esperanto. The world doesn’t need an international language. What it needs is more cultural exchange and less cultural imperialism.
What do you think about English as the world’s international language? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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In any case, we need a language which will be known by most people. I don’t agree that English may become the world’s international language, but still it helps us to understand one another. As for me I adore various cultures, so I am interested in studying their languages, but most people just don’t need and don’t want to spend their time on it. They know their language and have to learn another one for communicating with people form various countries. Yes, as a rule they say “we have to”. That’s why it is so important for them to have some universal language in this world.
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I think you need to separate the two arguments: English being the world’s language, and Native English speakers like Americans expecting others to speak English while traveling.
The second is definitely a problem if people refuse to learn how to speak the local language at all. The first IMO doesn’t have to be a problem – living now in Italy, I realize how much Italians have to rely on English traveling abroad. I think if it makes people more open to travel and willing to explore more exotic places knowing that somehow they can make themselves understood, it’s a positive thing. When I visited Fiji, I started filling my notebook with the language and practicing as some locals taught me, but we used English as the medium to further my curiosity.
Another important thing is also the way English is used – about the culture, learning something, instead of “How much does this cost?” and “Where is the nearest bar?” – something I see being a big fault of Study Abroad – an extended binge drinking/shopping trip for some and bad form in any language, and I strongly recommended learning Italian in the guide I wrote for Matador Travel.
Interesting topic!
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Nothing more surreal than watching CSI or Sponge Bob in French….Madagascar’s colonial language. The island teemed with French tourists. I’ve always had problems with French pronunciation and except for Tana (Madagascar’s capitol) no English is spoken much. I shifted to Malagasy, a language that doesn’t swallow most of it’s consonants.For me part of the allure of travel is not speaking my native tongue, seeing how I fare. Nice, thought provoking article.
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Wow. Can’t wait to read the feedback for this one. Should be pretty lively.
I take the controversial view that a world language needn’t or mustn’t necessarily erase cultural difference. It’s controversial because there are examples where this argument has failed. But I side with linguists David Crystal and Suzette Hayden Elgin, who believe there should be a lingua franca AND distinctive languages of ethnic origin. And both sides of the coin take effort.
India survives with its historic British influence. So do the many other countries around the world that have at one time or another been swept by the “imperialism” of French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, German, Swahili, etc. They have, admittedly with some struggle, managed to hold on to their ethnic languages in the face of aggressive acculturation. One need only look to Native American tribes to see the devastating effect that cutting out a traditional language has not only on the culture, but the individual psyche – as well as how powerful it is to hold on to your traditions.
Overemphasis on monolingualism is deadly. There is a lot of American shortsightedness to claim some sense of superiority due to the spread of English (Brits and ex-colonies know better) – which, yes, I believe has partly led to our marked ethnocentrism. But it’s a false security. Tourists insisting they can’t even manage a linguistic courtesy is embarrassing, but when a Chinese businessman turns to his partner and discusses an issue in Chinese, the monoglot’s at an incredible disadvantage. That day isn’t coming, it’s already here.
Still, I don’t buy your charge of outright American imperialism. True, Americans are just beginning to understand en masse what we really look like in the mirror of recent events. We’re slowly beginning to wake up to painfully flawed the neocon “Better Living Through Democracy (TM)” is. And a lot of us are still hitting the snooze bar. But as recent voting trends show, that ain’t everybody.
That said, no one here is demanding English bushiban schools in China and Taiwan. Or SUVs. Or fast food. They’re all surviving abroad just fine without forcing them down anyone’s throats. If there wasn’t a market, they wouldn’t exist. Just like American culture isn’t curling up and dying from all the Chinese products at Walmart. Frankly, I consider crappy dollar-buys for crappy happy meals a fair exchange.
It’s impossible to preserve a culture in linguistic amber. Language changes. People, fashion, technology, history – all of it changes, whether it’s due to external cultures or not. Some languages inevitably disappear, just like the telegraph and bowler hats. Today it’s English, which begins to morph into its own local versions (someday, to be dialects?). On the other hand, look how fast Americans are putting Chinese classes in grade schools, just like Russian was hot in the 60s.
In your last line, I don’t see how you expect cultural exchange without a common language. Most people don’t have the time to learn seven languages for their European trip, and even if they do it’s no guarantee they’ll get a “deep interaction” with natives. American imperialism has got a lot of people pretty scared (me, too), and I think reasonably so. But that doesn’t negate the need for a common language. You CAN separate one from the other. It’s a matter of tolerance.
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What about the Canucks? They speak English too! – including many of the Québecois.
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“I am even more irritated when I hear travelers from outside the English-speaking world visiting another foreign country where English is not the official language and trying to get around by speaking English.”
So let’s say a Romanian is traveling the world and finds himself in Japan. What language makes sense for him to try to use? Yes he could try to brush up on some basic Japanese, but if he is traveling to many countries over a few months there is no way he can be expected to learn enough every language he will encounter.
English is widespread, it simply makes sense to try to use it instead of grunting and pointing.
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Thanks for your recent post about embracing other cultures and languages. I am actually from a little town in Wyoming, and I have not had the opportunity to do much traveling outside of the US, but being able to watch and discuss foreign films has allowed me to (in limited ways I realize) experience the world outside of the United States.
If you are curious about film-making in other countries and have a yearning to see things from a fresh perspective, the Film Festival Gems Foreign set will satisfy your curiosity and perhaps start you on a path toward greater understanding of film making all over the world. This 4-disc set of curated independent films is now available from Official Best of Fest. Enjoy four, film festival award-winning films for the cost of one! See the trailers and buy the DVD’s at http://www.OfficialBestofFest.com!
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“Our entire concept of everyday reality is shaped around language. If you speak multiple languages, you start to see things in many more shades because some concepts just cannot be translated, directly or indirectly.”
While I agree that one’s mother tongue is an important part of both an individuals sense of self and a culture’s sense of self, I’m not sure that language is the most mportant piece of a culture.
I’ve been to many places where English is the official language, and can still find important culture differences between them. Ditto with places that speak French or Spanish (though admittly I am not very fluent in either of those languages). While it may be English, French of Spanish colonialists that initial spread the use of these languages and installed them as the “official” languages, that hasn’t stopped these places from developing a very unique and interesting culture.
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Very interesting. However, I feel the thing that we cannot lose sight of when discussing the prominence of one language over another is the fact that all languages have an wonderful habit of evolving naturally, intermingling, becoming modernised and bastardised in equal measures. No language is a fixed thing and whether we embrace or resist the dominance of English people the world over are simply going to use the language that makes most logical sense to them and provides the opportunities that are attractive to them. Without a doubt, knowing the local language helps you engage with the local culture on a far deeper level. But ultimately I feel that as an individual you need an innate curiosity about the world and sense of adventure as an impetus for study abroad. Whether you are a complete novice or an expert speaker of a foreign language is less important than the enthusiasm for foreign culture. Using a simple ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ in the local language can be as meaningful as being able to conduct advanced conversations, and so long as one is traveling with awareness and genuine interest in the local culture, I feel that having to occasionally resort to English for logical reasons is not the most terrible thing a person can do.
and for this reason I feel that
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Really enjoying this discussion – great points as usual Daniel.
T Page – I was surprised at how few Quebecois spoke English outside Quebec City and Montreal. I had a hard time communicating on the Gaspesie.
Sara, I really liked your article on Study Abroad in Italy over at MatadorStudy – nice job!
http://matadorstudy.com/the-study-abroad-guide-to-italy/
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Thanks for reading, everyone. And for the input.
More than happy to have started such passionate debate.
I’ll keep on working hard to produce articles like this. =)
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You wrote:
>If English is the world language, it could burn away the cultural differences that make our world so interesting,I totally agree. But I think maybe you haven’t quite got clear in your head exactly what you mean by ‘world language’. The way we are headed nowadays with World English it seems to mean ‘one language for the world’ – which totally appals me – I’m all for linguistic and cultural diversity. What I would prefer, and what seems to make the most sense to me, is ‘universal bilingualism’ [YOUR language + non-ethnic, non-territorial Esperanto for everybody (including English-speakers)]. That is the fairest and most democratic solution, where we are all on the same level playing-field, and not in a place where some are specially linguistically privileged. Take a look at the 7 points of the Prague Manifesto:
http://lingvo.org/
and let us know what you think.↵ -
“English claimed the title from French, which was a colonial language but has been losing power ever since America became the dominant world power.”
Daniel alluded to this, but the history here is a little off. French went into decline after the British Empire was done wiping the floor with its French equivalent a couple hundred years back. Of course in the 20th century American pop culture has done its bit, but English was on track to be the world’s global language even before 1776, let alone the FDR era.
I also think your assessment of the dominance of American pop-culture is a little skewed. Sounds like Sweden was all Hollywood, all the time, but not everywhere is like that. Bollywood actually produces more films (and I believe, brings in more money) and they are gaining popularity outside of the Indian subcontinent, and particularly in Britain. Meanwhile, lots of countries have potent local film-making and television-producing industries, including France, Britain, Canada, and Australia – the countries that are generally considered to be most America-fied. Foreign films are easy to find where I live anyhow, playing in mainstream theaters alongside the big blockbusters.
Of course I agree that people should learn second and third languages, and try to pick up bits and pieces of local languages when they travel, but I don’t think it has to be one or the other. English can continue to be the “global language” – we can all simply choose to make the effort to learn more anyway.
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One more thing, because I can’t resist!
“for Americans, Brits, and Aussies…”
And Canadians, Irish, Kiwis, South Africans (English is one of 11 official languages there), Indians (English is in fact the official language of India)…
My point is, it’s hardly a “fringe” language spoken by some tiny imperial elite and being imposed on the rest of the world. It’s the dominant language on two continents (North America and Australia) and spoken by entire nations on three others. What other language can claim to be so widespread?
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Fun fact: English is even the official language of Zimbabwe. For what it’s worth…
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Ha. Thought it might be, but couldn’t be bothered googling to make sure…
As a total sidebar, I think it’s fascinating the different ways different countries approach the “official language” issue. You’ve got South Africa on one extreme, trying to accomodate everyone with eleven official languages (my best effort at naming them without resorting to google: English, Afrikaans, Sesotho, Xhosa, Zulu, Setswana…) and on the other hand, India, admitting defeat given the hundreds (?) of local languages and dialects, and just opting for English – neatly sidestepping the Hindi/Urdu divide with its Hindu/Muslim overtones…
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Interesting post and the endless source of debate in hostels around the world. I’ve lived in several countries around the world, learning the language in some (Poland) not in others (China), but I can undoubtedly say that the use of English as a second language has only benefited travellers.
I agree that learning a local language gives a much deeper insight into a country than speaking in English. However, as pointed out above, expecting people to learn a language for a holiday is wholly impractical. Nor do people need a deeper, spiritual connection with every country they visit. English allows visitors to strike up a conversation immediately and get to know the country much better than having no common language. Chatting to the locals in English while in Spain on a week long holiday is a great way to get a feel for the place, you don’t need to be talking in Spanish about the finer points of moorish culture. English has changed the way the world communicates for the better.
I have to say this point made me laugh out loud
I am even more irritated when I hear travelers from outside the English-speaking world visiting another foreign country where English is not the official language and trying to get around by speaking English.
Trust me, I’ve tried speaking to a Vietnamese taxi driver in Polish, it just doesn’t get the job done. People speak English because it works. When you want to make sure what you’re eating is pork and not dog, high ideals of a utopian society where we all speak thirty different languages go out the window pretty quickly
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Hey!
I think every language has its own beauty and speaks about the culture of its own country. So, there is no point in discussing about this topic.
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Hmm…where to begin?
Well, I read the Prague Manifesto (yes, in English). I think I might’ve seen this way back in high school in computer science class.
As for the abundance of comments, I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to type paragraphs. And I’ve taken everyone’s criticism to heart.
Gracias. 谢谢。ã‚りãÂ΋¨ã†。Merci. Grazie. Danke.
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“I find myself annoyed when Americans tour the world expecting to be understood whenever they speak in English.”
Y’know, I kinda know what you mean. Americans annoy me, too. And I’m an American, in America even. “American Idol” just nails me to a cross. But the Sturm und Drang helps me write. It also makes me want to drink. But anyway.
It’s getting better. One of the best things to come out of the last 8 years is the USA beginning to notice – surprise! – we’re not the only ones on the planet. That’s a good thing. It just takes a little while to remove our collective head from our ass when so many people seem to like the view.
(Ever notice how no one else on all of two continents are “Americans” except us? Sorry, Canada! Maybe that’ll change soon. Your dollar’s pretty strong these days.)
You seem to be saying, “How can a country so self-obsessed inspire so many others to adopt their language?” That, my friend, is a whole ‘nother discussion. But on behalf of my fellow Americans: “Thanks for your patience.” =)
Terry, you’re awesome. Thanks for writing this. You can take that to heart, too.
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I personally agree that we should have a generic Language that we could use all over, it will be nice for it to be English (already speak), it can be another one also.
This is a direct effect of the global economy and increase on the communications due to the internet.Personally I speak English, German and Spanish, which makes it quite simple to get around, but generally it is easier to locate a person that speaks (or partially) English.
In some cases or due to the complexity of meetings it is required to have a professional translator or interpreter, but (in my point of view) it will be very simple if we all could communicate in the same language.
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An interesting debate. I hope you’ll take another look at Esperanto, which has never had any ambitions to displace ethnic languages. Take a look at http://www.esperanto.net
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And this will happen when a swede use English as an international language
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2ez11LkUwM&feature=related↵ -
Excellent post!! I couldn’t agree more. The “solution” of an international language is a lazy one for those who want to travel the world and see its sights behind a camera lens. I’ve really tried immersing myself into countries that I visit and for me this involves very much focussing on learning the language to the point of being able to converse easily about any topic. Before I decided to do it, I was limited to knowing only the college educated from major cities. I can’t even begin to describe the wealth of experiences I got from talking to the elderly from small villages, flirting with a girl in her language, and even making small talk with the guy sitting next to me on the bus. I’ve gotten a glimpse into the real culture of a place that would be impossible with just English. As you say, conversationally English just can’t convey some things a local language might.
@Eva: English may be the “official” language of the countries you mentioned, but I would personally be much happier speaking MY language (Irish Gaelic) rather than English when travelling (if I was too lazy to learn at least a little of the local language), since there are some concepts that English does a horrible job at conveying. I know plenty of “Canadians” who would gladly prefer to speak French in their travels (and some who travel only to Francophone countries specifically for that reason) and India has the greatest linguistic diversity of all, so labelling it as an English speaking country so simply is quite an insult I would think…↵ -
The great thing about Esperanto, as opposed to English, is that it avoids the accusation of “lingustic imperialism” because Esperanto places all languages on an equal footing.
Interestingly then that eight British MP’s have nominated Esperanto for the Nobel Peace Prize 2008
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An excellent topic and excellent posts!
As an American speaker of English, I could simply say “Let everyone learn English!” But that puts me at an advantage over those people who are not native speakers of English. Esperanto puts us both on the same level — it has been described as a “linguistic handshake.”
I speak French and Polish, in addition to English, and enjoyed being able to speak with Frenchmen and Poles when I visited their countries. But I could not help but feel some inferiority at being a non-native speaker of these languages. And when I crossed into Germany or Italy, I was lost, since I do not speak German or Italian.
But I also speak Esperanto, which I taught myself at age 12, because it is so easy to learn. When I attended my first World Esperanto Congress at Vilnius, Lithuania in 2005, I was impressed to find that there were 2,344 people from 62 countries and we could all speak to one another in Esperanto — as equals!
It would be great if more people knew about Esperanto. That is why I am hoping that this language gets more world-wide publicity, such as it would receive if it won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2008! I believe that the Europeans, who correctly saw the need for a common currency and adopted the “euro,” will also see the need for a common “second” language, while maintaining their individual “first” languages.
Once the European Union adopts Esperanto as its common “second” language, it will not be long before people from other countries will also learn Esperanto to be able to communicate with the EU.
Good luck!
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Wow—well put, Henry!
You’re absolutely right about Esperanto; it’s remarkably useful for meeting people on an equal footing. In just a few years of speaking it I’ve had conversations with new friends from Japan, Finland, Uzbekistan, Quebec, Australia, Iran, China, England, Macedonia, Mexico, Switzerland, Poland, Brazil, Vietnam, the Netherlands… even exotic Texas!
There’s also the Pasporta Servo, which provides free lodging and local information to Esperanto-speaking travellers in over 90 countries. A friend of mine spent over a year travelling across Europe that way; by the end of her trip she had seen over sixteen countries and stayed with over a hundred families using Esperanto. All for free! Just recently I was host to a traveler from Brazil; although he has spent years studying English, he found it much easier to communicate with me in Esperanto. More info on the Pasporta Servo can be found at: http://www.tejo.org/eo/ps
Also, a quick comment about the Nobel Peace Prize nomination: many news outlets are mis-reporting this. The nomination is not for the language itself (which would be kind of silly, in my opinion), but rather for UEA, an organization that turns 100 this year. UEA works to promote Esperanto, stimulate discussion of the world language problem, and call attention to the necessity of equality among languages. Here’s an article from Libera Folio: http://www.liberafolio.org/2007/nobel2008
Great discussion!
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And just today, I read that the Polish parliament has officially recognized the fact that the World Esperanto Association has now been in existence for 100 years:
http://www.polskieradio.pl/zagranica/news/artykul84592.html
Do you think that this snippet of information will ever make it to any English-language news agency?! Fat chance!‘Universal bilingualism’ [YOUR language + Esperanto for all] still seems to me to be the most democratic and rational solution by placing everyone on the same level linguistic playing field, without granting special unwarranted privileges to one élite ethnic group, as nowadays. And the 7-point Prague Manifesto (previously mentioned – April 2) has not yet been commented on.
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For me, English is already an International, global or universal language.
Today, if you travel a lot and you don´t speak English, I cannot understand how you can enjoy the trip and learn.English is indispensable in all fields of knowledge.I can even say that in any nation of the world whatever the official language spoken in such country,if you are undergraduate or even graduate, but you don´know English, you are seriously limited.English is the language of knowledge and communication today.How can you keep up with the increasing of knowledge and information today, if you do not know English?I realized that English even will help you to be more fluent in your own language.English is a must today.↵ -
Although I’m a native speaker of English, I’m aware of the added value Esperanto can bring. Indeed, the language has some remarkable practical benefits. Personally, I’ve made friends around the world through Esperanto that I would never have been able to communicate with otherwise. And then there’s the Pasporta Servo, which provides free lodging and local information to Esperanto-speaking travellers in over 90 countries.
In the past year I have had guided tours of Berlin and Milan in the planned language. I have discussed philosophy with a Slovene poet, humour on television with a Bulgarian TV producer. I’ve discussed what life was like in East Berlin before the wall came down, how to cook perfect spaghetti, the advantages and disadvantages of monarchy, and so on.
English might have enabled me to have a limited conversation with a hotel receptionist. Esperanto has tasken me into people’s homes.
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As a native speaker of English, I have to agree with Timoteo about the value of English in the modern world. And I would like to see more people learn English.
However, not everybody has the same capacity to learn a foreign language, and many may find it difficult to learn English, especially the spelling of English words!
This is where the “propaedeutic” (help in learning another language) value of Esperanto comes into play. Studies have shown that those, who learn Esperanto first, find it easier and quicker to then go on to learn another language, than those who simply start to learn that other language, without the benefit of Esperanto. This is probably due largely to how much easier Esperanto is to learn than other languages. One can become quite proficient in using Esperanto rather quickly. (It may take up to ten times longer for such proficiency in another language!) This builds up confidence in one’s ability to learn languages and makes it that much easier to then tackle learning a second or third language.
Henry V. Janoski
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If the Polish Parliament has voted, unanimously, in favour of Esperanto, please don’t denigrate it.
Good luck to Esperanto, and may it also move forward!
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Thanks, everyone, for a great discussion!
My middle daughter is Korean and I took her on a tour of Korea and Japan when she was 11. We stayed in people’s homes all the way and learned how it is to live domestic life there, both directly and through deep and subtle conversation. It is not an experience we could have had without Esperanto.
My daughter, like her sisters, has easily topped her school language classes (French, Italian, Indonesian and German, between them all) by speaking Esperanto first.
Esperanto is a step towards each other, linguistically and culturally, which makes the next step easier.
Australian Ministers for education are considering a proposal to teach Esperanto to most primary school students, using their usual teachers, so that scarce specialist language teachers can be redeployed to secondary schools for better effect. This allows language learning to begin early, in small and frequent sessions, for all Australian children whilst gaining a broad intercultural education.
(For more detail on this, search LOTE on the http://www.Lulu.com site.)
All the best to all of you,
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It is great when people know other languages and other cultures, but come on, we are living in the U.S.A., where the official language should be English. If you go to another country, it is best to speak that other language. Now, there are alot of people in this world speaking English, but you will be better off if you spoke the language of the country you visit or live in. I got fed up and tossed those politicians at brick at bricktoss.com, and you can to.
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I for one think the European Union needs to make English the official language. Whatever the history it just makes sense as so many people already understand English to a high level. I sometimes think the Dutch know the language better than half the people of Britain. I realise this would irk some people particularly the French but if the Union can’t have a common language I doubt it can ever move on. As a Brit I feel we would probably lose the most from this situation as every other nation’s people would end up being bilingual. The British government would need to place much more effort into getting Brits to learn another European language.
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Communication should not be just for an educational or political elite, it should be for everyone. Those who know English are part of that elite.
Sorry. Not acceptable. Linguistic discrimination against language minorities is completely unethical.
The virtue of Esperanto therefore presents both an ethical and practical solution. In fact, a long-term solution.
By placing all languages on an equal footing, Esperanto avoids linguistic discrimination.
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Nice article. I agree that English as a worldwide speaking language leads to a big percent of culture ignorance. I travel a lot and it makes me sometimes embarrased to see and hear how US citizens (not Americans) give the a country a bad reputation. English as the world’s international language isn’t itself a problem but the native English speakers who culturally narrow themselves.
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No, it shouldn’t. English is a very hard to learn language with lots of complexity that puts a couple of groups over the rests. After 15 years of learning and using English daily I still couldn’t attain the proficiency to feel at the same level as native speaker.
On the other hand Esperanto is neutral, very easy to learn, simple, very expressive and cheap (free) to learn at http://lernu.net In three days I was chatting (slowly) with a Russian woman and we didn’t have any other common language than Esperanto. It’s amazing. Go give it a try, it won’t cost you a cent and you’ll get a peak at a wonderful world with a wonderful community.
If you want to travel, you can use Pasporta Servo, which is a hosting service that is very cheap or free provided in a voluntary basis for esperantists to esperantists world wide. You can find more information on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasporta_Servo
And if you never learned a second language, Esperanto is the best place to start because you’ll get comfortable with the concept of a second language in no time and learning a third one will be much easier.
Please, give it a try, you have nothing to loose.
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Wow, This is an excellent debate. I hope that more supporters of English as a Second Language will participate. I was an English as a Second Language Teacher for over 20 years, mostly in the United States. Not all immigrants master English and the United States has a fifty percent drop-out rate from high school.
If it was in demand I would have been teaching Esperanto, a passion of mine since I was 16 years old.
For those content on the spread of the English language, study history!History is being forgotten. Not only has Greek, Latin and French been called World Languages before but I believe German deserves credit. (Go to my blog for several pages on this.) We continue to think we have reached the FINAL WORLD LANGUAGE but a good analysis of history says to the victor the spoils. The Esperanto Movement goes against the flow of history and SO DO I. As the American Stock Market Crashes around us with its domino effect, as half of Africa remains illiterate and educated in the colonial languages I remain hopeful for a world modeled on the Golden Rule, which brought the existance of Esperanto into reality.
Some national and regional language planning has worked: Modern Hebrew, Bahasa Indonesia (spoken by as many as 200 million), Swahili and at least one form of Norwegian.↵ -
Thanks, Neil — I agree with you about the desirability of Esperanto as an international language. For one thing, it’s easy to learn (even for Asian-language speakers, who don’t have the advantage of the Indo-European language-based vocabulary used by Esperanto). For another thing, it’s not the native language of anyone (excepting, of course, the very few people born into Esperants’ families where the parents had Esperanto as their common language). This makes the language-learning playing field much closer to “level,” unlike the use of English, where the English and people from their former colonies have a huge advantage. And since it’s not meant to replace anyone’s native language, and its speakers (at least so far) appreciate and value the cultures of others, it doesn’t lead to the homogenization of culture which the use of any country’s native language does. For other good reasons to learn Esperanto and use it, see esperanto-usa.org.
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Just try Esperanto and you will become another person. Amazing!
Probeer Esperanto en je wordt een ander mens. Verbluffend.
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I’ve read this whole series, the article and the comments. Very interesting, with very GOOD comments about various ideas about practicality, cultural bliipps, and on and on. I think we are missing the idea of the dire need to communicate at the highest political level, and to communicate WELL, and EFFICIENTLY. We have to get SERIOUS about the absurdity of ongoing WAR, all over the place. It has been said that if we were to experience an invasion by aliens, from outer space, bent upon our destruction, as some nations, or tribes among us have sought to do to others, Hitler’s Holocaust for instance, or Rome against Carthage, way back then — That this would bring us all together at last to save ourselves. Well, now! Consider this Climate Change! Consider the possibility that this could be Apocalypse, brewing up slowly right before our eyes. Well, I’ve heard some right-wing politicians brushing that aside, with silly remarks, i.e. that if it were, it would be too late already. Well, each of us knows that knows that he / she must die one day. (Well, at least SOME among us know this.) Should we then just stop living? Jump off the cliff? Even though still in the prime of health and happiness? Hownever! C.C is not our first such Apocalyptic challenge. The Cold War itself was one. We simply lucked out on that one, that some nut might have gotten his finger onto the Red Button, and set the Earth into oblivion. That silly slogan about MAD (mutually assured destruction) notwithstanding. And now, even apart from the C.C. threats, that Red Button still remains a dire threat, but even more serious, in the context of terrorism mounted upon the premise of religious fanatics, expecting heavenly rewards for wiping out infidels.
And then too, not only individual people die, but whole civilizations have risen to many stages of glorious splender, only to wither and die, or to be killed by rivals.. The Maya of Central America, for instance; Carthage. Ancient Israel. And on and on. Are we perhaps in the early stages of our own demise, in this economic collapse even apart from all the Apocalyptic threats? The utter disintegration of this great nation? I could go on all night!
Let me get back to the most basic! We have to let President Obama get on with the Fundamental Change(s) that he promised. The simplest first step in this, (in terms of material investment costs — zero!) (And immediate DIVIDENDS, [to bring in some capitalistic jargon!] ) is to bring Esperanto into the foreign language programs in the schools. This would result in immediate enhancement of public education and would point the way for further steps that would constitute REAL education reform, such as we have never seen before! And the spin-off from this, just 10 – 15 years downstream, is that the UN would begin to function in ONE language, instead of 6, thereby to operate far more efficiently and to save tons of money! (And, of course, to help the many countries of this precious Earth to get off each other’s backs!)↵ -
Alan C. Boschen, you are so right!
Did you know that a teaching resource has just been created that allows any English-speaking elementary school teacher to teach the class Esperanto, whilst learning along-side them?
We’re looking for a US distributor, government or commercial.
Search “Mondeto” for more info.
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Esperanto is, if nothing else, a fun idea, but it will never get very far as a genuine universal or world language. Even though a small (very small) minority of people are trying to get their families to use it as a first language at home, only the most dedicated will take the time to learn an artificial language with no real cultural substrate to back it up. Although the Esperanto promoters claim it gives equal weight to all languages in its design, that is simply not the case…it is, in fact, heavily biased toward the characteristics of eastern European languages, which is not surprising considering that its developer was a native speaker of an eastern European language.
A more realistic goal is for everyone to at least learn the languages of greatest regional significance. The Europeans tend to be ahead of the curve on this point, with most knowing at least two or three languages (typically their own, plus some combination of English, French, German, or Italian). A good percentage of European web sites (the EU site is a good example) include a toolbar on every page which allows the user to instantly switch to a different language.
In North America, unlike Europe, only three languages predominate: English; Spanish; and French. Most educated Canadians (and all national politicians, with rare exceptions) know both English and French fluently, whereas most educated Mexicans speak both Spanish and English. Most Americans, however, even if highly educated, speak only English fluently, unless from a Latino or immigrant background.
All three major countries of North America (USA, Canada, Mexico) should aspire for all their citizens to be fluently trilingual (English, French, Spanish). Ideally, all North American web sites should also include a language toolbar, similar to European web sites, to select among those three languages.
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Esperanto is the cheapest and fairest way to give everyone a say in what happens in our world.
Its cultural substrate is all that is common to humanity: parenthood, love, jealousy, ambition,…and it provides a means to discuss and understand less widespread cultural elements.
Esperanto is easier to learn if you already use an alphabet something like ours but it is the most equally-available language on Earth. Unless you want to start from scratch, anything else you propose will add a heavier learning burden. (Ido may be the exception).
“A more realistic goal is for everyone to at least learn the languages of greatest regional significance. ”
I doubt that that is more realistic: for one thing, it asks for a lot more of people’s time, probably about 400 hours each for the European ones you mention, whereas Esperanto would take you 100 hours. Who do you know with 700 hours just waiting to be filled? Plus, you still only have access to a slice of the world, and only that slice gets access to you.
If you imagine this learning happening in schools, what subjects will students drop in order to fit in all these extra hours of languages?
And what about the World’s most disadvantaged people, who speak minority languages and will never be able to afford even 400 hours (not enough for them because they are not starting from a European base) to participate in the World community. Is it ok to write them off?
“All three major countries of North America (USA, Canada, Mexico) should aspire for all their citizens to be fluently trilingual (English, French, Spanish). Ideally, all North American web sites should also include a language toolbar, similar to European web sites, to select among those three languages.”
If everyone speaks all three languages, companies would be wasting money to translate into three languages, as any one would do. On the other hand, if all sites were trilingual, users would have no motivation to be trilingual because any one language would do.
On the other hand, businesses investing 100 hours to offer their pages in Esperanto, make their information available to anyone in the World willing to invest 100 hours in international communication.
Sounds more realistic to me.
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The question asked was:”Should English Be The World’s International Language?”
Philosophers disagree on how to determine what should be, but one of the most widely accepted is Jeremy Bentham’s “The greatest good for the greatest number”.
The greatest good, in the context of language, is to both be able to maintain one’s own language and to understand and be understood by everyone.
The greatest number who could enjoy the greatest good, is the ten billion or so people on Earth, plus the billions not yet born.
Therefore, what should be the World’s international language is the one which everyone can learn, in addition to their own language, at the lowest cost in time and money i.e. Esperanto.
This is hardly a matter of fun: Never before has the World had to sustain 10 billion people, less than a lifetime ago there were only 2 billion of us. We speak 6, 000 languages, and more and more of us want fridges. We Earthlings have things to discuss and much to learn in limited time. The sooner we fix our communication problem the better we are going to deal with the challenges and opportunities ahead.
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Norte Americano asserts:
>Esperanto promoters claim it gives equal weight to all languages in its design,
and
>it is … heavily biased toward the characteristics of eastern European languages,The word-stock of Esperanto was selected a priori on the basis of ‘maximum internationality’. While the phonology is perhaps reminiscent of a Slavic language, word-building is similar to what happens in Turkish or Hungarian. More than half of the world’s population now speaks an Indo-European language. Why should a common second language such as Esperanto not reflect this? While including 5 words from Zulu, 10 from Inuit, or adding the Javanese system of honorifics, might be more politically correct these days, it certainly wouldn’t make the language easier to learn.
The reasons for Esperanto, as opposed to the hegemony of one ethnic language (and thus unfair advantages accruing to one ethnic group, and linguistic discrimination for the other 90% of the world’s population), can be read in the Prague Manifesto:
http://lingvo.orgS/he further asserts:
>Most educated Canadians (and all national politicians, with rare exceptions) know both English and French fluently,You are be right about the politicians, but you are (unfortunately!) way off base concerning ‘educated Canadians’!! I can think of very few university colleagues on the west coast able to give an interview in the other official language. If we can’t even get people to become bilingual, what hope have we for trilingualism (as promoted in the EU)? Get real!
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Correction sorry! : a priori > a posteriori
(Klingon is an ‘a priori’ language, Esperanto an ‘a posteriori’ one, based on existing ethnic languages).↵ -
Thank you for your comments and clarifications, which are much appreciated.
You are absolutely correct that not all rank-and-file Canadians are truly bilingual, even though they tend to be much less provincial than the Americans in their thinking. I agree that the chances to promote bilingualism in North America (let alone trilingualism) are currently remote, particularly among English speakers, who have no real incentive (at present) to learn anything else. In this regard, I believe you will see rapid cultural change in North America over the coming decades, driven in large part by the realities of globalization. What I was positing was not the current state of affairs, but a goal moving toward the future.
I completely understand the reasoning behind the design decisions for Esperanto. Unfortunately (for Esperanto, anyway), that simply buttresses my original argument. I am not arguing that Esperanto should have been designed as a smorgsabord of world languages (of which English, ironically enough, is already the best example today, having borrowed liberally from most major languages in both place and time). Instead, Esperanto is doomed to worldwide failure for the very reason that, at heart, it is simply another “me too” eastern European language, regardless of the worthy aspirations of its creator.
Another argument that has been made for Esperanto on this forum and elsewhere is the supposed ease of learning of Esperanto, due to the regularity and simplicity of its constructions, which were designed to not favor one eastern European language over another. This kind of argument, although initially appealing to the analytical mind, is heavily rooted in 19th century ways of thinking about motivation and learning.
It doesn’t really matter whether it takes a 100 or a 1000 hours to attain book proficiency in Esperanto or any other language. If someone is emotionally motivated to learn a language, the necessary time will be used. A small minority of people are, of course, engaged by the ideals associated with the Esperanto movement, but that simply is not going to work for the vast majority of people on this planet, let alone North America. As Pimsleur and others have discovered, language is much more effectively learned by hearing and speaking than any amount of book learning (which many ESL programs unfortunately emphasize). The need to communicate with the Spanish speakers in the Mexican grocery store or the Chinese speakers in your business partner’s factory is far more motivational to most folks than Wilsonian ideals of international harmony.
But now, let’s say the Esperanto movement is somehow successful, and billions (or even millions) of people start speaking Esperanto. What do you suppose would happen? Well, those horrible, illogical, emotional masses (tongue firmly in cheek) would develop regional variations, start coining words, borrow words as needed from (gasp!) other languages, and very quickly make a joke of the whole idea of Esperanto being the very flower of “simplicity”. It would be something like someone from Iowa trying to communicate with someone from the Philippines, where constructions and vocabulary from both “standard” English and Filipino are liberally sprinkled into each other.
The proponents of the metric system (which I support) in America have typically made the same mistake. They appeal primarily to logic and reason, but most people are swayed (for better or worse) by feeling and emotion. The only reason that people make a commitment to anything is that they feel an emotional connection to the underlying goal. Language learning is inextricably linked to cultural awareness: the learner of the French language, for example, is motivated by the new ability to engage meaningfully with the French culture.
Universal North American trilingualism can (and I believe will) succeed eventually, but it will, of course, require an initial commitment from probably some future generation, possibly after a period of increasing popularity and awareness. For example, if all three languages (English, Spanish, French) were required and taught in the schools, with concomitant support from society at large, children, who are natural language learners, would attain such fluency almost transparently.
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I find this article quite interesting, and agree with a lot of what you wrote, (although I realize this is somewhat contradictory coming from me, while teaching English in Europe).
This summer, I met a guy from Iceland whose English was perfect because they do not dub TV shows or films in Iceland. Additionally, he knew more about American sports, politics and culture than any of us Americans did. Everytime he had a new fact, I was amazed.
I especially enjoyed your mention of cultural imperialism in the last sentence. An/a observation/statement/connection that is not often made in “this day and age.”
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