Should we (as a species) make one language our "go-to" language?

[Amir Kondori]

Wow, you mean a bunch of people who speak English think there should be a global world and that it should be English? I am shocked. Shocked I tell you.

Anyway, this is a stupid idea for a multitude of reasons. The rest of the world does not need to start using our language for our convenience. We would give up a lot of cultural uniqueness for the sake of conformity and what? Easier time talking to people you already don't speak to?

I'll get behind a universal language once all the people calling for it are willing to not have it be their own first tongue.

 

[immortalfrieza]

I don't think it will be necessary to mandate a certain language to make it universal, it will naturally progress to that point after a few generations, and that language will be the most convenient one. However, I do think that having a universal language that everyone speaks is not only possible, but necessary. Language is the first barrier to a unified planet, one where society works towards goals which benefit the world as a whole, not just a particular country. Right now the world is fractured, each country out for themselves, working toward their own agendas without care for how it affects the world at large. This means that any real progress in is constantly hampered by these conflicting agendas, and we will be slow to respond to any real threat to the well being of our species. If we are going to survive not to mention thrive as a species for much longer, then we need to have the world as a whole be able to focus on making new technologies, making better use of the space and resources available, and dealing with threats.

 

[Da Orky Man]

Isn't English like, incredibly difficult to learn for most of the world? Also I think I read or heard somewhere that Spanish is actually the most common language on the planet, so it'd be more likely we'd use that.

English is very hard to get fluent with, given the horrendous amount of double-meanings that everything, but it's also considered quite simple to learn to an intermediate level. It doesn't have genders, isn't tonal, and uses the single most widely-used alphabet on this planet.
So, easy to learn, nigh-on impossible to master.

As for Spanish, due to South America, Spanish does indeed have more native speakers, as does Mandarin, but in terms of actual speakers, both native and otherwise, English comes out on top. At the last poll, about half of Europe's 500 million people can have a conversation in English.
When you start adding in the rest of the world, the figures get larger. Much larger. For example, about 125 million Indians speak English as a first language, and about 25% of the Indian population speak at least some English, which comes out as about 300 million speakers.
Add another 88 million in Pakistan, 72 million in the Philippines, 79 million in Nigeria, 290 million in the USA, you end up eith what is known to professionals as 'A metric fuckton'.

 

[dystopiaINC]

It's a very practical idea, and English would definitely be the most logical first choice.

The only worry I'd have is that if everyone knows English there won't be much need or reason for people to become fluent in their native languages anymore. Why would they want to when the rest of the world speaks English including people in their own country? Slowly, native languages would start to deprecate until every country is like Ireland where only 2% of the population actually know Gaelic.

more likely than not, we would see a gradual blending of the languages, as it is now if you ever look at certain words in English and look up were they come fro and how they came into it's current form, often the word started as word from another language the happens with Spanish and french word ll the time.

 

[BunnyKillBot]

Geez, a worrying number of biased and/or 'yeah it sucks but its the best of a bad bunch' responses about English here.

In this day and age of scientific research and understanding, there is no reason we can't come up with a new, entirely logical language with non of the pitfalls of natural languages that evolved socially over time. Doesn't solve the problem that no bugger would bother to learn it though.

 

[Phantom Kat]

I'd think I'd actually prefer German if it didn't have the arbitrary gendered nouns. It has quite a lot of structure to it which I like though I could be wrong as I only learnt a bit of it.

English seems to be evolving as an "international" language though it is a bastard of a language.

 

[Mr. Eff_v1legacy]

No.

I'm not in favour of handing any more authority to government agencies. As far as I'm concerned, it would be a massive waste and would pretty much only serve to force people who don't care to learn this go-to language. In places where it will matter, people will learn the relevant languages if it's in their best interests.

 

[Brian Barker]

English is certainly not the lingua franca of the World.

I live in London and if anyone says to me ?everyone speaks English? my answer is ?Listen and look around you?. If people in London do not speak English then the whole question of a global language is completely open.

The promulgation of English as the World's ?lingua franca? is impractical and linguistically undemocratic. I say this as a native English speaker!

Impractical because communication should be for all and not only for an educational or political elite. That is how English is used internationally at the moment, and historically how Latin was used. That solution did not work eiter

Undemocratic because minority languages are under attack worldwide due to the encroachment of majority ethnic languages.

The link below is probably the best advert for Esperanto, as a lingua franca, I have ever seen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp5IF41b8zs&feature=related

 

[Atrocious Joystick]

Considering how in almost every other country other than English speaking countries advertisements for learning English are the most dominant language advertisement I think we're actually well on our way to English becoming the international language.

The culture is dominant, there's some English speaking nation in almost every corner of the globe... I think every single nation has an English speaking nation as a major trading partner already. From Asia to South America to Europe to Africa.

If you were going to decide on a language it's probably best to start with the one that has the highest proportion of speakers in non-official language nations than any other language.

I think it's also a language that has had to deal with other people not having the most fluent grasp of it more than other languages. I would say English speakers are far more capable of understanding non-fluent English speakers than other languages are trying to understand non-fluent other language speakers.

I don't even believe we'd need to make it official, I think English becoming the international language will happen organically. Maybe not in our generation but perhaps in 6-10 more.

I think posts like this actually say a lot about how the anglophone community sees itself. English isn't just the language that happens to be the lingua franca at the moment due to various factors both contemporary and historical but it is also the best language (and by extension the best culture). English speakers are better at understanding poor english speakers than for example germans are at understanding poor german speakers, english is better for science as others languages just can't articulate as precisely, it is the easiest language to learn, etc. It is just the best all around.

This whole discussion is based around the idea that people all around the world would want to speak english for more than just utilitarian reasons. That our ability to speak a second language fluently somehow translates to a willingness to abandon our native language and just adopt english based on the premise that english is just so much bigger and better.

EDIT: Sorry if that sounded harsh and specifically directed at you Abomination. It´s just that many of the posts here echo some sentiments that I´ve heard from the few Brits I´ve met personally through my current education. That many are dumbfounded by the fact that things in general work differently here and downright find it insulting in a way even immigrants from much more distant countries don´t seem to. The fact that I and my country in general can speak english (the best language in the world) but don´t want to only speak english seem to honestly confuse and frustrate many of them.

 

[Somebloke]

Aah, an excellent excuse to google up this old gem, for linking:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=309181

:9

 

[Korolev]

It would be good, but it probably won't happen any time soon. Besides, within 30 or 40 years, I'm pretty sure we'll have instant, real time hand-held translators that can translate anything we say into whatever language we want, almost perfectly all the time. Machine translation of Spanish-to-English or German-to-English is pretty good already and the accuracy of translating from Chinese to English and vice versa is improving every year.

If I had to pick one language to be the world language, I would pick English. Not because it is the most beautiful or the "best" language, but because so many technical, scientific and medical terms are English. There are words in medicine that don't have an equivalent in many other languages.

I don't think we should enforce a global language, and I don't think we need one, but I can tell you the most useful language, from a professional/educational/business perspective is English. When a Chinese Businessman meets an Indian or Russian Businessman, they talk in English. When scientists from Denmark talk to scientists from India, they talk in English. When a Belgian doctor needs to communicate with an Arab colleague, they'll converse in English.

It just makes the most sense that if you HAD to pick one (and I don't think we have to pick one, but for the sake of the argument let's assume we have to), you'd pick English.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

We seem to be going that way anyway, however I'm pretty sure that it would be some sort of amalgam of Mandarin, English and Russian.

Basically we're going the route of Clockwork Orange, except with less...

Well, with less Clockwork Orange.

As for now, I think it would be silly to designate such a language; these things happen over time, and the gradual process is less painful, not to mention the social backlash and arguments of "globalization" and the like.

 

[Bailos]

As someone who's studied anthropology, and two years of Latin, and wants to go to grad school for linguistic anthropology, this is the saddest thing I've ever heard. One of the best ways to examine any cultures is through its language, and just replacing that with English would destroy so many things. And just as English is good for conveying complex ideas like in science, other languages have words and terms that can't even be understood in English. As far as instituting it as a second language, that would most likely end up speeding up the language extinction rates, as already 1 language dies every 14 days.

Further, how would you even begin that process? What about countries that have no interest in learning English? What about smaller indigenous peoples? There are some cultures in Papua New Guinea that have as few as 20 speakers of a language. And of course they, like many other indigenous people, don't have any standardized school system to implement English through. Who would teach them? In Ghana alone there are something like 57 languages, not even dialects but actual separate languages, so that if you go from one village to the next, there's a good chance you'll have no idea what they're saying there. How much time, and most importantly money, would that take as a global effort?

Language is one of the most beautiful aspects of a culture. To me, understanding how language flows and evolved is one of the most intimate views of a culture that you can get. I've rambled on a bit, and I'm quite sorry for that, but I'd be markedly against any sort of language conversion on a global scale.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

English pretty much is lingua franca in the world I inhabit. Sometimes I catch myself wishing I'd speak Chinese, though.

Absolutely no need for the asshat UN, though. Eff the UN.

 

[Battenberg]

Given that both Spanish and Mandarin are spoken by more people worldwide I certainly wouldn't assume English is the natural first choice, it's just the most convenient choice for all the English speakers posting here.

Also an attempt to create an international language was made in the form of Esperanto (which I learnt about from Red Dwarf) which is supposedly easier to learn than a lot of languages and is the most successful attempt made so far (although no doubt I've been ninja'd on this information).

Personally I like the future presented in Firefly where Mandarin and English are basically the only remaining languages and everyone speaks both although it took Earth being used up and its whole population being crammed into a bunch of arks for that to happen.

 

[waj9876]

...The only time I could imagine us needing a universal language would be if we needed to have a representation with cultures...outside of Earth.

I'm talking about aliens.

 

[Abomination]

Considering how in almost every other country other than English speaking countries advertisements for learning English are the most dominant language advertisement I think we're actually well on our way to English becoming the international language.

The culture is dominant, there's some English speaking nation in almost every corner of the globe... I think every single nation has an English speaking nation as a major trading partner already. From Asia to South America to Europe to Africa.

If you were going to decide on a language it's probably best to start with the one that has the highest proportion of speakers in non-official language nations than any other language.

I think it's also a language that has had to deal with other people not having the most fluent grasp of it more than other languages. I would say English speakers are far more capable of understanding non-fluent English speakers than other languages are trying to understand non-fluent other language speakers.

I don't even believe we'd need to make it official, I think English becoming the international language will happen organically. Maybe not in our generation but perhaps in 6-10 more.

I think posts like this actually say a lot about how the anglophone community sees itself. English isn't just the language that happens to be the lingua franca at the moment due to various factors both contemporary and historical but it is also the best language (and by extension the best culture). English speakers are better at understanding poor english speakers than for example germans are at understanding poor german speakers, english is better for science as others languages just can't articulate as precisely, it is the easiest language to learn, etc. It is just the best all around.

This whole discussion is based around the idea that people all around the world would want to speak english for more than just utilitarian reasons. That our ability to speak a second language fluently somehow translates to a willingness to abandon our native language and just adopt english based on the premise that english is just so much bigger and better.

EDIT: Sorry if that sounded harsh and specifically directed at you Abomination. It´s just that many of the posts here echo some sentiments that I´ve heard from the few Brits I´ve met personally through my current education. That many are dumbfounded by the fact that things in general work differently here and downright find it insulting in a way even immigrants from much more distant countries don´t seem to. The fact that I and my country in general can speak english (the best language in the world) but don´t want to only speak english seem to honestly confuse and frustrate many of them.

Well, I didn't actually say that English is the "best" language in any field. I said it would be the best language to adopt because of how it's already on its way there - not because of some value inherent to the language.

I really couldn't say what language is the "best". I have a decent understanding of the construct of many languages - especially European and South-East-Asian but not enough to say which one is the "best".

English most certainly has some significant flaws: spelling, & words with the same meaning would probably be the two most confusing aspects of the language. But, at the same time I view it as learning a musical instrument: mastery of the English language has some tangible, if not immediately apparent, spillover benefits. Understanding the full definition of words actually comes with the understanding of some type of social knowledge.

You do not want the language to be too difficult as teaching it to everyone would be too hard, but you don't want it to be too easy because then it will not be capable of conveying technical terms and artistic verse.

I feel the recent erosion to the English language with text speak is not just harmful towards English but trade as a whole. We need a greater understanding of English but we also need to try and refine English some more: get rid of the exceptions to the rule spelling of words, and the grammatical mazes that seem to crop up time to-- no, ALL the time.