Monday, July 30, 2012

English Language – The Global Lingua Franca


The English language is undoubtedly one of the most precious possessions of the modern human society. It is the English language that helps to create and strengthen a feeling of unity and oneness among the various communities and nations across the world, by facilitating international communication and interaction. It is this language that ensures that a man from China in Asia can communicate and interact with a person from Burkina Faso in Africa, or a gentleman from Argentina in South America can chat with a guy from Germany in Europe. 

It is this language that helps develop and preserve global unity, understanding and co-operation, in every field ranging from trade & commerce to science & technology.

Hats off to this spectacular Global Lingua Franca!

2 comments:

Bill Chapman said...

I'm a native speaker of English and I wish anyone who wanty to leaern it well. Last month saw the 125th anniversary of the publication of Esperanto. That’s quite an achievement for what started as the idea of just one man. It has survived wars and strikes and economic crises, and continues to attract young learners, all without state subsidies.

I think that Esperanto is also a language "that ensures that a man from China in Asia can communicate and interact with a person from Burkina Faso in Africa, or a gentleman from Argentina in South America can chat with a guy from Germany in Europe." Furthermore, English is relatively easy to learn and use.

Brian Barker said...

We should not overestimate the position of English. English is an international language not the international language.

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.

Undemocratic because minority languages are under attack worldwide due to the encroachment of majority ethnic languages. Even Mandarin Chinese is attempting to dominate as well. The long-term solution must be found and a non-national language, which places all ethnic languages on an equal footing is essential.

As a native English speaker, my vote is for Esperanto :)

Your readers may be interested in seeing http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_YHALnLV9XU Professor Piron was a former translator with the United Nations

The Esperanto online course http://www.lernu.net has 125 000 hits per day and Esperanto Wikipedia enjoys 400 000 hits per day. That can't be bad :)