An article entitled “The Downside of English’s Dominance” ran in the November 27 weekly Review section of The Wall Street Journal.
The main points of the story can be summarized thusly:
* College courses in non-English speaking countries taught in English favor students from educated (i.e., well-to do) families.
* People in English-speaking countries are not encouraged to learn other languages (and therefore risk becoming politically and culturally isolated).
* Scientists who don’t speak English have reduced opportunities.
The author of the article, Rosemary Salomone, a professor of Law at St. John’s University, also indicates some advantages:
* The use of a common language facilitates communications across countries.
* English is spoken by 1.5 billion people around the world, while native English speakers number 400 million.
There are several counterpoint observations made by VideoAge‘s Dom Serafini:
The term “English” should be used generically because there are actually several distinct languages, including American English, British English, Irish English, and Australian English. Each use different accents, vocabulary, expressions, and meanings.
In the U.S., Spanish is the second most common language. In Canada, it’s French. So, languages other than English are regularly and commonly used in English-speaking countries.
The world went through several linguistic stages. Before WWII, French was the popular intra-nation communication language. After the war, English (or more specifically, American English), became the lingua franca. In subsequent years, there were attempts made to choose a predominant language based on the emerging political-socio-economic prominence. During the Cold War, Russian became a must for most intellectuals. During the ’80s, with the emergence of Japan as an economic powerhouse, Japanese became almost mandatory. With the oil crisis, the Arabic language could no longer be ignored. Then, when China invaded the world with cheap and counterfeit goods, Mandarin was obligatory. Until it was discovered that Chinese people from different regions and dialects used English to communicate among themselves, that is.
Today, there is (a limited) movement back toward French. Indeed, French president Emmanuel Macron plans to make French the official language of the European Council now that France has taken over the rotating presidency of the E.U. Plus, Eric Zemmour, a candidate for French president, wants to ban the teaching of English in French schools.
If one had to follow all these trends, fads, and/or political mandates, the Tower of Babel situation would return, creating more international confusion, something that the world doesn’t need. Therefore, it would be better to stick with the American language, regardless of its shortcomings.
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