Of course I’ve seen West Side Story and many other movies and plays that have been excerpted from other works. How many times has Romeo and Juliet been done in variation? Perhaps thousands of times. IMHO That does not address the issue. The English language has the largest vocabulary of any language, yet most people do not, or can not, use it. English is a precise language and that is the reason it is the universal “Commercial” language. French, a Romance language, is the “Diplomatic” language of the world.
Your argument that Germanic language speakers accomplished more regarding science and technology bears a closer scrutiny. It seems to me you are dismissing an enormous list of doctors, scientists, and inventors from France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, who in many cases paved the way to today’s world. Marie Curie, the Lumiere brothers, Da Vinci just for starters, and don’t forget the great mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal whose theory is still valid four hundred years after his death.
I’m not saying that ONLY English and German speakers can invent, etc. I’m just saying the language can make it easier and does affect how you see the world. An eskimo “sees” snow differently than most people BECAUSE they have so many words for so many different kinds of snow.
Your language limits or enhances your mind’s ease in understanding and communicating things. But you can accomplish anything if you have the ability and motivation, even if your language is Swahili. It will just be harder.
I would not peg English as all that inherently precise. Its large vocabulary helps because there are so many nuances possible in describing a thing. But if you want precise, go to something like Latin.
“English is a precise language and that is the reason it is the universal “Commercial” language. French, a Romance language, is the “Diplomatic” language of the world.”
Koine Greek was and is a far more precise language for conveying philosophic and theologic ideas than is English. For one thing has verb tenses that simply don’t exist in English.