[Timedrifter]

I wish somebody would inform some of our own recent immigrants how english is in.

[llevrok]

Except in the USA where the Libs want to be a bilingual country so they can "feel" continental.

So move to Canaduh, already!

[jkid2]

English Rules

yeah I wish somebody would tell many of these new immigrants

[grandpiano007]

English is in? Yes, because America rules the World. OOH YEAH. But, in 20 years, Chinese will be in, and all of us here, will be telling our children, eat your rice with chop sticks, kid, don't you wanna fit in? Hell, by that time, we'll probably all know how to operate our remote control with chop sticks.

[narses]

Universal language is one of those critical parts of human geopolitical growth. For well over 25 centuries, LATIN was that language. English has grown in the last 300 years to rival Latin.

[ultima ratio]

Lucky for us.

[xJones]

English has a great problem with being so un-phonetic. Looking words up in an English dictionary can be difficult at times since the spelling can vary so widely.

BUT, the great joy of English is that the nouns are genderless, and declension of verbs is minimal. Plus, English sentences normally start with the subject noun first, the verb second, and the details follow.

The Russian language, for instance, is very highly declined and every noun has a gender (all European languages are gender-concious). The subject noun can occur at the end of a very long sentence because you're supposed to take the gender and subsequent declension into account. It is laborious but relatively easy to translate Russian into English, but trying to fit English into Russian is hell (I took two years of Russian science translation in college).

Then there is the fact that English has outgrown the familiar and formal "thee" and "thou". German, for instance, has it's "du" und "Sie", as do so many other languages. English is highly functional - except for the wretched spelling defects - and borrows words freely from other languages. English can use nouns as verbs, as in "We're having a party" compared to "We're partying!" English is an evolving language, the most vibrant and word-filled on earth. And it's 26 letter alphabet is an infinite advantage over all the oriental pictograms.

[Ciexyz]

English teachers everywhere are rejoicing at this development.

[Pro-Bush]

No Habla.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[Lorianne]

Great article. Thanks

[You Dirty Rats]

My company's worldwide official language is English, including in our headquarters in Germany. It simply isn't practical to be a global company and have any other language that English as the means of communication.

[VOA]

French is dying outside France.

Just my amateur view, but that's one cost of folding up in WWII.
(and not planning intelligently to prevent it)

I've heard that just before WWII, there were plans afoot to make French
the required common language of the expanding number of airports around the world.

Fastforward through WWII, the end of France as a real military power, the
crumbled ruins of the Luftwaffe...and having thousands of Americans, subjects of
the UK (and Commonwealth) that came out of the air forces of the Allies...
...and that plan for French as the official airport tower language went on the
ash-heap of history.

[Aquinasfan]

No single language has ever before approached universality. English is now doing so.

That's hard to argue. But the author didn't address the consequences of this phenomenon, which are?

This phenomenon will certainly benefit commerce, but more importantly, with the simultaneous rise of the internet, a universal language could also aid in our understanding of each other. A freewheeling international dialogue can serve the promotion of truth and also, unfortunately, an international market for pornography and vice.

[Revolting cat!]

[Tribune7]

ping

[x]

Good fences make good neighbors. Somehow this makes me a little uneasy. It may make for a more peaceful world, which is all to the good. Perhaps it will spread "Anglosphere" values, also a positive thing. But I think many people are going to feel more lost in the world, without ties to older cultures. Some of them will likely fall prey to ideologies which claim to explain everything for them.

If we "Americanize" the world, it will take some time for us to rediscover who we are and what our place in the world will be. But if the English language and American culture do become dominant in the world, we'll probably have plenty of enemies, and that will give us some sense of purpose and unity.