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To: Helicondelta

Is there something wrong with that? English is the ‘lingua franca’ here isn’t it? Or is it ‘lingo franco’?


3 posted on 01/23/2017 8:45:56 PM PST by x1stcav (Leftism is like rust: It corrodes 24 hours a day until eradicated.)
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To: x1stcav
Is there something wrong with that? English is the ‘lingua franca’ here isn’t it? Or is it ‘lingo franco’?

I do not have "Xenoglossophobia" (foreign languages fear). However, you are correct; English is the new "Lingua Franca" for most of the world. Because of US movies & TV, many of the younger (under 40) people at least understand English. If you are an airline pilot flying internationally, you MUST speak English.

Pride in one's native tongue is a good thing. A National Language is a good thing also. The national language of the USA is English. We have citizens who grew up speaking Spanish, Mandarin, Hindi, French, German, Hmong, Swahili... Because of our national language, English, they have the ability to communicate with each other.

Immigrants to the USA who learn English are better able to communicate when they travel abroad to anywhere other than Latin America or Spain. A Swede will probably communicate with an Italian or a Kenya using English. While in Taipei I once "translated" from Japanese English to Chinese English. (neither speaker could understand the other. But because of movies & TV, both were used to understanding my American accent. The Japanese businessmen told me their order for hamburgers, which I repeated verbatim to the Chinese waitress. "Do you want fries with that?"<->translation into American accent <->"Yes").

If the White House website has a Spanish section in addition to English, our citizens and visitors who grew up speaking Mandarin, Hindi, French, German, Hmong, Swahili, etc. receive NO benefit from the Spanish section. There are 10 languages with at least 100 million speakers, more than 100 languages with at least 7 million speakers. Should these have dedicated web pages, too?

Doing everything to encourage people to learn English helps them to communicate with the rest of the world. It also gives them access to the largest library of published information on Earth.

BTW, when I travel I try to learn to say at least the Greetings, "Thank you" & Excuse me", plus several ABSOLUTELY essential phrases, such as "Pardon, ou sont les toilette?", "Wapi choo?", Donde esta el bano?", "Wo ist die Toilette, bitte?"

56 posted on 01/24/2017 6:37:41 AM PST by BwanaNdege ("The church ... is not the master or the servant of the state, but the conscience" - Luther)
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