Why English Is But Should Not Be the International Language (3/3)
March 7, 2008 – 9:16 pmYes, miscommunication due to ignorance of each other’s languages has always been a driving force leading to ethnic wars (there’s a reason European history plays out like a drama of war after war), but I don’t think having an international language is the solution. Besides being far-fetched, it would also light the torch that could burn away all the cultural differences that make our world so interesting, reducing our vibrant global society to ashes (does anyone remember The Giver?).
Zhouzhuang, the water village near Suzhou. Is there any country in the world at the current moment that is more desperately trying to learn English than China?
Language, more than anything else, I think, defines a people. You can’t fully understand a culture without first learning the language. Forgive me for mentioning pop culture, which some might find irreputable, but you can’t deny the influence it has on the members of our society, especially the young. If you listen to commentators on channels like VH1 and Entertainment Weekly, who are typically editors of fashion or movie magazines, you often hear things like, “They must have a better word for beauty in Italian!” or “How do you say ‘babe’ in Chinese?”
Our entire concept of everyday reality is shaped around language. If you speak multiple languages, you start to see things in many more shades because some things just cannot be translated, directly or indirectly. Have you ever tried to call someone a chicken in Spanish by directly translating the word? Didn’t make much sense, did it? Did you know that the famous Japanese phrase itadakimasu, said before every meal, simply means “to receive” in formal speech? Imagine saying “Receive!” right before dinner. Even “let’s eat,” which is the typical translation in anime and Japanese dramas and movies, doesn’t quite have the same effect.
Our different languages have shaped who we are, our history, our heritage, our culture, our identity. Why should the world have one when it can have many? After all, we have many, many ethnicities in the world.
It is unclear whether our global America-dominated media culture is an advantage to Americans or not. When I was in Sweden, most Swedes I met knew more about American politics than I did. The reason is simple: economically and politically, it is more important for them to know about America than it is for Americans to know about Sweden. Will you be comfortable knowing that the rest of the world knows more about you than you do about them? Will you be comfortable knowing that you only speak English when much of the rest of the world speaks English and something else?
Having a single language as the international language would undoubtedly make communications among nations much easier, but nothing worth it ever comes easy. English shouldn’t be the international language, neither should Spanish, French, Mandarin, or Esperanto. The world doesn’t need an international language. What it needs is more cultural exchange and less cultural imperialism. America’s position as the world superpower and English being the language of business and tourism are two things that are probably not going to change, but Americans, especially young Americans, can at least try to learn more about the rest of the world. And learn a foreign language or two along the way.
11 Responses to “Why English Is But Should Not Be the International Language (3/3)”
Very thought provoking post dear.
Know what is the universal language?
Love
By Sherxr on Mar 8, 2008
Thank you, mon ami.
And I thought math was the universal language?
Haha, yes…love.
By Terry on Mar 8, 2008
Just stumbled on your article online. An interesting read.
I agree with your diagnosis of the problem — many American (and Brits too, I can assure you) assuming that everyone everywhere not only can speak English, but *ought* to speak English, and that worthwhile cultural exchange through the medium of this very much impoverish international “tourist” English is virtually impossible. However, I disagree with your conclusion.
I agree that to really understand a culture in depth, one needs to speak the language, live in the country for a while, and soak it up among natives of the culture. However, that requires an investment of years that, while greatly rewarding, is not something that everyone is in a position to do, and nobody could ever do for more than a handful of countries.
However, there’s a long continuum between “knowing nothing of the world” and “spending five years living in Tokyo”. Provided that long conversations can take place (i.e. proper communication, not just smiling, hand gestures, and the odd memorised pleasantry) then a lot can still be learned through contact with foreign people. And of course there are numerous ways that this can occur — you can spend years becoming proficient in their language; they can spend years becoming proficient in your language; you can both spend years becoming proficient in another language; or, if you’re both open to the idea, you can spend a quarter of that time becoming proficient in Esperanto.
The experience of millions of learners of Esperanto, as well as the results of educational trials since the 1920s*, have shown that learners reach a level where profound, useful, interesting cultural exchange is possible many times quicker in Esperanto than in other languages. Being international, of course, these exchanges are not limited to native speakers of any particular language.
Of course, you’d be right to point out that the number of Esperanto speakers is currently rather small compared to any of the languages you’ve mentioned, and that its speakers are a self-selected group, never a whole population. However, it’s still in the top 1% or 2% of the world’s languages in terms of number of speakers, and the speakers are spread through enough countries and come from sufficiently varied social, cultural and economic backgrounds that the kind of sharing of cultures and ideas that you talk about is not only possible, but an everyday reality for Esperantists the world over.
In summary, an international language that is a mid-way meeting point of people of all nations strikes me as a very positive thing; not a substitute for learning other languages and spending time abroad, absolutely not, but a very useful and worthwhile complement to those things.
* http://www.springboard2languages.org/home.htm#before
By Tim Morley on Mar 9, 2008
Thanks for reading and leaving your extensive comment, Tim!
By Terry on Mar 9, 2008
Speaking of languages, I’m currently learning my fourth, Hrvatska. I’ve came across so many (continental) europeans who speak at least 4 languages each. For them, English is the hardest language to learn.
However, we know of many active languages that are spoken only in one country. Hungarian being the most unique that I’ve came across so far.
There are many europeans who do not find the need to learn a foreign language because they do not wish to travel out of their home country. That is what I found most intriguing.
Terry, your article has sparked off so much interest! I think I will write an article about that soon. I love languages!
By Sherxr on Mar 10, 2008
I look forward to that article!
Yeah…learning foreign languages gets a little hard when you’re on your fourth or fifth one. I’m starting to forget some Spanish and Japanese already, yet I still want to learn French, Russian, and Arabic.
English is incredibly difficult, but have you ever heard Scandinavians complain about how hard Finnish is?
By Terry on Mar 10, 2008
I’ve read somewhere that Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian are similar in some ways.
I tried learning some Hungarian but it proved impossible for me. Just like my attempts at Thai and Korean. Ha.
French is the most beautiful language for me. Loved it! Chinese is the second. Though Chinese dialects like mine (Teochew) is even harder to learn than the language itself.
What languages do you speak Terry?
By sherxr on Mar 12, 2008
A Parisian friend once conceded to me that French isn’t as beautiful as Italian. =P
Besides English, Cantonese, and Mandarin, I also speak Spanish and Japanese, both of which have been getting rusty of late, though…
By Terry on Mar 12, 2008
Cool… my attempt at Cantonese is futile as well.. For some absurd reason, I get tongue tied when I try to speak it. I can understand it though since I watched a lot of HK TV when I was young. Haha..
Japanese I picked up here and there from TV and radio.
As for Italian, I’m still trying to learn.. being just right next door to the country. I thought it pretty similar to French but its grammar is not. A singing language is what it sounds like.
By sherxr on Mar 13, 2008
Heyy, very interesting post for someone like me who is in the middle of the path learning English here.
I agree with your conclusion - that we dont need an international language.
I personally think that all of us dont have to learn another language because we can live with it as long as we stick to living in the country we grew up. We cant impose people to learn another language, however, as a hope, i wish everybody would learn/know another language besides their native language so that the world would be a decent place…
there is more things are going on out there…
also, im becoming aware of how Japan and myself are influenced by American culture although i dont want to. It is almost unconscious.
I have been thinking what is like to be an American… i have met some Americans(vietnamese-american, and chinese-american) who refuse to be “Americanized” as in “white-washed”(so they defined it).
They concluded themselves they would get married with a person from the same ethnicity, and that Asian (girls) marrying White guys mean they(asians) are abandoning their ethnic pride.
i thought they were pretty extreme… because Americans are influenced by the dominant white culture in some way living in the culture.
But I guess that could also mean to be an “American,” too?
because you can choose how you want to be.
what is like to be an American, Terry?
By inda on Mar 14, 2008
I’m marrying a Caucasian man (not American) but I’m definitely not ditching my roots.
Being born in Singapore with mixed roots,it’s hard to preserve each of my culture and my dialect.
I’m actually influencing everyone around me to appreciate my culture and adopt it instead.
By Sherxr on Mar 15, 2008