The two world wars allowed us, the United States and the Soviet Union , to rise to the status of Super Powers. Which is pretty cool but a heavy responsibility. If we paid attention in history, we know that a whole bunch of “conflicts” arose out of that era; Vietnam , Korea Berlin Jordans made in Thailand
The many nations in the world use our language because we, Americans, are everywhere. But according to Barbara Wallraff, other nations who learn to speak English usually add their own language into it. We did it with British English and other English speaking languages have done the same. As stated in her essay, “English is much easier to learn poorly and to communicate in poorly than in any other language.” Which, I think is true. If we say That boy dumb or Me no understand, we get the message. If you try saying that in German it comes out as nonsense. You would have to use a complete sentence to express that simple thought. Ich bin nicht dumb. Which is kind of annoying but good.
What I have noticed is this: the world adopts the language of the world’s superpower. Look at what happened when the Spanish took over the world and they were the world’s Super power. They had the indigenous people learn their language and now A whole continent and then some speak Spanish. The Portuguese were powerful too, and the whole country of Brazil Middle East , now some parts of the old empire have Arabic words mixed in with the native language. That is the way of the world. However, when the super power collapses so does their hold on being the dominant language spoken in the world. Right now, it is the turn of English to be on top but when The United States falls, because it will, so will our “global language.” That is a cycle of life. Nothing lasts forever and the power of the U.S.
I totally agree with your blog, except the Hoff’s song was far from stirring. His light-up jacket was kind of cool, don’t be surprised to see Kanye with one of those, but that is about it.
ReplyDeleteYour comparison of America to a big brother is perfect. Any little bother will tell you, growing up they always wanted to be like their big brother. They tried to dress like him, eat like him, and talk like him. This is the same with these less powerful countries. They are wearing Levi’s in Lithuania, eating McDonald’s in Mexico, and speaking English in every country, hoping to become more like America.
As you said, “English is the language of science, technology, business and diplomacy.” The conclusion I drew from this group of subjects is English is the language of knowledge. Globalization of English gives every person a fighting chance at education. I cannot tell you that America is perfect, but it is as advertised, “The Land of Opportunity.”
Foreign people appreciate the opportunities we take for granted.
I think it is an interesting point that English is understandable, even when spoken poorly.
It may be the only language with this quality. We are a nation of immigrants that all speak poor English. We not only do not care, we embrace it. We call it our accent. We take words that already exist and make up new meanings for them. We call that slang. English is ever evolving, maybe that’s why the world is trying to learn it.