English, the world’s “lingua franca”?
Is the English language taking over the as the world’s universal language? What does this mean for all the other languages that currently exist? According to ‘Artists of the Floating World’ by Rob Burton, “One world language is lost every two weeks when the last speaking member of that particular linguistic group dies. At this rate, 2500 native tongues will disappear in the next hundred years” (p. 127). Does this mean that diverse cultural expression will no longer exist one day? Or does this mean that better and more efficient communication can occur across borders, that is, on a global level.
In our Multicultural Literature class, we discussed about this issue of the English language taking over and many people had negative views on this as they felt that the cultural diversity of expression is being lost. I agree that this is true, but looking on the other side of the coin, hasn’t this change at the same time streamlined the process of communication globally, which is why globalization has been so successful. In one of my last few blogs, I spoke about globalization and a few of its effects on our modern day world. Looking back, would it have been possible to outsource those call centers to countries like India if they did not speak English? So thinking about it, a trade-off clearly exists between the loss of cultural expression and the gain in more efficient global communication.
When I thought about myself, and the fact that English is not my native language, I felt I could relate to this pretty well. What I mean is that, by learning English, I have not forgotten my language, but only made it possible for me to come to the US and pursue the higher education that I otherwise would not have been able to do. Looking at it from this angle, I think that if a person wanted to, they could maintain their heritage and cultural expression, while adopting English at the same time. Considering the fact that the native language of none of the four authors that we are currently studying is English, proves this.
3 comments on English, the world%u2019s %u201Clingua franca%u201D?
Add a comment
To add comments without entering your email and image verification, you must be logged in. Login or Join Blogster
I agree with you. I think that we need universal language like English. You and I are non native English speaker, but we can communicate to use English. I also think that each language has own trait, so we should not neglect other languages which are so precious.
Yes, that was my thought as well, that though we learn English and are able to communicate universally, we should at the same time, not neglect or forget our native language. That way, it will bring down the statistics for the dying number of languages.
Thanks for the comment!