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Read the text about why English should not be the international language of the world.
When I was younger I didn’t like languages. In school, I hated Irish and thought it was a complete waste of time. Why bother learning it when everyone spoke English? In fact, what’s the use of any other language when it’s obvious that English is the international language? This view is very common among English native speakers and to a certain extent, it’s true. English is one of the most spoken languages in the world and is by far the most common second language in the world. No matter where you travel in the world, you have a decent chance of finding an English speaker. International conferences almost always are held in English and over 90% of academic articles are published in English. So it seems like case closed, English is the global language, everyone speaks it and I should be thankful that I happen to be a native speaker.
Most scholarly work is published in languages other than English.
Except recently I’ve been having doubts. I began to reconsider my views when I went travelling through Europe. I was impressed at how many people could speak English, but I felt guilty that they had spent years learning my language, yet I couldn’t speak a word of theirs. Learning a language isn’t easy, it involves months of hard work just to become conversational and years to become fluent. It costs time, and money and can be deeply frustrating. Up until that point, I had taken English for granted, I never realised how much work the rest of the world goes through. It’s not as though English is an easy language to learn, it’s incredibly irregular and outright random (especially the spelling and grammar).
2. English is an easy language to learn since so many people speak it.
Nor did I pay much attention to what happens if you don’t speak English. The vast majority of academic papers are published in English and it is a requirement in most of the top universities and businesses. English is a privilege, if you have it; you get access to an elite club of the rich and famous. If you don’t, you’re left out in the cold.
3. English is the major advantage of the wealthy.
Language isn’t just a tool to communicate; it is also a huge part of our identity. It’s how we think and how we view the world. So when English speakers expect the rest of the world to learn our language, we are actually asking a lot. English speakers often treat not knowing English as primitive as not having electricity, but we don’t think about what people give up to learn our language. Languages carry a lot of cultural and historical baggage, both good and bad. The only reason I (and many others) speak English is that centuries ago my country was invaded, colonised and the native language suppressed. It wasn’t for linguistic reasons that English dominated, but it was political.
English speakers sometimes treat non-English speakers with disdain.
To put it in perspective imagine if you had to speak Spanish (presuming you don’t already). You still live and work in the same place, but for reasons beyond your control, it has been decided that more people speak Spanish than English so, therefore, this is the new international language through which you will have to work. Most people would be horrified at the prospect. I’m sure plenty of people in England and America would rather die than do so. It would feel like surrendering our culture, our traditions. Yet this is the very thing that many English speakers expect the rest of the world to do. If we aren’t willing to learn even the basics of another language, why should we expect the rest of the world to make such an effort just to suit ourselves?
5. All people in England and the United States would embrace learning another language if they had to, according to the writer.
Imagine if a law was introduced putting major barriers in front of women’s careers in the world of business and science. They could still attend university and get good jobs but beforehand they had to undergo years of work to get an additional qualification. Men could go straight to the top, but women were sidetracked by years of extra work. Sure they could still continue their careers but with a serious handicap. Most people would be rightly horrified. It would be deeply unfair and severely damaging as we would lose all they have to contribute to society. Placing extra burdens on some people just to the luck of birth offends our sense of justice. Imagine still, if the barriers were erected in front of all non-whites in the world. This is even worse. Society would be dominated by a small handful, who didn’t earn their place but only got there based on who they were born to. No one could in any good conscience support such an unjust system.
6. Expecting everyone to speak English is essentially unfair.
But this is exactly what expecting everyone to speak English does. It enforces barriers to three-quarters of the world that are difficult to cross and excludes the rest. It is similar to erecting barriers to success based on arbitrary classes like race, which like language mostly comes from your parents. Sure many overcome this barrier and become successful in the world of science and business, but many do not. Even those that do, have to spend years learning English that could have been put to better use in their research or at their job. It is the equivalent of a tax on everyone who had the misfortune to be born to parents who didn’t speak English. It is the same as asking people to complete an extra qualification before they can make it into the upper levels of business and science (considering how research is almost solely published and business so heavily conducted in English).
7. The writer thinks that people who don't speak English should be taxed more.
A world where everyone speaks English and only English would have advantages (I’m deeply aware that this blog would only have a tiny fraction of the number of its views if I blogged in any other language) but also major disadvantages. It would be a duller blander world where we all had the same conversations, watched the same movies and listened to the same music. We would lose a huge amount of the diversity in the world, a huge part of what makes us unique, what makes us who we are.
8. The writer thinks the world would be more boring if everyone spoke English.
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