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Is Chinese going to be the lingua franca? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Rikyu-san Diglot Senior Member Denmark Joined 5529 days ago 213 posts - 413 votes  Speaks: Danish*, English Studies: German, French | Message 25 of 249 16 October 2009 at 9:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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What about Sanskrit? It is probably the best and most sophisticated language ever devised - not only as a spiritual/sacred language but also very practical and even suitable for computers!
Sanskrit is, according to the director of the American Sanskrit Institute, very, very easy to learn if approached from the right angle. As a scholarly subject, taught in the same was as languages are taught in schools, it becomes a "killer class" with huge drop-out rates. Taught as a living breathing experience it is supposedly much easier. Take a look at this articel from the American Sanskrit Institute. (I am not affiliated with the ASI, I am in fact just contemplating taking on the mantle of the TAC of learning sanskrit). It is a quote by the director Vyaas Houston: "Interest in Sanskrit is growing by leaps and bounds. Because of its great precision, some think that, at some point, humanity may choose it as the planetary language. Language is all-important. It is the medium through which life on the planet is evolving. Unfortunately nowadays language is used, more often than not, to fragment us and distance us from the truth. But Sanskrit vibrates otherwise. It is precise, it is clear. It establishes a link between the one speaking or listening and the rest of life, the immediate effect of which is happiness, joy, inspiration, and all the higher functions. Sanskrit enhances communication, and therefore quality of life, for everyone concerned. This is what nourishes my own vision for the establishment of a full-time Sanskrit school, open year-round, where people can learn in an open atmosphere." http://www.americansanskrit.com/read/r_hinduismtoday.php The whole article is worth reading so take a look. And, fellow "threaders", please consider Sanskrit as a possible lingua franca - to rival English, Mandarin, and Spanish. Edited by Rikyu-san on 16 October 2009 at 9:45pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5968 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map | Message 26 of 249 17 October 2009 at 12:46am | IP Logged | ||
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Well, there's no way of knowing for sure how prominent or influential any language will be in the future. Maybe no one, three hundred years ago, would have thought that English would infiltrate the entire Earth. If I had to make a semi-educated guess, though, I'd think that Chinese and other non-Western languages will become much more widespread and important to know.
For example, the public library in my town--Middletown, New Jersey--recently added an entire room dedicated to learning foreign languages. I thought, "Wonderful!" and went right in, all happy and eager to see the place. There was one European language, Spanish, plus Arabic, Hindi, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, and one or two more I can't remember right now. NJ is a very multicultural, multilingual place, overall, but my town, as far as I know, is not. So, I thought that there must be more interest in studying these other languages, but that's only my own speculation. I wasn't disappointed with the selection of languages, just surprised. Since the public library exists to serve the needs of the community, I think that this interesting language selection reflects a significant demographic change in the larger population, as well as a greater ability to communicate with people of faraway countries, thanks to the Internet. In addition, the university I graduated from has recently added Chinese courses to its foreign language curriculum. I would like to learn a non-Western language one day. Sometimes I wonder why I have invested so much time and effort into learning German! (not that I regret it, it's all good). The resources are there now, if I ever decide to give myself the language challenge of a lifetime! Edited by meramarina on 17 October 2009 at 1:29am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hamada Triglot Newbie Western Sahara Joined 5569 days ago 5 posts - 20 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written)*, French, English Studies: Mandarin, Esperanto | Message 27 of 249 17 October 2009 at 1:17am | IP Logged | ||
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China is already working on expanding it's media to other countries
for example their state owned TV channel CCTV started to broadcast into Arabic and recently to Russian too. www.cctv.com 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| MäcØSŸ Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5810 days ago 259 posts - 392 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2 Studies: German | Message 28 of 249 17 October 2009 at 7:48am | IP Logged | ||
It was Jim Rogers, not Peter Schiff. I think that English will remain the most important language, but many more people will learn also Chinese. But it will never replace English in its role of world' lingua franca. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| minus273 Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5766 days ago 288 posts - 346 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Ancient Greek, Tibetan | Message 29 of 249 17 October 2009 at 11:56am | IP Logged | ||
But, frankly, who would wish to decode compounds 2000 characters in length, the meaning often being unclear? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Woodpecker Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5812 days ago 351 posts - 590 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Arabic (Egyptian) Studies: Arabic (classical) | Message 30 of 249 17 October 2009 at 12:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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It may be a nice idea, but the problem with Sanskrit as a lingua franca is that at the present point in human evolution, there's no possibility of that actually happening. We don't really get to "consider" languages as possible linguas franca (or whatever the plural is...) any more than we get to control the trends of global economic and military power over the next fifty years. Sanskrit may be the perfect language for such a purpose. Or maybe it's Esperanto. Or maybe it's Tibetan. But since none of those languages are the languages of the current superpower, it doesn't really matter.
3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| minus273 Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5766 days ago 288 posts - 346 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Ancient Greek, Tibetan | Message 31 of 249 17 October 2009 at 12:51pm | IP Logged | ||
There was a film called All the World Sinks Except Japan (日本以外全部沈没), for whose title I saw a parody: チベット以外全部沈没 (All the World Sinks Except Tibet) Keeping in mind that it may quite well be true, let's all learn the language for the future - Tibetan! Edited by minus273 on 17 October 2009 at 12:51pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Rikyu-san Diglot Senior Member Denmark Joined 5529 days ago 213 posts - 413 votes Speaks: Danish*, English Studies: German, French | Message 32 of 249 17 October 2009 at 2:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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I agree that Sanskrit does not belong to a superpower at the moment. So let us consider this from a couple of perspectives:
* if the Western world is in decline, other powers/nations/groups might take center stage or share the stage in what some call a multi-polar world, then it might affect the predominance of English. * I saw a video clip with Peter Schiff debating with another person about whether or not the US was out of or in the recession and if the US was playing a leading role as the locomotive of the global economy. His point was that there is no green shoots, we are still in the recession, we haven't even begun to feel the pain yet, and it was absolutely nonsense to think of the US as a locomotive - rather, the US economy is a caboose that the rest of the world are trying to decouple. If Schiff is right, we might wake up one day to find ourselves living in a very different world were we in the West do not set the terms, and where the negotiations may take place in a language other than English. Just one example - recently the BRIC countries held a meeting. The US asked if they could participate. They were told no, you can't. Then they asked if they could participate as observers. And again they were told, no, you can't. Unthinkable even a couple of years ago, reality in 2009. So I believe in the doom and gloom perspectives, but the big question to me is whether it will affect English as the predominant language in the world. It seems to me that my own perceptions of English as the obvious no 1 choice as L2 has been influenced by a subtle eurocentrism. It might not be so obvious to the billions of people in the world hos live outside our eurocentric/westerncentric circles. Edited by Rikyu-san on 17 October 2009 at 2:14pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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