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English as the universal language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5839 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes  Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 50 of 206 02 November 2009 at 12:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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I agree that there should be a world language, but I don't think English is the right language for the job. Why?
1) Enforces cultural and business domination of the USA and Britain over the rest of the world. Unfair advantage for native speakers or English. 2) It's an illogical language full or exceptions, perplexing pronounciation and bizarre expressions - why should this language be forced on billions around the world as it is today? THE ANSWER in my opinion is ESPERANTO, INTERLINGUA or a similar language. They are significantly easier to learn and master. There is no political connotation - the world language would be a strictly practical tool for communication, not a way in which one part of the world can influence or dominate the rest of the world. Edited by cordelia0507 on 04 November 2009 at 8:16am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5925 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 51 of 206 04 November 2009 at 1:19am | IP Logged | ||
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I agree with you that English isn't the best choice for a world language; but I'm not convinced that Esperanto is the answer either. There is a surprisingly high level of resistance to Esperanto; or even the concept of "artificially constructed" languages in general for a few reasons:
1. Esperantists often state that their languge has no exceptions to it's spelling or grammar rules. They are correct; but they fail to recognize that many people either don't realize, or do not care, that "natural" languages are often illogical and maddeningly inconsistent. 2. The claim that Esperanto lacks political connotations will only hold up as long as Esperanto remains a relatively underground phenomenon; if the UN or the EU ever actually do add Esperanto as an official language or require Esperanto to be taught in schools then those who don't like Esperanto might claim that they are being forced to learn Esperanto which would make it no better than English or many other languages that have been imposed on people at various times through out history. 3. Some Esperantists make the odd claim that their language also has no culture. This may have been true when Dr Zamenhof first developed it about 100 years ago, but can't be true now since there are books, magazines, websites, music etc. written exclusively in Esperanto, as well as organizations that promote the use of Esperanto. Furthermore if a language has no culture it won't survive, many people learn certain languges solely because of opportunity to gain insight into the culture(s) attached to them. I think Esperanto is intriguing; I may even learn it someday, but I'd rather learn other languages first. Edited by mick33 on 17 December 2009 at 10:17am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5839 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 52 of 206 04 November 2009 at 11:31am | IP Logged | ||
I agree with everything that you say mick, apart from:
Yes, they could complain about that, but right now, most people are forced to learn SOMEBODY ELSES language (=English) All while those who happen to speak it natively can ignore language learning completely with no significant negative impact on their lives. Esperanto (or other conlang) would be everybody's language, or nobody's language... But it would be fair and more practical. Plus, the "pain" would be a lot shorter - since you could learn Esperanto (or other conlang) a lot faster than you could learn English (or any other natural language for that matter). This has been tried, tested and verified many times. It doesn't matter that the conlang has no culture - since its only purpose is communication between people from different areas. It would not threaten existing culture in the same way that the US/UK domination is doing right now... A new Esperanto culture would emerge that would belong to everybody and nobody -- that could be regional or international. Edited by cordelia0507 on 04 November 2009 at 11:41am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ennime Tetraglot Senior Member South Africa universityofbrokengl Joined 5905 days ago 397 posts - 507 votes Speaks: English, Dutch*, Esperanto, Afrikaans Studies: Xhosa, French, Korean, Portuguese, Zulu | Message 53 of 206 04 November 2009 at 2:06pm | IP Logged | ||
Well there is the European Esperanto party that is trying to get into the European Parliament... The point is that Esperanto doesn't need to be adopted by EU to get a political flavour, as that party (as any other political party) has political points not relating to language or Esperanto... Also in Japan Esperanto has a distinct religious flavour as Zamenhoff is considered a saint in one of the newer religious sects there (forgot the name)... Whether UEA supports it or not, the perception has clearly already been affected that it's not neutral politically anymore)... 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Alvinho Triglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 6235 days ago 828 posts - 832 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish | Message 54 of 206 04 November 2009 at 3:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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Spanish could be a good deal...or French like previous decades.... Edited by Alvinho on 04 November 2009 at 3:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 6035 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes 5 sounds | Message 55 of 206 04 November 2009 at 4:10pm | IP Logged | ||
Based on I've read, in Japan they have a sect for every taste. There's much more than good old doomsday sects and frenzied Esperantists. For example, there is some very popular sect that's based on the idea people should dress only in white. Apparently, the white colour insulates you from "malignant cosmic influences" that would otherwise be fatal to your health and mental well being. There are also varied sects based on a mixture of science-fiction, Shinto and Christianity... there's a whole lot of them so you can pick what suits you best. If I remember correctly, the explanation for this was that traditional religions in Japan (Shinto and Buddhism) are very ritualistic but people don't relate to them emotionally. Shinto becomes form without substance, without relevance to modern life, whereas sects are meaningful on a personal level. I don't know how this relates to the dominance of English, probably it doesn't. It's an interesting topic in its own right. On the question of English vs Esperanto as a lingua franca, I would say English is much preferable. I don't care about the political bias. There's the "unfair advantage" some have mentioned but this unfairness applies only to people who are not willing to study languages. Since we're all language geeks, I can't see where's the problem. The fact English is the national language of several countries only makes it more interesting. Imagine having to learn a lingua franca that's only a tool, totally boring. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5522 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes Speaks: Swedish* | Message 56 of 206 04 November 2009 at 4:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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Why have everyone learn a hideous language like Esperanto when half the world's favourite music, films and TV-series, and a lot of books if people still read them, are going to be produced in English anyway, for the enjoyment of the domestic audiences? It seems unnecessary to replace a de facto universal language that has a near dominance in cultural production, with one that has a few journals for other sect members, a few wikipedia articles and a fan translated script of Star Trek 5, and no native speakers? Am I the only one that thinks this is unrealistic? Or that we should perhaps not forget that halv a billion or so of the world's richest alrady have English as their native language?
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