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Which Language Is International? | ||
Tags: Lingua franca | Language Importance | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| lloydkirk Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6419 days ago 429 posts - 452 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: Russian | Message 25 of 37 30 September 2007 at 5:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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Might as well add music.
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| Ximing Tetraglot Newbie Canada Joined 6285 days ago 7 posts - 7 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, Japanese, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Latin | Message 26 of 37 01 October 2007 at 9:46am | IP Logged | ||
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Russian is the language for the future!
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| joan.carles Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6339 days ago 332 posts - 342 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan*, French, EnglishC1, EnglishC2, Mandarin Studies: Hungarian, Russian, Georgian | Message 27 of 37 01 October 2007 at 11:24am | IP Logged | ||
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| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6556 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 29 of 37 03 October 2007 at 3:31am | IP Logged | ||
You lost me. Please elaborate. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Polyphemes Bilingual Hexaglot Groupie Virgin Islands Joined 6295 days ago 48 posts - 60 votes Speaks: German*, Dutch*, English, French, Italian, Spanish Studies: Arabic (Written), Bulgarian, Greek | Message 30 of 37 04 October 2007 at 3:34am | IP Logged | ||
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Well, I believe there are many 'linguae francae' other than English.
English is undoubtedly the 'most international' and most useful language to learn if you want to be understood and talk to a great number of people. However, what's funny is that some people seem to think English is the only important language in the world. May be true for the West, somehow, yet as has been shown, in different parts of the world other languages are important, as well (and I say 'as well' because I know that even in these regions, English is important). It has been mentioned that Mandarin Chinese is important in South East Asia. You have lots of minorities in I believe almost every South East Asian country. Russian is a vital lingua franca when travelling through Eastern Europe or Central Asia. It's importance cannot be denied there. In fact, I daresay when travelling through the Ukrainian countryside English will get you almost nowhere, whereas Russian is vital. Probably even true for bigger cities. In Bulgaria, for instance, where I stayed quite recently, English got me almost nowhere. Russian did, to a certain degree. So, as for Russian, it is far more useful in a great number of countries than English. Although, admittedly there seems to be a trend going on towards English. I also believe French might be more useful when travelling through Northern Africa (from Morocco to Egypt) than English. The same would probably go for some African countries in which French or Portuguese is the official language. Again, I do not claim to be an expert, so please tell me if I'm wrong. Then I believe there is the Indonesian/Malay language. I know Indonesian serves more as a lingua france throughout Indonesia, as most of its speakers are not native to the language, I believe. But I am curious to know whether Malay/Indonesian also has value outside these countries? I estimate, though, that English is probably of more use in India than Hindi. This is actually more of a question, so I'd be happy to receive some comments about this. English is a very important language, no doubt. It is the singlemost important international language, no doubt. But it is not the only language in the world. And it does not dominate at any given corner of the earth. Personally, I think English will decline for multiple reasons, and other languages may advance and maybe provide some more colour in to the world of languages, a linguistically diverse world. Although this is a contradiction, as I have heard that a very great number of languages will probably die out even during our lifetime. Well, that was my two cents anyway... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sim Diglot Groupie Canada thehelper.net/forums Joined 6296 days ago 45 posts - 48 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 31 of 37 05 October 2007 at 5:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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> It's English!
It is. (Would be, see below)
I agree that my definition of "international" lacks, but English sure is above Mandarin in terms of "internationality". ------------ Now, to the point: If English really was an international language, there would be no other languages, simply. An international language would be spoken by just everyone that lives on Earth period. And so we can conclude that there's no language that is international except Mathematics, which isn't a language in itself since speaking to anybody in mathematics and only in mathematics won't help him understand you. And so an international language doesn't exist. And that's why this site exists. Edited by Sim on 05 October 2007 at 5:02pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| FM_Moltke Bilingual Tetraglot Groupie Germany Joined 6625 days ago 54 posts - 58 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, German, French Studies: Polish, Latin | Message 32 of 37 07 October 2007 at 4:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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English and French are the only two language which could be considered international, in my judgement. They both have the geographical convenience of being official in six continents, and are official languages of the majority of international organizations. English and French are the only working languages of the UN security council, the only official languages of the International Olympics committee, of the International Postal Union, French is the official language of the Red Cross, etc.
Spanish by comparison is Latin America plus Spain, which is essentially bi-continental. It is a popular second language in Europe and North America, but has very little presence in Asia or Africa even as a second language. Mandarin too, has only a regional influence. German is more influential in China or Japan than Mandarin is in Panama or Morocco. I don't think any other language comes close to being international. You can argue that there are Chinatowns in Canada and Australia, but that is an immigrant language, without official sanction or educational prestige, unlike say, French in Algeria. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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