English as the Lingua Franca: How Long Will it Last?
February 20th, 2009 | View Comments
I thought I’d open up a new thread for discussion as a bunch of things I’ve read recently seem to be converging on this topic. We’ve got Elenita’s comment on my foreign language in kindergarten post, Peter’s post on the English as Official Language contract, and this article in The Economist (via Polyglottally Speaking).
European politicians long feared that the use of English in the EU would lead to the dominance of Anglo-Saxon thinking. They were wrong. The example of newspapers is instructive: thanks to English (and the internet), a genuinely pan-European space for political debate is being created. It has never been easier for other Europeans to know what Poles think about the credit crunch, Germans about the Middle East or Danes about nuclear power. English is merely “an instrument”, says Mr Versteegh of NRC Handelsblad, not “a surrender to a dominant culture.”
There is a second reason why Anglophones are not about to dominate European debate: they do not want to. British readers have access to an unprecedented range of news and ideas from Europe in their mother tongue. They show little interest. Only 5% of Spiegel International’s readers are from Britain (though half are from North America). In recent years, British newspapers have withdrawn staff reporters right across Europe, and not only to save money. Britain’s daily newspapers are less and less interested in European politics and policy. Light, sensational stuff is what editors choose for publication, plus tales of British tourists and expatriates in trouble (a genre known as “Brits in the shit”).
Why bother?
Such parochialism may be linked to a fall in language-learning, accelerated since 2003, when foreign languages became voluntary in England and Wales for pupils over 14. That robs them of such benefits as the humility and respect for others that come from learning another language. But given the rise of English, it is rational, says Philippe van Parijs, a Belgian academic.
To which Polyglottally Speaking adds:
This effect parallels language learning in other English-speaking nations around the world, too, since why torture someone’s ears with gringo Spanish when they speak perfectly good English already? (That was a rhetorical question, I already know why!)
This trend will only continue if English continues to be the main language of business and diplomacy. After all, just a few decades ago that language was French (hence: lingua franca).
I know my parents and many members of the Taiwanese ex-pat community have told me to brush up on my Chinese because they think China will become the dominant power in the next century. Even if that’s true, does it necessarily follow that Chinese will succeed English as the lingua franca? Or is it more likely that the Chinese will just learn English?
Yvonne posted this on February 20th, 2009 @ 1:24am in Culture Gaps, Multilingualism | Permalink to "English as the Lingua Franca: How Long Will it Last?"
American-born Taiwanese girl who married a Japanese guy. And who forgot about six years' of Spanish grammar and most of the vocab.
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Korean-American girl who blogs under a Spanish pseudonym because being culturally confusing is fun. Native speakers say that she has outstanding Spanish (which is a definite compliment) and outstanding German (which is most assuredly not).
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I’m sure I’ll comment (and/or post) again after giving this some more thought. But a couple of off the cuff reactions:
My gut reaction is that even if China becomes hegemon during our lifetime, Chinese will join English as a “second” global language–not replace it. Why? Because English isn’t easy to become fluent in, but it is very easy to speak badly or tolerably. Chinese, on the other hand, is full stop one of the most complex languages to learn on any level. That doesn’t mean that kids wouldn’t learn Chinese, of course. But at the heart of it, a lingua franca is about facilitating communication among speakers of different backgrounds–and English is well-suited for that.
Furthermore, English also has one of the most diverse vocabularies out there. Anybody who’s studied for a spelling bee (or watched a film about one) knows that English words have roots in Latin, Ancient Greek, French, etc instead of having its roots mostly in a single linguistic source. But beyond even that, English is remarkably accommodating about creating or borrowing new words: thus, Global English (as a phenomenon) is able to take in words from Hindi, Indonesian, and pretty much every other language on the planet without a hitch. That flexibility is among its greatest strengths.