<<I mean that it is not certain that the entertainment benefits of localization outweigh the educational costs.
>>
If only everyone cared this much about education! There would be no unemployment, no developing countries, no crime, no poverty, no truants etc.
<<Perhaps we should care if our doctors know English well enough to read about the latest research in medical journals. >>
Reading research papers is huge difference to understanding video games. In fact, video game English could probably even be detrimental to the formal kind of English needed for this, or if not, it would be only marginally beneficial and not worth the trouble, (for example, it would be better just to play the game in Polish for 2 hours and then spend 30 minutes reading a medical article in English). Learning specialised English is not very difficult, I once was studying mathematics and it took me only a few months to learn German and French to the level of being able to read mathematical texts in those languages, and I don't think playing video games in thsoe languages would have helped at all.
<<
I'm certainly for bilingual education. However, the problem I see with this solution is that it favors people from English-speaking countries. Should we be telling our students to spend a lot of time learning two languages while American students are only learning English and can devote the rest of their time to other subjects? One has to ask: what are the benefits of maintaining all the other languages? >>
I don't find this to be very convincing. The importance of school as a whole is minimal and thus language learning should be emphasised, as this is a much mroe long lasting skill than some other subjects. You make it sound like for every second that a child is not in a language class, they will be fervently studying advanced science, which is obviously not true. You don't need to devote that much time to get the necessary knowledge when you're in school, and advanced material is never studied at school. University is what is important, and as long as the child has the fundamentals down at this point they have equal footing, regardless of whether they spent 45 minutes a day or 55 minutes a day in science class. I know this well as my children were slackers at school, who skipped class and smoked mariuana and occasionally failed, but they got over it and did well as anyone else at university.
And besides there is no evidence that Anglophone countries have better education systems. I would have to say that it seems like the non-Anglophones are the better educated ones. They are fluent in English AND have just as good knowledge of the subject. Many monolinguals feel inferior.
<<but it will never overtake English for the simple reason that English is the language of science, technology, and business.>>
This is true, and will be for some time, but it is only a 'de facto' arrangement. There is no way to say that in 50 years it will still be the same. 50 years ago, Russian competed with English in importance and now where is it? Think of all those students who learnt Russian because they thought it was the language of science, technology and business. They must have felt like they wasted their time.
<<
I beg the readers to look deep inside themselves to ponder this notion: Preservation efforts of a certain language--any language--are based on ego, and ego alone>>
All the people I ever speak to who are in favour of letting languages die out are the people who speak major unendangered languages. The outlook of small language speakers is often quite different. It is similar to a feeling of being invaded by a foreign imperial power (which it basically is) and having a foreign culture forced on you. Tom, would you like it if Russia invaded Poland again and forced Russian on you? Eventually, everyone would give up Polish and you would become a Russian, like it or not.
>>
If only everyone cared this much about education! There would be no unemployment, no developing countries, no crime, no poverty, no truants etc.
<<Perhaps we should care if our doctors know English well enough to read about the latest research in medical journals. >>
Reading research papers is huge difference to understanding video games. In fact, video game English could probably even be detrimental to the formal kind of English needed for this, or if not, it would be only marginally beneficial and not worth the trouble, (for example, it would be better just to play the game in Polish for 2 hours and then spend 30 minutes reading a medical article in English). Learning specialised English is not very difficult, I once was studying mathematics and it took me only a few months to learn German and French to the level of being able to read mathematical texts in those languages, and I don't think playing video games in thsoe languages would have helped at all.
<<
I'm certainly for bilingual education. However, the problem I see with this solution is that it favors people from English-speaking countries. Should we be telling our students to spend a lot of time learning two languages while American students are only learning English and can devote the rest of their time to other subjects? One has to ask: what are the benefits of maintaining all the other languages? >>
I don't find this to be very convincing. The importance of school as a whole is minimal and thus language learning should be emphasised, as this is a much mroe long lasting skill than some other subjects. You make it sound like for every second that a child is not in a language class, they will be fervently studying advanced science, which is obviously not true. You don't need to devote that much time to get the necessary knowledge when you're in school, and advanced material is never studied at school. University is what is important, and as long as the child has the fundamentals down at this point they have equal footing, regardless of whether they spent 45 minutes a day or 55 minutes a day in science class. I know this well as my children were slackers at school, who skipped class and smoked mariuana and occasionally failed, but they got over it and did well as anyone else at university.
And besides there is no evidence that Anglophone countries have better education systems. I would have to say that it seems like the non-Anglophones are the better educated ones. They are fluent in English AND have just as good knowledge of the subject. Many monolinguals feel inferior.
<<but it will never overtake English for the simple reason that English is the language of science, technology, and business.>>
This is true, and will be for some time, but it is only a 'de facto' arrangement. There is no way to say that in 50 years it will still be the same. 50 years ago, Russian competed with English in importance and now where is it? Think of all those students who learnt Russian because they thought it was the language of science, technology and business. They must have felt like they wasted their time.
<<
I beg the readers to look deep inside themselves to ponder this notion: Preservation efforts of a certain language--any language--are based on ego, and ego alone>>
All the people I ever speak to who are in favour of letting languages die out are the people who speak major unendangered languages. The outlook of small language speakers is often quite different. It is similar to a feeling of being invaded by a foreign imperial power (which it basically is) and having a foreign culture forced on you. Tom, would you like it if Russia invaded Poland again and forced Russian on you? Eventually, everyone would give up Polish and you would become a Russian, like it or not.