Which country benefits most from English as lengua franca?

Shuimo   Tue Dec 01, 2009 10:37 am GMT
Which country benefits most from English as lengua franca?
US, UK, or any other country like India or Japan or Kuwait?
giant penis   Tue Dec 01, 2009 10:41 am GMT
European superstate.
Damian at Heathrow   Tue Dec 01, 2009 10:57 am GMT
That's an easy one to answer.....the United Kingdom, simply because this country is so very much closer to a whole range of other countries each with their own native languages than is the United States of America.

In this respect the United States is very isolated - it only has English speaking Canada to its north and Spanish speaking Mexico to the south. You'd have to go a very long way from the USA to find a non English speaking or non Spanish speaking country. The nearest to their shores is probably Portuguese speaking Brazil....correct me if I am wrong here.

That is not to say that the Americans haven't got people within their borders who speak the languages of the countries their forebears came from though, but all in all the UK benefits far more than does the USA from the fact that English is now very much the global lingua franca, and thank you God for that! The downside to all this is that it makes us Brits linguistically very lazy and perhaps even arrogant.

In London (and back home in Edinburgh, too, really) you soon get to realise this quite easily - people from various countries automatically use English as a means of communicating with each other....it is far and away the easiest option, and the one considered to be the most natural. A Swede chatting with an Italian or a Finn chatting with a Dutchman automatically speaking English, unless of course, as with the other examples, they all have a working knowledge of each other's languages.

I see and hear this scenario all the time here, and at times its quite fun to witness.

So to repeat - the UK benefits the most in my opinion simply due to our geographical location.
Trimac20   Tue Dec 01, 2009 2:03 pm GMT
I don't think geographical distance matters so much in this day and age when it comes to things like spreading of language.

Any English speaking country stands to benefit from English becoming world lingua franca. I'd say Australia benefits tremendously if most of Asia becomes more English speaking.
Texan   Tue Dec 01, 2009 2:04 pm GMT
USA by far.


God bless America.
Leasnam   Tue Dec 01, 2009 4:56 pm GMT
<<The nearest to their shores is probably Portuguese speaking Brazil....correct me if I am wrong here. >>

Well, the US is a big place. We also have Russia to our west (--let us not forget about Alaska), and we have Polynesian languages (--Hawaii),and of course Native American Indian languages are rife everywhere on the Continent, and Eskimo too.

Otherwise, Haiti speaks French creole, French is spoken in Canada and the US regionally, and there is Aruba and the Dutch Antilles nearby.
Damian in Edinburgh   Tue Dec 01, 2009 8:02 pm GMT
It did occur to me after I had sent my post on its merry way to public display that Canada is not entirely English speaking....I will rectifiy that right now by including French speaking Quebec, making the North American Continent predominantly tri-lingual.

Btw.....down in Lousiana, in America's Deepest South...with its historical French connections....is French still a living language in that American State or has it now died a death there? Please fill me in on that one.

Texan: Please expand on your terse little posting and explain in full just why you think that America (God Bless her) benefits the most from a Lingua Franca English language? Are you perhaps referring to the fact that Americans generally (outside of the Lartino areas at any rate) are monoglot and pretty poor linguists, as are the majority of Brits? Or am I wasting my time even referring to a post that may well be yet another example of pointless trollery currently plaguing this forum?
Damian in EH11   Tue Dec 01, 2009 8:03 pm GMT
Latino - of course
Texan   Tue Dec 01, 2009 9:32 pm GMT
America benefits the most in that that is one of the main ways we built our Empire and global domination.
The cultural domination plays a key role in this. When the local kids are wearing Rolling Stones T-shirts, it means your chances of getting a military base and access to resources in that country are higher.
E-Rock   Tue Dec 01, 2009 9:50 pm GMT
If we were to restrict the choices to native English speaking countries I would go with the UK, for the reasons a previous poster cited. However, if we include all countries I would say India. The fact that a portion of their populace speaks English has greatly boosted their economy.
E-Rock   Tue Dec 01, 2009 9:57 pm GMT
I have to disagree with Texan. America has been very successful at selling culture but the movies, books, etc. are generally translated anyways. Regarding military bases/relationships I don't think English speaking ability has anything to do with it. The U.S. has military personnel in well of 100 countries, in many of them the general populace speaks little or no English. I think the U.S. government is primarily concerned with strategic value of a location, not linguistics.
Damian in Edinburgh   Tue Dec 01, 2009 11:38 pm GMT
***When the local kids are wearing Rolling Stones T-shirts, it means your chances of getting a military base and access to resources in that country are higher***

Ah! - the Rolling Stones - I've heard of those guys...and a fantastic "American" group they were to be sure or so it is said......

As I mentioned before, we in the UK are extremely grateful for the undeniable fact that the English Language is the true Lingua Franca on the nearby Continent of Europe. No matter in which of the many Continental countries we Brits find ourselves at any given time (and we do so in pretty huge numbers) whether it is Finland or France or Sweden or Slovakia, we find that our native English Language is some kind of universal passport to mutual communication between ourselves and the local populace, with varying degrees of success, depending on who it is we are in contact with.....we always find someone who speaks and understands English no matter where we are in Europe.

We even try to show off occasionally and gabble away as best we can in the local language but more often than not we give up as the locals are so much better at speaking English than we are in speaking the local lingo.

We even find it to be the case in the wilds of Wales, too......... ;-)
european   Tue Dec 01, 2009 11:42 pm GMT
Hmm, I guess it is good for the Brits. They are grateful to be able to communicate, but are they grateful for the fact that everybody secretly loathes them as they babble away arrogantly in English? Are they grateful for the fact that many of us often send them in the wrong direction for fun and that as we speak to them in English we are imagining how fun it would be to punch them?
Damian in Edinburgh   Wed Dec 02, 2009 8:19 am GMT
How nice! You are perfectly entitled to your opinion and I think it's a safe bet that you will not be landing at Heathrow Airport at any time soon, if ever! ;-) But believe me, honest to goodness, gazillions of Europeans (and others to boot!) do just that all the time! Is that because all those foreigners we see filling up our stores and streets and cafes and restaurants and all our very many places of interest, historical and otherwise, of all kinds are here amongst us just for the opportunity to punch us right in the mush?

A the present time London is one of the cheapest of all western cities in which to do your Christmas shopping and it shows! All our stores are packed to the gunnels with Europeans (and very many others) all babbling away in their own native languages and they truly do not know the meaning of the word "queue"! We don't take kindly to being pushed and shoved aside by these people who are obviously brought up to think in terms of "the survival of the fittest and let's see who can get to the bargains first and to hell with those who were here first!"

You know what - I love going to other countries, as I have recently done - I love the experience of other cultures - but do you know what?

One of the nicest sights for me personally is to see the UK come into sight below as my plane approaches these shores on th retuirn home, and to see the massive expanse that is London spreading out below us always makes me feel warm and cosy.....an even nicer experience, even down to the simple things like seeing the traffic flows down below moving on the proper, rightful side of the road!

;-) Have a nice day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Zobqleb8yU

PS: I've got a pretty decent left hook tactic myself....
Leasnam   Wed Dec 02, 2009 3:20 pm GMT
<<Btw.....down in Lousiana, in America's Deepest South...with its historical French connections....is French still a living language in that American State or has it now died a death there? Please fill me in on that one.
>>

Actually, yes. French, in some form and degree is still spoken in rural areas of Southern Louisiana. When I was in New Orleans before Katrina, however, the only french I heard spoken was that by french tourists to the city. I think the locals are a bit reluctant to speak their Cajun variety of French, especially with French nationals, as it is rather a matter of embarassment for them (I suppose due to the fact that it is not what they consider "pure" "Parisian" French...)

French is also alive in upland New England regions of Vermont adjacent to French speaking Canada.