It's also had a chance to develop into a short form communication, unlike the romance languages which are all long form. So...the next time you buy a new tv or groceries, take a look at instructions written in different languages, you'll notice English text is always more compact in relation to others like French, Spanish, Italian. That's why it's the language of science and technology, it's efficiency is what makes it so successful.
How and why did English become the lingua franca?
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Why is it the lingua franca? The Antimoon section on Why learn English has some interesting views. I agree with mike and with one of Antimoon's ideas, words are short or shortened. When I ask my friends why they use e-mail instead of correo electrónico the answer is that e-mail is shorter. A similar phenomenom happens with sleeping bag and bolsa de dormir, and because mail and sleeping mean nothing in Spanish we omit the e- and the bag to create the words meil and eslipin (My personal phonetic transcription). In English, 'send me a mail' means nothing but 'mándeme un meil' means e-mail me. 'Take sleeping' is nonsense in English, but 'Lleve eslipin' means take a sleeping bag.
Also bolsa de dormir sounds 'guiso'. Guiso is the stereotype of the hypercorrected language middle class people use to sound fancy and end up sounding even less educated.
Also bolsa de dormir sounds 'guiso'. Guiso is the stereotype of the hypercorrected language middle class people use to sound fancy and end up sounding even less educated.
A more interesting question...
Will it remain the lingua franca forever or is there any possibility that it will
be superseded by say Chinese?
IMO not very probable
Will it remain the lingua franca forever or is there any possibility that it will
be superseded by say Chinese?
IMO not very probable
Me-
I have experienced this as well, though I find in the less touristy, less densely populated areas you tend to find less English speakers. I went to Spain last summer to learn Spanish and yes, in Madrid, I found it difficult at times to practice. But where I was staying, Palencia, almost nobody spoke English there, it was excellent.
I have experienced this as well, though I find in the less touristy, less densely populated areas you tend to find less English speakers. I went to Spain last summer to learn Spanish and yes, in Madrid, I found it difficult at times to practice. But where I was staying, Palencia, almost nobody spoke English there, it was excellent.
"When I ask my friends why they use e-mail instead of correo electrónico the answer is that e-mail is shorter."
In Spanish you can also say correo-e, which is the same length.
In Spanish you can also say correo-e, which is the same length.
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