Language of Europe
Milton Mon Oct 08, 2007 5:36 am GMT
"I agree, English should be used as the acrolect and mesolect in Europe,
local languages should be used in a basilectal way (spoken at home, but not at schools or in offices), that is English should be the lingua franca (as in India), and local languages should be dialects of tomorrow (spoken in informal situations)... "
It is not so that English shall become the only official language in Europe, it should become the only official language in the European administration, burocracy and legislation. National languages like French will naturellement continue to be taught in school and used in local administration like before.
OïL Mon Oct 08, 2007 7:30 am GMT
>>>>>>>>>
"I find the attitude of France very egoistic"
"it is mainly France that is in opposition. For example, Germany and and many other European countries have no objection to use only English "
Such arrogant and poorly informed statements are a major reason for rejecting English as a central language in Europe.
Oddly enough, English is generally backed by people who do nat have it as their mother-tongue.
I can't think of anything more contemptible than the arrogance of the slaves.
<<<<<<<<
I don't see why one becomes a slave if one wishes to use English as a useful standard tool for world wide communication. Are Russians or Germans or Chinese slaves if they use the kilogram stored in Sévres near Paris as a standard for all metric weight? The modern metric system has been a great success story of the last 200 years. It greatly simplified life, helped the understanding of our world and has reduced costly and dangerous mistakes and misunderstandings. Why not do the same with English for world wide intercommunication?
According to the Bible, the existence of lots of languages is a punishment of God to our arrogance . The spread of English as a world lingua franca means the redemption of the Humanity. The French and other die hard nationalists must leave their arrogance and egoism.
I couldn't care less.
I hope English will become Europe's sole official language.
This will add a chocolate topping to the cake of European failure.
Let us face it: the European Community was a tremendous success in the 60's, as long as the British didn't join in.
Now, under the influence of the UK and of the English language, it has dwindled into insignificancy. Current EU is just an accomplished failure, the most unprotected free trade area in the world, a useless and powerless club that stands open to anyone wants to join in. Now it's just a subsidiary of a global economic system that wants everybody anywhere to be paid like Chinese or Indonesian workers just to ensure better shareholder value and retirn on investment.
As a rule of the thumb, any international club that uses only English is doomed to uselessness: NATO, International Trade Organization...
Switzerland and Norway are a lot more better off... because they are not EU members.
I want the EU to crash.
Therefore I support English!
English language and British political culture are very different things. Tmho, Language and culture have nothing to do with each other.
European Union will crash if it remains as now, with 20 working languages. This is crazy! English as the only official language would simplify things a lot and make the Union more functional. Let's discuss about which language should be the candidate if you don't like English , but is it clear that Europe needs a official language and not 20 (and growing).
<< As a rule of the thumb, any international club that uses only English is doomed to uselessness >>
I don't see how an organization would fail simply because of using English as a common language. There would be a lot of other factors involved. Quit hating so much.
Creating a european market with the Euro was a big mistake! We should have adopted the US-Dollar creating a real world market instead!
<< According to the Bible, the existence of lots of languages is a punishment of God to our arrogance . The spread of English as a world lingua franca means the redemption of the Humanity. The French and other die hard nationalists must leave their arrogance and egoism. >>
Since when did English became the anointed language? You must be a die hard Anglo-Saxon who claims that they are descendants of the 10 lost tribes of Israel.
Creating a european market with the Euro was a big mistake! We should have adopted the US-Dollar creating a real world market instead! So the Americas and Europe and parts of Asia would have been united at least economically with English as principal language.
<<Oddly enough, English is generally backed by people who do nat have it as their mother-tongue.>>
Nothing odd with that! Besides their native languages, you just need to learn one more language to interact with the whole world. For people with English mother tounge, just feel free to learn another language!
Not all whose mother toungue are for the English language.
In Egypt many parents chose French over English for their children to learn to offset the spread and dominance of English.
Europe wil never be dominated by English as long as the French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese speakers are around. They can also rightfully claim that their languages are also worthy for such tasks.
Maybe the Dutch, the Finns and the Swedes are willing to yield their language in favor of English. But maybe no too because the Swedes learn English at their primary school but they are far from being fluent. Yes they can express themselves in English, but when it comes to impeccability in the language? As a matter of fact they dub all the soap operas imported from both UK and the US in Swedish. Go to Swedish websites and you'd find out that most of them render no translation in English.
The only reason why English dominates its because of the US not of UK and its ex-empire. Asians are so much fascinated by the English language that made it appear as the most important.
The difiiculty on the non-native English speakers in speaking it proves that it will not dominate the whole world and it really shows that they prefer their native language than other languages.
Before US became a superpower, English was already the main language as long as 20% of emerged land belonged to the British Empire, and London was the economic capital of the world. US has made the supremacy of English language more evident thanks to Hollywood movies, but the hard work in favour of English was made by the UK.
The whole world will be united under English as language and Islam as religion.
English and peaceful Islam, like the Turkish way, are gathering momentum and can not be stopped.
I am confident that America will help us to topple the infidel secular regime of European Union, just as they did in Iraq, and to set up an English speaking Islamic republic, like in Iraq.
There shall be no peace on the Earth as long as English and Islam are not established as mankind's unity.
Peace.
According to the Bible, the existence of lots of languages is a punishment of God to our arrogance . The spread of English as a world lingua franca means the redemption of the Humanity. The French and other die hard nationalists must leave their arrogance and egoism. -Guest
Points:
The story of the Tower of Babel gives an explanation for the existence of of multiple languages. Yes, according to the Bible it was a punishment.
BUT AACK,
I'm not so sure I agree with you about the English Language meaning the redemption of Humanity, unless you can explain your view more thoroughly.
No need to slam the French. Did you write that as an afterthought?