Global English & Power

CHINA AND ENGLISH

English is rapidly becoming a global lingua franca, which comes with a host of advantages and disadvantages, but it didn’t start happening until relatively recently. Today China has a focus on English as a second language, however this began in the 1970s when it was largely regarded as a tool of imperialism that people did not want in their lives. This was following a point in China when it was dangerous to speak any foreign languages as it was considered an act against the government and against the national identity.

After the 1970s it was becoming very clear that English is a way to communicate with the outside world, open up to different cultures, and enrich yourself. On top of all this English provides opportunities all over the globe and is one of the most in demand skill sets in many international companies. The expansion of English in China is mirrored in many other counties as well; Switzerland and the Netherlands, for example, do not have English as a main language but most people you run into would speak at a passable to fluent level.

GLOBAL ADVANTAGE

So, for better or worse, the expansion of English quickly covered the globe as people realized that with new technologies like media communication has gone from personal to global, and if you don’t have English you miss out on a lot. It’s almost like cutting yourself off from large parts of the world. Due to the opportunities English provides many parents around the world are pushing their children to study English and go to English-speaking universities. This, on the surface, seems like a good thing but it can cause an internal identity crisis in many.

Language is inherently biased and it trickles into who we are as people. The structure of a language as well as the pervasive ideas of a culture come through when someone is speaking their mother tongue, and it’s impossible to avoid. People are worried that this phenomenon will negatively impact, or even destroy, languages in countries that are adopting English. Personally I see this a lot in Switzerland. Even if people do not speak English they speak French with a ton of English words thrown in because it has become normalized. The overall consensus here is that modernization needs English, but that doesn’t mean modernization should outweigh tradition and culture.

INSIDE THE EU

This issue is extremely prevalent in any situation where multiple languages are spoken. The EU parliament has 23 official languages and tries to give them all the same level of respect, but it’s difficult when English is obviously the dominant language due to it’s level of use. The more used a language is the more value it has and the more powerful it, and its influence, becomes. The concerns around this are that you cannot run a federation (the EU) in a language that the public does not understand or else it would simply be colonization. This argument leans towards the unfair advantage that native English speakers have over others, which is obvious in other areas as well.

It is extremely difficult to express yourself in your 2nd language as comfortable as you can in your first, meaning that when speaking in your 2nd there can be misinterpretations or mistranslations. This is a problem in the EU as many people will not listen if a speech is not in English (despite the availability of translators) but those who are not perfectly proficient in English end up saying what they know how to say rather than what they want to say. There’s a clear reason to learn English whereas for English speakers there’s not a clear reason to learn other languages unless they have a genuine personal interest

SHIFT TO GLOBISH

Native English speakers change the way they speak English when talking with non-natives, often using a blander and simpler version of English that some call Globish. I am in an extremely international community, both living in Geneva and going to school at Webster, so I am definitely guilty of this on a daily basis. This type of language altering is also prevalent in the UN, where business is largely done in English. The world has never experienced the level of global communication that we have now, so the next steps and potential consequences are impossible to predict.

For some it may cause a loss of cultural identity, for others it may strengthen it. I have seen a boastful and superior attitude in many Americans who believe that they can travel the world and get by because everyone will accommodate them by speaking English. They also believe that the global prevalence of English establishes the US as the best country in the world when it in no way does.

We do not want to see a world where there is only one language and one culture so we need to be careful that the expansion of English does not go too far, but that’s not an easy task. I think the only way to avoid this would be to have the lingua franca be a language that does not yet exist, one that is written to fit an international context. This would give the language neutrality, however it would be difficult to them get people to learn, understand, and adapt to. Plus, we’re probably already too far in at this point. Needless to say we will be watching these problems unfold, and hopefully come to reasonable conclusions, within our lifetimes.

all images used with Unsplash lisence