After several years of doing round the world trips and my recent 17 city trips across Europe, I wanted to bring up this topic as it's obviously divided right down the middle and at times a heated subject.
There are pros and cons to having English be the lingua franca, or it be the world language.
Here are my thoughts after being in many countries with different languages and customs:
Reasons FOR English as World Language
A. Helps Facilitate Communication - As someone who learned French in primary school, I try my best to learn a local language where ever I go. My first foreign country to visit was France. It was great to practice French and learn the language as the locals speak.
That's great if you are strictly going to one country or region where the language is spoken dominantly. However, if you travel to many different places, then language barrier can be a bit difficult. On my European tour of 17 cities, I'd go from Finland to Italy to Sweden to Spain to Germany to Iceland. All these countries have their own language.
Proponents against having English as the lingua franca would say that these languages would then disappear, but I'd have to ask them, would you have the time and mental capacity to learn ALL of these languages, from Swedish, to Finnish, to Icelandic, etc. There's so many different rules and grammar and vocabulary that it's virtually impossible for the "common" folk to learn languages quick enough to enjoy the location.
B. Helps Breakdown Cultural Barriers - Again similar with the above reason, having English as lingua franca will allow people to quickly learn cultural customs of local region much faster than by figuring it out without understanding the person's language. Yes, eventually, people could figure out local customs through time and experience, but many times, people sometimes are not observant and/or lack the time to try to figure it out.
With English guides or explanations explained in English, then people from another country anywhere around the world could attempt to understand the do's and don'ts of that certain country. Yes, it would be nice if the local custom and culture can be translated in each language around the world, however, at times that's impossible since there are many smaller languages that don't ever get exposure, particularly small tribal languages that only have few thousand speakers.
Reasons AGAINST English as World Language:
A. Unfair to Other Languages - Many people think that English being the universal world language would be unfair simply because "why" should English be the pick, while one's own language isn't. This feeling is particularly even stronger for those who historically had conflicts with the English mother country, particularly is the main reason French do not like the idea of English being the universal language, as the French are proud and prefer that their language be the lingua franca around the world.
With that logic, than many other languages also would step in and mention reasons why their language should be the lingua franca, such as Spanish, as the most spoken language in many countries from Mexico down to Chile. Or the Chinese would say Mandarin Chinese would be a lingua franca as it's got the most people speaking the language within Mainland China and overseas Chinese.
B. Language Would Become Homogenous - The other reason that people wouldn't want English to be standardized language is the fear that other languages would soon disappear or be less important. This actually may happen, but honestly, I do not see this happening very quickly. People will continue to speak their native tongue as that is the language that they are first familiar with.
Overall Impressions of English Being the World Language
Since I've traveled to close to 50 countries around the world, I do see the "need" for English to be the lingua franca around the world. It's virtually impossible for me to learn the local language well if I wanted to travel to Indonesia, to Japan, to Thailand, to Arabic language across the Middle East, to the multitude of languages across the mainland European continent. It's just impossible for the regular common folk.
Perhaps there will be translators that will help facilitate with communication much faster in the future, but for the time-being, I think with people knowing the basics of English will allow people to communicate to a degree when tourists or visitors go to each other's country.
A lot of wars, racism, and hate towards each other really happens with the lack of understanding each other's ways of life. And it's happen many many times throughout history where one country takes over or colonizes another just for the sake of power. We need to come together today and really try to live peacefully together, and in order to do so, facilitate understanding amongst all nations.
I personally applaud those who study multiple languages or even the rare few who know up to 10 different languages fluently. These are people who will help continue to bridge the gap between nations.
As there is no right or wrong answer to if English should be the world language ... I want to here your thoughts:
What do you think about English being the World Language?
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(Top Photo Credit: Natalia Ostashova of Unsplash)