English Taking Over

(Photo Credit: pexels.com)

This week’s topic, global English, focused on how the English language has become a standard for many countries around the world. The films also touched on how this phenomenon causes some cultural dilemmas for countries where English is a second language.

English in China

The first film focused on how English has become the primary language for many urban Chinese, especially in business. In almost a single generation, English went from outlawed too essential. Children born in the 1970’s began their life speaking only Chinese, but by the 1990’s these young adults were quickly finding a need to learn English to stay competitive in the workplace. Today, speaking English has become so vital that almost all Eastern Chinese cities not only have workshops where English is taught, but have primary level schools teaching English to young children.

The main interviewee, Bob Shi, spoke, in English, at length about how his experience of growing up with Chinese being the only language he grew up with. Over time, he had to learn more and more English to stay competitive in his trade. He also brought up the fact that as English has taken over more and more, it has become more of a puzzle for younger people to identify themselves. As Chinese slowly fades as the primary language, people begin to question are they more Chinese or more American?

English in the European Union

The second film covered the rise of English in the European Union, particularly the European Parliament. The European Parliament, in an effort to be fair, has no one official language, but does recognize three primary languages for most official work and documents. Those languages are English, French as German, but as time has gone on many things have moved into English only. While any Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is allowed to speak any language that they know, many default to English. This can sometimes lead to confusion, non-native speakers may accidently speak sentences that are correct grammar in their native tongue, but incorrect in English.

English is also starting to evolve within the EU itself. The film mentioned that just like most professional fields, the EU Parliament has a language of their own. Words or shorthand start to emerge and the language that is primarily used for these “tools of the trade” are often in English. The film gives no examples, but one can assume it would be the same as how I know legal terms and abbreviations commonly used at Edward Jones where I currently work.

What Could go Wrong?

(Photo Credit: pexels.com)

There can be many problems with English becoming the primary language used worldwide. The primary one is that other languages my die out. As smaller countries start to use English more and more, it is possible for their native tongue to die out. This was seen in the Roman Empire when the Etruscan and Oscan languages died out because of the Latin language. “… Dr. Ostler identifies three reasons why Latin succeeded where Etruscan and Oscan ultimately failed: ‘it was a farmers’ language, a soldiers’ language, and a city language’…” (Zecca-Naples). As the Roman Empire expanded, the retired soldiers settled in areas that they had once conquered. This caused the local languages to slowly be overtaken by the use of Latin.

Another problem is that non-native speakers of English might have problems being understood by native speakers. English has very complex grammar that requires precise usage in order to be recognized. Words like lead can mean an element or to guide someone. This is very common in English and can be very confusing to those who do not have a large English vocabulary.

(Photo Credit: pexels.com)

Scientists are in a unique position as many of their findings must be published in English. “Having a dominant language can streamline the process of science, but it also creates extra barriers and the potential for conflict” (Woolston). These conflicts can be as small as miscommunication in the lab, or as big as forcing people out of the field because they do not know enough English to be able to get a job in a lab. This could leave many bright minds out in the cold.

English taking over can be both a blessing and a curse to the entire world. For native English speakers, it feels like no big deal because there will be more and more people they can understand around the world. For communities this can mean the death of their native language. While the take over of one language over another is not new in human history, hopefully we realized we need to protect all languages no matter how many people speak them.

Works Cited:
Woolston, C., & Osório, J. (2019, June 10). When English is not your mother tongue. Nature News. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01797-0.
Zecca-Naples, N. (2016, April 22). How Latin became the language of the Roman Empire: Unravel Magazine. Unravel. https://unravellingmag.com/articles/latin/.