English

It’s so interesting to think about the fact that English language is almost taking over the world!  I have always valued the people who are multi-lingual and have wanted to be fluent in another language, but haven’t.  It‘s interesting to imagine not really having many other languages in a few years.  Will the English language be the “lingua franca” of the world? Is this a good thing?

I just spent the last semester in Australia and one of the reasons I chose to study there rather than a European country is because, well, they speak English.  I do have to say that it’s very different and could almost be another language, but I dealt with it.  It came in very handy in scary situations and when my roommate was in the hospital because of a freak accident, I kept telling myself “I’m so thankful I’m in an English speaking country! I can’t imagine being in a foreign country that didn’t speak English very well!”  Communication is, in my opinion, one of the most crucial human interactions.  So much is dependent on what we say to others.

I think that if English took over all other languages and ultimately other cultures, life would change as we know and understand it.  To be quite honest it would be beneficial as far as communication with other countries and probably help with our relationships to current non-English speaking areas.  However, to think that basically the world would be almost one large United States is scary!  I feel it would be almost clone-like; all cultures would be similar!  I mean, this may take a while, but in a way they would all have to assimilate, so in reality, we’d all be alike.

I’m not sure exactly how I feel about having English become the universal language.  I am very firm in my feelings about diversity and differences among cultures; they are important!  It’s really what makes life interesting.