The English language is like deceases. Like a decease that is pushing it’s way through everywhere. If you don’t understand this language, you’re a step behind the rest of the world. That’s why we don’t have a choice. To follow the big English-speaking countries and their development, we must learn to communicate in English as early as possible!
We start learning English already in first grade, maybe even before that. We are watching English TV-programs all the time, listens to English music and sometimes even use English words when we’re talking. The English language has taken over our world, and there is nothing to do with it. Like I mentioned, in today’s world we don’t get to choose. We can’t just say; “Now we want Norwegian to be the international language”. I guess, some time in the history a choice was made by some stubborn Americans or maybe even Englishmen. They probably thought they were the centre of the world, which qualified their language to be the “language of the world”. And that’s how it became. Well, that might be a bit exaggeration, but I’m no expert in English history either.
What is for certain is that English has spread around the world even faster than Mc Donald’s. It has become the most widespread language in the world. Every time I think of reasons to explain exactly why it is as important as it is, I think of a well known commercial that has been shown a lot around the world. The one I am talking about is from the company “Berlitz”. Watch this:
Not only is this commercial hysterically funny, it has some very important points as well. There is a need for international language, because of the growing development in international companies. Misunderstandings like this could be dangerous.
The world has become smaller. The distances are getting shorter. We can speak to people in USA and China as if they were sitting right next to us. English is called “the language of communication”, and I think we should be very pleased we are having this way to communicate. How would the world look like today, if everyone spoke different languages, and nobody really understood each other?
That’s not easy to answer, that’s for sure.
24. aug. 2008
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4 comments:
Actually, USA is the centre of the world, in a way. They are involved in a lot of things that concerns big parts of the world we live in. USA har vast economic, political, and military influence on a global scale, and that´s why their language is spoken all over the world.
It’s not a new fact that English may be the most important language to communicate through in the entire world, but it’s also a lot of other languages which is almost just as important. Take Spanish for an example. Over 400 millions people speak it very day, most of them from Latin America, and there are still many other countries who are considering using it too. So I don’t think that you are “a step behind the rest of world” if you don’t speak English, but it’s still of course a big advantage. But the battle about a common international language will probably never end, because too many countries would never agree with that. So for now English is still in the lead, but German, French, Spanish and Chinese are not far behind…
We know that Great Britian had a lot of colonies all over the world. For exsample: They had power in countryes like India, Honkong and so on. Because of this, the children had to learn english as their offisial language. Today we see that english is still used as the main foreign language in these and a lot of other countrys all over the world. I think that english is a national language, because the english men had the power in the world and they spread the language. We can always discuss if english is a real world language, but it`s a fact that hundreds of millions of people all around the world or even more, are able to communicate in english.
Just as Brede mentioned, English is probably the most important language in the world today. But, it's not the most spoken native language. It's actully the fourth most spoken native language, beaten by Spanish, Hindi and Mandarin(Chinese). English is still the most spoken language. I believe English is, and will stay, as the world's most important language. Most students learn it at school now, just like us, and English will probably be learnt by even more people in the future. We all got to accept that English is here to stay and that it is important now, and will be, in our grown up lives.
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