34. Is English the most important language in the world? (proposed — Soon; discussed 23 August 2013)
Is English the most important language in the world? Is all language translatable? Which parts of which languages are incompatible with other languages and how do different groups of individuals deal with that? Will globalization accelerate the loss of certain native languages? What are the consequences of focusing on learning the dominant languages and not focusing on preserving native languages?
2 thoughts on “34. Is English the most important language in the world? (proposed — Soon; discussed 23 August 2013)”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I have posted some outline discussion notes, “The Importance of English” at this address: http://thormay.net/unwiseideas/DiscussionTopics/Importance-of-English.htm
Here are a few background essays that I have written around this topic (the topic is close to my professional home territory):
1. “Language Maintenance and Language Shift — a Contrarian Viewpoint” at http://www.academia.edu/1555956/Language_Maintenance_and_Language_Shift_-_a_Contrarian_Viewpoint
2. “Monolingualism and How to Fix It (if it needs fixing)” at http://www.academia.edu/2641229/Monolingualism_and_How_to_Fix_It_if_it_needs_fixing_
3. “Language in Suva: language use and literacy in an urban Pacific community” at http://thormay.net/lxesl/tech7.html
4. “Some Mysteries of Language Learning” at http://thormay.net/lxesl/lxlearningmysteries.html
- Thor May