Dominance of English and its Lack of Appreciation for Smaller Languages

By Robby

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Hello my fellow foreign English speakers ❗

In today’s video we’re going to look at the following questions:

  • Can English be held responsible for the demise of smaller languages?
  • Does the English language has a lack of appreciation for other world languages?
  • Are all English speakers ignorant and don’t want to speak other languages?
  • Is English going to be the only language in the world in a couple of thousand years?

You see, all such and similar questions are quite important to certain categories of people – especially those who represent smaller languages on the verge of extinction.

Oftentimes, for example, English is blamed because of its historical connection with the British Empire and its world dominance.

Also, people associate English with the United States of America and blame Americans for being ignorant and living in their own language bubble.

To find out what I think about the whole thing – please watch the video above or listen to the audio file in case you can’t watch the video content for some reason or another.

And of course – you’re really welcome to participate in the discussion and express your own opinion in the matter! 🙂

ANY comments are welcome! 😉

Regards,

Robby

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  • Thanks so much for commenting here on my blog and needless to say I’m really glad you’ve been reading my blog posts! 😉

    I just recorded and published a video response to your comment here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ15X508t-s – it’s a bit lengthy all right, but I hope you’ll find some free time to watch it!

    Thanks,

    Robby

  • teacher

    Here is an interesting insight for you regarding the “American language bubble.” Did you know that 25% of school children in the US have parents who cannot speak English? Did you know that for many years, it was illegal to teach languages other than English to children younger than high school age? This is because America is a nation of immigrants. We find that many children in America cannot speak English, and many of their parents cannot speak English, either. This creates billions of dollars of educational costs and damages the public school system. So, we have a huge burden to teach “native English” to American kids first. No other country has that burden. Can you imagine what would happen in China if 25% of Chinese parents did not speak Chinese? They would definitely struggle to teach their kids. So actually, America does not have a “language bubble,” what we have is an extremely diverse population where a huge percentage of Americans can’t even speak the native language, and where every language on the face of the Earth is spoken by large groups of people.

    We begin learning foreign language in high school, and we can choose from Spanish, French, or German. That is all, though in the past few years schools are starting to add Chinese. I studied German for many years only to find that most people in other countries don’t speak German, and they think I am a stupid American because I don’t speak THEIR language. Of course, the second language for every other country is ENGLISH, so they ALL can speak English. Somehow, everyone in every other country assumes that my second language should have been THEIR language, not German. So therefore, I am a stupid American that does not speak (whatever language they are speaking).
    Anyway, America does have a problem with average people being able to speak foreign languages, but the reason is not what you might think!

    Love your blog posts, I am an ESL teacher, trying to understand the things that confuse English language learners.

  • Wow! That’s some comment Juhapekka!

    I’m glad you like my video, and in relation to the article you pointed out where language crisis is discussed over in US – I have to telly you that once again I believe it all boils down to practicality.

    Most Americans just DON’T NEED another language simply because they don’t have to use it in their daily lives!

    Over here in Europe plenty of languages are spoken so any large business has to do customer care in plenty of languages and there’s a real need for multilingual support staff etc., in the States it’s not so.

    So basically I believe that we can go on about the lack of language study quality in schools etc, however, for as long as students won’t need to use foreign languages in their lives, they just won’t be keen to study them.

    Going back to the original subject on the dominance of English – here’s the latest video I recorded in relation to the same topic, you may find it interesting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTcZQtL5SvY

    Regards,

    Robby