Comments on: Thankful for Global English http://englishbabyblog.com/2008/11/27/thankful-for-english/ Learn English with English, baby! Tue, 17 Apr 2012 04:06:50 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: jasonsimms http://englishbabyblog.com/2008/11/27/thankful-for-english/comment-page-1/#comment-12058 jasonsimms Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:38:03 +0000 http://englishbabyblog.com/2008/11/27/thankful-for-english/#comment-12058 Thanks for the great comment, Brian! This isn't the <a href="http://englishbabyblog.com/2008/05/06/tech-lingo-the-other-universal-language/" rel="nofollow">first time</a> Esperanto has come up on our blog. But how does Esperanto solve the problem of the global language only being available to the educated? Thanks for the great comment, Brian! This isn’t the first time Esperanto has come up on our blog. But how does Esperanto solve the problem of the global language only being available to the educated?

]]> By: Brian Barker http://englishbabyblog.com/2008/11/27/thankful-for-english/comment-page-1/#comment-12056 Brian Barker Thu, 27 Nov 2008 11:53:57 +0000 http://englishbabyblog.com/2008/11/27/thankful-for-english/#comment-12056 Sorry to disagree I live in London and if anyone says to me "everyone speaks English" my answer is "Listen and look around you". If people in London do not speak English then the whole question of a global language is completely open. The promulgation of English as the world's "lingua franca" is impractical and linguistically undemocratic. I say this as a native English speaker! Impractical because communication should be for all and not only for an educational or political elite. That is how English is used internationally at the moment. Undemocratic because minority languages are under attack worldwide due to the encroachment of majority ethnic languages. Even Mandarin Chinese is attempting to dominate as well. The long-term solution must be found and a non-national language, which places all ethnic languages on an equal footing is long overdue, An interesting video can be seen at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_YHALnLV9XU Professor Piron was a former translator with the United Nations A glimpse of Esperanto can be seen at http://www.lernu.net Sorry to disagree

I live in London and if anyone says to me “everyone speaks English” my answer is “Listen and look around you”. If people in London do not speak English then the whole question of a global language is completely open.

The promulgation of English as the world’s “lingua franca” is impractical and linguistically undemocratic. I say this as a native English speaker!

Impractical because communication should be for all and not only for an educational or political elite. That is how English is used internationally at the moment.

Undemocratic because minority languages are under attack worldwide due to the encroachment of majority ethnic languages. Even Mandarin Chinese is attempting to dominate as well. The long-term solution must be found and a non-national language, which places all ethnic languages on an equal footing is long overdue, An interesting video can be seen at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_YHALnLV9XU Professor Piron was a former translator with the United Nations

A glimpse of Esperanto can be seen at http://www.lernu.net

]]>