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July 07, 2008
English as a second language
I’m a recovering English major. Although I know way too much about literature, and still spend most of my spare time reading, I’m trying to cut back. Really, I can quit anytime.
Well, maybe not, but I do try to keep in mind that most employees are not avid readers. Their idea of a perfect vacation is not a beach and a book. They don’t include “read Anna Karenina” on their “100 Things To Do Before I Die” list, they don’t care about “increasing their word power,” and they don’t go around bemoaning the death of literacy.
Words are just tools to employees—not something to craft, argue over, or negotiate approval of.
And, if Michael Erard is correct in his July Wired column, those words are about to undergo a significant shift. Mr. Erard’s prediction is that as non-native English speakers take over the language, English will morph into something quite different, the way that Latin became the foundation of French, Italian, Spanish and other languages.
The facts are these: By 2020, native speakers will make up only 15 percent of the estimated 2 billion people who will use English. Already, most conversations in English are between non-native speakers who use English as a common language.
Mr. Erard adds this surprising fact: An estimated 300 million Chinese—roughly equivalent to the total U.S. population—read and write English. But because many of these Chinese don’t get much practice speaking the language, a new dialect is emerging that he calls “Chinglish”—English sprinkled with Chinese grammar, idioms and pronunciation.
Will this be the death of English? Mr. Erard argues that just the opposite will be true: English will bear “unusual fruit” and become a part of many other languages, a global tongue called “Panglish.”
While purists may fret that English is being corrupted , everyone else in the world will just keep talking. And isn’t that what language is for?
Posted by Alison Davis at July 7, 2008 03:16 PM
Comments
I agreed with you
Posted by: Cemrusesmumn at August 3, 2008 09:04 AM