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The Real International Language

© Robert Henderson

I hear a lot these days about English conquering the world. Witness these statements:

"Every person in the world should know at least two languages; one is his mother tongue, and the other is English..." (Osho)

"English... is the international language of business, travel and technology and offers different races and cultures a means of shared communication." (English Union)

"No one can go far in life without learning English properly." (Independent Bangladesh.)

"(Non-speakers must learn English) because it is the international language of science and commerce, and the primary way of communicating with the West." (Bridge to Asia)

"English is the international language of movies and television, of commerce, of technology, and of industries...." (PC Computing)

"...the teaching of the English language is tantamount to giving people the world." (Cambodia World Family)

"English is unquestionably recognised as the most important language... This is an unchallenged fact that seems to be irreversible. English has become the business and scientific worlds' official language.... You don't need long arms to embrace the world; you need English." (Ricardo Schütz)

Whew! I guess there's no further need for this column. I'll vacate my Suite 101 space in favour of a more useful topic, burn my language dictionaries, and...

But wait a minute. What if the world isn't speaking English just yet? In fact, what if the whole concept is a lot of tripe?

Trouble in paradise

That English is the most widely-used auxiliary today is irrefutable. When I'm overseas, fellow travellers often ask me for directions in English. Obviously they consider English "the international language." But why are they asking me, another visitor, for local information? Could it be that the locals don't speak "the international language"?

That's the problem with the "English World Order." It doesn't assume that everyone speaks English, just that the right people do. In fact, English achieved its world position in part because powerful English-speaking nations flatly refuse to do business in "inferior" (i.e., non-English) languages. Snobbery of that sort excludes entire populations and severely reduces an auxiliary's effectiveness. Take Fiji, where less than 1% of the population are native English speakers, but most of the media are in English. As linguist Paul Geraghty notes, "(Fijian media) are run for the benefit of English speakers because those speakers are influential." Running amok on this bug in its cultural software, English is actually slaughtering other languages at a horrific rate.

At the same time, the supposed English monopoly betrays startling gaps. It's as hard to learn English as other languages, and many non-speakers don't have the will or the resources to do it properly. As any traveller will affirm, foreign English is far from reliable. Even simple messages such as signs are often barely comprehensible. In such instances, English hinders

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