A Triumph for America as a Threat to the Rest - Essay Example

Spread of English: A Triumph for America, A Threat to the Rest When the world started to consoli intoone Global Village in business, politics, education, publishing and other fields of human activity, it required a common medium of communication. The language of globalization that emerged was English, the American variety that, unlike its rather inflexible British lineage, is adaptable and quick to accommodate any new words. This elastic character of American English made it the language of choice for globalization because no other languages that have acquired some degree of international status - French, Spanish or Latin -- enables people of different nationalities to make each other understood and do business (Hageage, 1986). For this reason, the explosion of English as lingua franca of globalization is considered a triumph for America. It amounts to a global conquest for American culture and way of life, considering that language serves not only as medium of communication but also as repository of national identity, culture and even body politic. In that sense, the American English that is sweeping the planet in lockstep with globalization also poses a threat to the competitiveness and cultures of UK, not to mention France, Germany, Spain and other European Union member-countries. It will destroy or at least marginalize much of local cultures (The Economist, 2001). Triumph for America That this inexorable spread of English in its present form is a triumph benefiting no one else but the US is demonstrated by the increasing interest around the world in things American. Everyone has heard of the worldwide phenomenon called "McDonaldization," in which consumers swear by the same tastes for food and service. McDonald's is of course synonymous with America and as McDonald's stores saturate the planet and find enthusiastic acceptance everywhere, it promotes American values and culture and fortifies its position as a world power. This global homogenization of consumer culture is only one indication of the growing predominance of America put on track by the spread of its brand of English. In 2004, a study called Research International Observer (RIO) was mounted to determine the extent by which US-made consumer goods have homogenized consumer tastes and needs around the world. The survey was held at a time when anti-American sentiment was especially strong because of perceived US intervention in the internal affairs of other sovereign nations. It was found that consumer goods that mirror American cultural values are in fact held in high esteem around the world although some may fault American politics and policy (Tait, 2004). A group of respondents in Panama, for example, agreed that however ugly America and its politics are, "all we care about are their brands." The Turkey respondents echoed the same view, saying "our political view has nothing to do with our behavior as consumers." At the rate this language-driven Americanization process is going on, Cohen (2006) and Graddol (2006) indicate that it is only a matter of time before American politics, warts and all, gains the same level of blind acceptance as all made-in-the-USA products. Globalization There is no doubt that such spread of English has political underpinnings, the same way globalization was politically oriented when the rich and powerful nations first embarked on it over 100 years ago. At the start, globalization was called by another name, which was colonization (Thurow & Lessard, 2002). In the poorer countries, the colonizers sought gold mines, oil fields and raw materials that would enhance their wealth. Among the more active colonizing powers in the early days were England, America, France, and Spain. They occupied the poorer countries and effectively enlisted these colonies in the community of nations. In the process, the colonizing powers introduced their colonies to their respective languages to facilitate communication and trade. Eventually, the cost of technology began to go down, raw materials became commonplace and the colonies no longer enriched the colonizers even as maintaining these colonies became too costly for the world powers. Thereafter, colonialism gave way to independence and by the 1950s, colonial empires had all but disappeared and that first wave of globalization came to an end. The second burst of globalization occurred before and after World War II, which was started for political reasons and ended up as an economic undertaking. Germany tried to colonize most of Europe and Japan attempted the same thing in Asia, but these forays were short-lived because they were widely discredited and met strong resistance. The US did its own subtle colonization campaign during the Cold War by building up allies as a military response to the threats posed by the then Soviet Union. These allies then developed into an international economic network with America at center stage and American English as medium of communication. Then came the 1980s when revolutionary transportation and communication systems toppled down international borders and gave way to the Global Village, a business and economic phenomenon. This new concept of globalization is defined as "an intellectual conquest to acquire knowledge over geographic space (Thurow & Lessard, 2002)." The countries participating in this globalization process inevitably accept foreign influences, mostly American. The spread of English as a global language is actually traced to the heyday of the British Empire in the 19th century. When "the sun never set on the British Empire," the colonized countries that practically spanned four continents learned the Queen's English as the British colonizers taught them the rudiments of international trade and civilization. This was the same native British language that in much earlier times was spoken only by the "lower class people" of England since the elite conversed exclusively in Latin, French or Greek (The Economist, 2001). This was also the same ancestral tongue of the Americans who nonetheless evolved their own brand of English and did their own spreading of the language as they established their own colonial domain. In 1919, French was the dominant language in Europe but US President Woodrow Wilson maneuvered to have the historic Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I between Germany and the Allies, written in both English and French. This planted the seeds of English as language of diplomacy and in economic relations and media (Roland & Breton, 2000). Thus, when Germany and Japan firmed up their World War II alliance to battle America and Great Britain in 1940, German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and his Japanese counterpart Yosuke Matsuoka negotiated in American English, in which the German and Japanese officials were more familiar with. This type of English was on its way as the language of globalization and international business, of politics and diplomacy, of computers and the Internet. Right now, over 380 million people around the world communicate in English as a first language, with two-thirds of that number speaking in it as a second language. At least 1 billion of other people are learning to write and speak in it while one-half of the world population is exposed to it in one way or another. If this trend continues, half of the world is expected to be proficient in it in 2050 (Cohen, 2006). The first casualties are the 6,000 or so minor languages spoken mostly in the world's hinterlands, of which two are said to go out of business every week. Some of those that recently went the way of the dodo were the Eyak in Alaska, Livonian in Latvia and the minority languages in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Nigeria, Mexico, Cameroon and Australia. At the rate languages other than English are falling by the wayside, scholars say half of the world's languages will be gone by the end of this century. Other pundits place the figure at a much higher 90 percent. Fall of French The French came close to achieving the universal status that English enviably enjoys today. After the 1789 French Revolution, when France ensconced itself as a colonial power second only to Britain, French became the de facto language in world diplomacy and spoken many parts of the world - Europe, Africa, Indo-China, North America. When France felt that English was starting to impinge on this supremacy of French in the 20th century, it responded to the perceived threat by spending the equivalent of $1 billion a year in various aid and other programs to promote its civilization and culture abroad. Recipients of this monetary aid included Africa, Tunisia, Bulgaria, Senegal, Moldova, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. But this failed to arrest the slide of French, which like Latin and Spanish or Greek is a fixed language with rigid rules that made it unable to adapt naturally (The Economist, 2001). In time, French died outside of France as former French colonies like Africa turned to English. Other contenders for language predominance fell one by one. Portuguese Africa abandoned Portuguese in favor of English. German advanced briefly across Eastern Europe but promptly died elsewhere. (Parris, 2005) The death knell for French came when the Pasteur Institute in Paris started publishing pieces of medical research in English, and readership outside France of the French-language scientific periodical Le Monde began to hit bottom. By 1973, English accounted for 25 percent of all French-authored scientific papers. The figure grew to 51 percent in 1978 as French-authored research dwindled to 48 percent and the Science Citation Index showed that French researchers were increasing their output of English-written articles to a great degree. English-written papers also earned more citations from the scientific community, such that in 1978-1982 English-written papers got 57,600 citations against only 15,650 for French-language articles. (The Scientist, 1989) This means that English has replaced French as the lingua franca of international science. Now, French is ranked only ninth among the world's languages. American English worked its way into world prominence because it is a crossbreed of languages with numerous origins, including Celtic, Norse, Germanic, Romance, Spanish and Latin (The Economist, 2001). For this reason, the language sounds familiar even to foreigners without any previous exposure to it. Everyday, it adapts a new word into its dictionary, which needs to be revised periodically for the purpose. This very flexibility and adaptability make the language stronger over time, and it is believed that only two things can stop this juggernaut: 1) a new empire emerges and succeeds in making its own language universal, and 2) a newly constructed language becomes extremely popular (Korpela, 2003). The European Union as currently organized is a potential empire that can fill the first requirement. In fact, EU spends a lot of time and money on translation and interpretation to make member-countries understand each other. This burden can be eliminated if EU synthesizes the various languages of its membership and develops one that could give English a run for its money. But this is an enormous task that would take many, many years. Before UK joined EU in 1973, French was the sole official language of what was then known as European Common Market. It switched to English after UK enlisted as member, followed by Denmark, Finland and Sweden whose people speak even better English than the British (The Economist, 2001). English as a Threat In the meantime, a good number of countries are resisting the onslaught of English on the growing awareness that it could marginalize their own culture and international aspirations. In the 1990s, the French government through its minister of culture prohibited the use of all foreign expressions. In French-speaking Quebec, there are language police who make sure that all contracts are written in French and any English store signs are of regulation size. In Germany, the Society for the Protection of the German Language has been founded and picks the "language debaser of the year" award, while its Institute for the German Language fights a rearguard action against the use of English in business. In Poland, a law was enacted in 2005 requiring all firms to use only Polish in their product advertisements, labels and instructions. In Hong Kong, where the language of business used to be British English, the new Chinese masters are promoting Cantonese. The march of English towards world monopoly has serious ramifications for UK, as well as many other countries jealous of their international status and economic well-being. Remember that this is not the English language for which foreign students flocked to UK schools and brings in 1.3-billion pound sterling yearly in invisible exports (Graddol, 2006). It is a "new phenomenon, not a cause for celebration by native speakers (Ibid)." As the number of non-native speakers teaching English around the world multiplies, the mass of foreign students seeking to learn English in UK are looking towards other places like Australia, New Zealand, even Malta (Lepkowska, 2005). Lepkowska (2005) reports that in Australia alone, the English learning industry was valued at 380-million pound sterling in 2004. Most of the students were Japanese, Koreans, Thais, Chinese from the mainland and Hong Kong, who were previously drawn to UK. The number of international students in English-speaking countries is expected to continue its decline as the market for English instruction expands in countries that use English as a second or foreign language (Graddol, 2006). Research conducted by the advertising and communication firm JWT Education showed that there is no letup in demand for English knowledge but UK and six other countries that traditionally provide this knowledge are losing this advantage to other countries that have mastered English. Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese students, for example, no longer see the need to study in UK since schools in their countries now offer English courses run by non-native speakers who are as capable as native speakers (Lepkowska, 2005). Mike Byram, language professor at UK's Durham University observes: "People who teach English as their second or third language often make fewer mistakes and are more aware of grammar and the need to speak, read and write perfectly than native speakers." In Asia and the Middle East, English is now taught from infancy as a basic skill along with the child's native language, mathematics and IT. In effect, English has ceased to be a foreign language for most of its world learners but a near universal skill (Graddol, 2006). In just the two countries of China and India, there are an estimated 500 million English speakers, which exceed the number of speakers anywhere else in the world. Graddol (2006), whose study titled English Next was conducted under a commission from the British Council, recommends the learning of other languages as UK's best defense against the threat posed by the spread of English. The proposed languages for this purpose are Spanish, Mandarin and Arabic, the so-called languages of the future. The study also suggested that the languages of ethnic minorities now living in UK may count as "major assets in this effort." Among the largest UK ethnic groups are Africans, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis. Taylor (2006) agrees, saying native British students should be encouraged to learn languages other than English if the country has to keep pace with the growing international competition. It was noted that most UK citizens do not speak another language with great proficiency, a condition that will place UK on the path of the onrushing English train (Taylor, 2006). If there are 2 billion English speakers around the world, the English speakers without knowledge of another language, like most British, will be at a disadvantage (Cohen, 2006). Because of the spread of English and the monolingual character of UK, Graddol (2006) notes that the country has lost many of its traditional markets, its political and economic influence has dwindled and it has ceased to be the world's educational center for English study. The biggest lose, however, could be the great minds and intellects in Germany, France and other once-proud European nations who could not publish their works in English. Even in this part of the world, the number of universities and research institutions is increasing that require professors to publish their scholarly works in English or lose their tenure and promotions. As a result, these old-school scientists and scholars are likely to remain unknown and ignored, with the world missing out on the fruits of their wisdom. (Bakopoulos, 1997) Bibliography: Cohen, N. (2006). "So English is Taking Over the Globe. So What" The New York Times, Aug. 6, 2006. Bakopoulos, D. (1997). "English as Universal Academic Language: Good or Bad" News and Information Service, HSBC Holdings plc., Jan. 28, 1997 Graddol, D. (2006). "The English Language a Threat to UK" In English Next, A study commissioned by the British Council, Feb. 15, 2006. Graddol, D. (2006). "Why Global English May Mean the End of English as a Foreign Language." Latimer Trend & Co. Ltd., Plymouth, UK, 2006. Hageage, C. (1986). "The Powers of Language - Influence on Human Society." UNESCO Courier, March 1986. Korpela, J. (2003). "English: The Universal Language on the Internet" IT and Communication, Feb. 2, 2003. Lepkowska, D. (2005). "UK Under Threat as English Teaching Goes Global." The Guardian, online at: http://education.co.uk/globalchlallenge/story/O,,1963638,00.html Modiano (1999). "Who Speaks English Today." Parris, M. (2005). "The Global Spread of English is a Seismic Event in Man's History." The Times, UK, Jan. 15, 2005. Roland, J. & Breton, L. (2000). "Can English be Dethroned" UNESCO Courier, April 2000. Tait, B. (2004). "How Marketing Science Undermines Brands." Fallon Consulting, Issue 454, October 2004, p. 46-48. Taylor, M. (2006). "Global Spread of English a Threat to UK." The Guardian, Feb. 15, 2006. The Economist (2001). "The Triumph of English." London, Dec. 20, 2001. The Scientist (1989). "The English Language: Lingua Franca of International Science." May 15, 1989. Thurow, L. & Lessard, D. (2002). "Globalization of Business Strategies in the 21st Century." Conference minutes, Taipei; Jan. 29, 2002. Read More