"Return to the tower of Babel, English is becoming the language of world communication, to what extent is this march towards a single world language useful or desirable."

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“Return to the tower of Babel, English is becoming the language of world communication, to what extent is this march towards a single world language useful or desirable.”

Palna Patel

5/9/2007

English is the mother tongue in about 40 countries, and around 1.6 billion use some form of English today. The most commonly spoken language is Chinese, but English has inarguable achieved a sort of global status, it is the language of most people communicate in, and is the main language of the Internet. However it is not likely going to become a global, single, world language since the majority of the world’s population do not speak it at all. The Internet’s users use it for entertainment, research, information, and education; this means that most developed countries have access to the Internet and thus speaking or understanding some form of English. The importance of this language and its worldwide spread came from the early imperialism of England. Also most of the world’s powerful nations such as USA and England have this national language. These countries hold an economic and political importance in the world.

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The march towards a single language could easily be thrown off track if another powerful nation such as China suddenly received global power, since Chinese is the most commonly spoken language it would be easier to adopt by other countries. The disadvantage of this would be that most people would have to learn it; English is recognized by many nations, it is often taught in school, and used when two people with different native languages communicate.

A march towards a single language maybe very useful on a global scale. It would ease communication between different people. The media would ...

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