EnglishClub ESL Forums

Posted: **Tue Aug 05, 2003 4:39 pm**

Do you think that English is the best choice for an international language? Why? Why not?

Posted: **Wed Aug 06, 2003 4:02 pm**

Hi all,

I don't think that English is the best choice for an international language. Indeed, there is no alive language which meets this purpose, since languages are divided in dialects and every dialect has its own forms of pronunciation, vocabulary, slang, etc... I know that there are some fields which need a unique language, for instance business, and in this case English takes on this role. However, mostly this English is too simplified as well as fractured, very far from the native speakers's.

Cheers

Posted: **Thu Aug 28, 2003 9:37 am**

I think English is widely spoken nowadays that's for sure but it doesn't have to be the only tool for people to communicate. If you have a penpal from another country which might inspire you to talk to your friend in his or her language. That is more funny.
I'm a native Chinese and Chinese is the language becoming more and more important. Chinese has the largest spokers in fact!
If you like I can help you with that!
A sincere person,
Kathy

Posted: **Wed Oct 08, 2003 10:47 am**

in my opinion ,english isnot a best choice .because in the word there are many another language .english is a language very popular in many nations.

Posted: **Fri Oct 17, 2003 9:13 am**

Just a guy wrote:I don’t think the choice is ours to make personally so we’ll have to just go along with whatever choice the world community makes.

It's true, except for those places where English was imposed by the British Empire.

We cannot choice our mother tongue, therefore we cannot choose the international language. We have to accept it, we like it or not. But we have to realize that English is a language which is basically led by two countries, the US and the UK, and the rest of the English speaking countries, like Ireland or African countries, are considered as "inferior" speakers whose English does have no prestige. Many people in Singapore learn British or American version of English since Singaporean English is absolutely disdained. If this one happens to native speakers, I am sure it will be worse for non-native speakers.

See you

Posted: **Mon Oct 20, 2003 12:26 pm**

Hello everyone,

I know english is the most popular language.
It's in this aims, I learn english.
But the human had created some (artificial) language, the most known is 'experanto'.
I think, its utilisation must be easier, and more equality between all the nation.
Bye.

Posted: **Tue Oct 21, 2003 12:59 pm**

HI

:D Who says that people from other countries like Ireland and Wales are seen as having an inferior english.What a load of rubbish, being Welsh I have never had any problems in America or England, rather the opposite in fact, people prefer the accent and the vocab. GET A LIFE.

Anonymous wrote:
Just a guy wrote:I don’t think the choice is ours to make personally so we’ll have to just go along with whatever choice the world community makes.

It's true, except for those places where English was imposed by the British Empire.

We cannot choice our mother tongue, therefore we cannot choose the international language. We have to accept it, we like it or not. But we have to realize that English is a language which is basically led by two countries, the US and the UK, and the rest of the English speaking countries, like Ireland or African countries, are considered as "inferior" speakers whose English does have no prestige. Many people in Singapore learn British or American version of English since Singaporean English is absolutely disdained. If this one happens to native speakers, I am sure it will be worse for non-native speakers.

See you

Posted: **Tue Oct 21, 2003 1:03 pm**

:( , I would prefer that the french language became the most popular language around the world, because I'm a french guy and it's easier for me to speak french.
But I understand that english speaking is today the most wide-spread for several reasons.
During the last four centuries the UK was the first colonial country, therefore the english language is now known by practically all the big nations. It's why it's a wise solution to approve the english language as the most popular.

(his teacher says)
However it should be remembered that at the time that the british empire was expanding so too was the french. It was perhaps only by the luck of history(France not wanting to push for colonies in india, france pulling out of america, they made perhaps not the best choice by concentrating on Africa, and of course Napoleon losing at Waterloo) that we go to McDanalds and order a Big Mac. It could so nearly have been La Grande Mac.
Donc Voila Quoi

Posted: **Wed Oct 22, 2003 4:21 pm**

I believe that when the time came for countries to decide on an international language, Engllish was chosen . It was something that was voted on, not forced upon us. If English was chosen, it was probably because either the English speaking countries had more influence, or "power" , or just that it was a language that was already widely used anyways.

Posted: **Sat Oct 25, 2003 12:14 pm**

I do hate English,for it does not strictly change its form as French does.
I always misspell some words.French, in my opition is the best language in the world. Why so many people nowadys have to learn English? NOt for England is rich,but for America is rich.

Posted: **Sat Oct 25, 2003 12:28 pm**

Hi everyone
I do think English is the best choice for international comunication because so many people around the world are using English as a tool of communication,and me is included.I learn English as my a tool of getting more and more knowledge .I find English is very good. There are so many English films,books and newspaper, even the Internet are using English mostly.

Posted: **Fri Oct 31, 2003 5:59 am**

Hello all,

I know english is widely used nowadays. We can see it everywhere in the Internet, labels of each product, bussiness correspondence...

I think it can be international communication because of its simple and widely use already. We don’t have to pay much to teach people and to create another.
How about love, can we use it? No, there are many melodie languages like Italia, french.... In this aspect, native languages cannot be replaced. Being vietnamese, i like my tongue very much. If you want to try, i am very happy to help.

Write to me: hong_*******.com

See you.

Posted: **Fri Oct 31, 2003 8:14 am**

[quote="Talking Point"]International Communication. Why English?

Hi all,
I don't think that English is the best choice for an international language. But may be English the most reasonable language all of us can use more easier than other languages. English is language of business. Learning English is, in my opinion, is easier than other languges (eg: French).
But, I love my mother tounge language and try to learn English to use it to communica with people from other cultures.
Mai

Posted: **Sat Nov 01, 2003 9:19 am**

To me, French is easier than English, since I am French :)

Posted: **Sat Nov 01, 2003 9:13 pm**

birrel wrote:Hi all,

I don't think that English is the best choice for an international language. Indeed, there is no alive language which meets this purpose, since languages are divided in dialects and every dialect has its own forms of pronunciation, vocabulary, slang, etc... I know that there are some fields which need a unique language, for instance business, and in this case English takes on this role. However, mostly this English is too simplified as well as fractured, very far from the native speakers's.

Cheers

Posted: **Wed Nov 05, 2003 6:46 am**

In my viewpoint, why chose english because the historical reason, we can't change it. But I believe that if one country's GDF is higher than US & UK, so english will be substituted.

Posted: **Wed Nov 05, 2003 6:49 am**

make corrections: it's "GDP". I'm typed error letter "GDF".

Posted: **Tue Nov 11, 2003 1:51 am**

Hi mates.
i am really confused about the language we speak now, except ypur mother language.So, everybody know that what is it ,yeah/ Definitely, English. If anyone can tell me why we should not get speak English as a second language, i will tell you the contract 8)

Posted: **Thu Nov 13, 2003 10:02 am**

serviceboy wrote:Hi everyone
I do think English is the best choice for international comunication because so many people around the world are using English as a tool of communication,and me is included.I learn English as my a tool of getting more and more knowledge .I find English is very good. There are so many English films,books and newspaper, even the Internet are using English mostly.

:D :o :P :)

:? :( :x 8)

Posted: **Wed Nov 19, 2003 11:00 am**

Why not?

Posted: **Wed Nov 26, 2003 12:15 pm**

:D Hello everybody!
I live in "la Réunion" ( it's an island in the Indian ocean) and I personally think that everyone should learn english because it's an intenational language very used in all the World. But I learn german and spanish too and I think that we should learn other languages as english too because we can't forget that there are a lot of languages spoken in the World for exemple chinese which should be very useful ! So the good solution consists in learning the most of languages that we can do !
I'm sorry if I've done mistakes because I don't speak english very well but I hope that you see more or less what I mean...

:) Goodbye :)

Posted: **Sat Nov 29, 2003 4:41 pm**

hahahahaha

Posted: **Mon Dec 01, 2003 6:51 am**

English is known in most countries in the world. And, it difficult to imagine what else language can impose the role of the multinational one.
Majority of people are most likely to learn English as yeh most popuilar language. I think there is no alternative for English.

Posted: **Wed Dec 03, 2003 3:28 pm**

English will be defeated sooner or later

Posted: **Tue Feb 03, 2004 6:58 pm**

International communication with English? YES if you are talking about sharing a second language. All nations will absolutely keep their own languages alive and growing FOREVER:!:

English has some couples of advantages to be chosen as the language for communicating between people around the world. It already has a great number of speakers, not only native speakers from Britain, USA, Australia, New Zealand or Singapore. There are also many countries where English is one of their official languages like India, Pakistan, South Africa or Canada. Because of that foundation, more and more people are learning English. Further more, all the newest discoveries together with new terms and concepts are described and propagated in English, whereas the human's biggest and most widely used library, also the most convenient source of information -the internet- is mainly in English.

Yes, some opinions are very right to show one reason that England and the USA are two of the world's leading developed countries and obviously they have sweeping affection on others. I don't think their economy -which is considered the most important spearhead of a country- can easily go down in the future.

But i don't totally agree with the historical reason written above which gave the English language its present standing in the world today. English used to be forced to learn in the settlements of British and American empires. So do you remember the countries that had to fight for their independence including the freedom to speak our own language? Let's take an example with my country Vietnam. Depending on our well-known history with many struggles against big evaders, we have some generations with fluency in Chinese and French. Many old Vietnamese also know Russian very well because of our good relationship with Russia. BUT nowadays, young people CHOOSE ENGLISH. I don't deny that maybe the reason is that English is taught here for small pupils. But youngsters can easily choose another languages because they are attractive and sound better than English such as French, Spanish, Italian or even complicated Japanese. Actually the young people do that. The fact is still the same : English is used most

So why should we choose English? In my opinion, English is easier than quite a lot other languages for all of us to learn. For example the conjugation is simpler than French and it doesn't have feminine and masculine words. It is also being simplified to be even more simpler. Many words can be used with different functions (verb, noun, adj, adv...) in the unique form. Anyway it is still a natural language so it is more beautiful than artificial ones like Esperanto which is actually less complicated.

If you still don't like or don't know why so many people learning English, plz visit LEARNING ENGLISH forum to see how actively the world is learning this cool language.

Posted: **Thu Feb 05, 2004 11:23 am**

"For example the conjugation is simpler than French and it doesn't have feminine and masculine words. It is also being simplified to be even more simpler."

As a Spanish-speaker, Italian is much easier than English for me. Moreover, there are lot of languages, like Japanese, which has no genders and conjugation at all.

Take care

Posted: **Sat Mar 06, 2004 6:38 am**

from my point of view, English is comparatively easier to learn.
And also, because of the economic and political powerfulness of British Nation in the past, this language had been brought to the world, so we may say language/culture can only be wheeled by power(economic/cultural/political,etc)

Posted: **Sat Mar 06, 2004 6:41 am**

so we may say, language is imposed by powerfulness

Posted: **Thu Mar 11, 2004 1:50 pm**

[b]Am an Arabic ..and studdied English but i guess that there are so many reasons to justufy why english is the chosen language to be spread over the world and as the international language ..its so roouted case..we cant limit it within lines ..its due to Early occupation and demonation by the British Impire ..which imposed the English language over all occupied countries ..Simply coz its the language of power now ..and where as power then there is aids for this power ..now its language ..but its a good language any way and easy to be studdied ..i like it my self ..[/b]

Posted: **Fri Mar 12, 2004 1:13 pm**

Linguistic researchers are claiming more frequently nowadays that the Anglo-American dominance is coming to an end, in terms of global languages. David Graddol, a British linguistic researcher had recently an article about the topic in the professional magazine 'Science'.

Well, it's natural to have changes in the worldwide system of languages. English, once safely atop the league table in terms of the number of native speakers, has now been relegated to the second spot behind Chinese. Considering that there are more than 1.1 billion people who grow up with the Chinese language in all its variations as their mother tongue, three times more than the number of English native speakers, it is hardly surprising that Chinese 'might' become the dominant spoken language in these terms or at least will stay one of the dominant ones.

However, English will still have its place. While researchers see the future as being multi-lingual, English will continue to be one of those languages that most people will learn and can use when in a foreign land of which the native tongue is not known.

Posted: **Sun Mar 14, 2004 1:04 pm**

Ammmm
This Question is not objective. Because each will say that his/her language should be the #1 internationally !!

Posted: **Fri Apr 23, 2004 4:41 pm**

serviceboy wrote:I do hate English,for it does not strictly change its form as French does.
I always misspell some words.French, in my opition is the best language in the world. Why so many people nowadys have to learn English? NOt for England is rich,but for America is rich.

Before most lands in the world were British, French, Spanish, or Portuguese colonies. Thus, people from all over the world were speaking either English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese. But, after WWII, most countries were dead from that war and I mean "economics" were dead. Only America could survive. With that advantage, American business grew strong and stronger. To be doing business with America, most countries needed to speak English. Britain already had that benefit since they spoke English and they had a lot of lands. Say, if you need something from someone, you have to be able to tell that person what you need; that's the reason why English were spread all over the world. By the way, British currency is still the highest on the market. Nowadays, you can choose not to speak English. It's your choice, but it doesn't hurt you if you know another language. The more languages you know, the better it is for yourself.

Posted: **Fri Apr 23, 2004 5:00 pm**

pirate wrote: So do you remember the countries that had to fight for their independence including the freedom to speak our own language? Let's take an example with my country Vietnam. Depending on our well-known history with many struggles against big evaders, we have some generations with fluency in Chinese and French.

The Vietnam war was basically a civil war--the North and the South were fighting each other, if you didn't know. Why do you think that many Southern Vietnamese left Vietnam and some of them got rapped by the Thailand pirates or couldn't make it at all to the new lands?

Posted: **Mon May 17, 2004 11:54 pm**

I don't think you could see my private message that I've sent you long time ago for some reason that we all know why....here it is again....

"The Vietnam War was a second phase of fighting in Vietnam. In 1946 Vietnam was part of the colony of French Indochina and the Vietnamese fought for their independence. The United States provided military equipment, but the French were defeated in 1954. Vietnam was then divided into North and South Vietnam.
Communists saw the Vietnam War as an extension of their struggle with France, as another attempt by a foreign power to rule Vietnam, and as a war of national liberation. China and the Soviet Union supported the Vietnamese Communists with war materials but not troops.
The Vietnam War can be separated into different periods based upon the United States involvement. From 1957 to 1965, the war was mainly a struggle between the South Vietnamese army and Communist-trained South Vietnamese rebels known as the Viet Cong. The U.S. provided military advisors. The first U.S. troops entered Vietnam in March 1965. Until 1969, North Vietnam and the United States did most of the fighting. By 1969, the Vietnam War seemed endless, and the United States slowly began to withdraw troops. In January 1973, a cease-fire was arranged. The last U.S. ground troops left Vietnam two months later. Despite the treaty fighting between North and South Vietnam resumed soon afterward, but U.S. troops did not return. The war finally ended on April 30, 1975 when South Vietnam surrendered to North Vietnam. "

"The Vietnam War was the longest war in which the United States took part. The war began in 1957 and ended in 1975. At that time, Vietnam was separated into Communist-ruled North Vietnam and noncommunist South Vietnam. North Vietnam wanted to end U.S. support of South Vietnam and to unite the north and south into a single nation. The United States and the South Vietnamese army tried to stop them."

"1.8 million Vietnamese arrived safely and found resettlements, and about 80,000 to 200,000 perished at sea during their attempts. The Vietnamese asylum seekers flow continued to increase significantly in refugee centres in Hong Kong and Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia. The overwhelming arrivals of the Vietnamese were not only unwelcome but also refused asylum and forced back to sea. Back out at sea, they drifted on their crowded, fragile, and unequipped fishing boats and about 77% encountered Thailand pirate attacks on average of 3.2 times per boat in the 1980s. A few lucky ones who escaped the pirate murders, abductions and rapes were then either rescued by international rescue boats or landed into Indonesia or even deserted island, while other were repatriated back to Vietnam.

Many Southerner soldiers died during their "re-education" because of harsh conditions. If the North wanted to joined the nation back, then why did those soldiers have to be forced in jails, which are in jungle. Re-educate for what IF there were really fighing with the North over the Americans? Don't you see this is not making any sense? They were forced to be "re-educated" only because THEY WERE FIGHTING OVER THE NORTH.

Posted: **Tue Jul 20, 2004 2:44 pm**

I think English is the best choice for an International language
because so many people around the world are using English as a tool of communication and there is no another language which meets with the international standard. It is easy to learn because there are so many facilities available now a days for improving.

[email protected]

Posted: **Tue Jul 20, 2004 4:04 pm**

I think English is the best choice of international communication.
Nowdays,if you cannot understand English, you will lose all the opportunities associatied with English. It is undoubted that English is the essential capability for people all over the world.
English is easy and straight-forward,just like the way of the English people thinking,which also aids in English becoming the common tool of international communication.
However,it is also important to develop our native languages. Everyone regards his/her native language as the best language and can use it freely,furthermore,our native languages reflect the culture of the nation. We should respect each language and try to save it from dying out.
I think English just acts as the media when we say English is the best choice of international communication.
[/b]

Posted: **Sat Jul 24, 2004 10:07 am**

hi all
i thinhk this subjest was too old. Why i must study english meantimwe my friend play a game. there is only reason: english is international language. why? forget it!! why don't we talk about something such as: what level you got or, why my neighbouring always smile when i see her.....so on.

Posted: **Sat Sep 18, 2004 1:04 pm**

I like English and England so I think English is the best choice .It is a global language . I hope I could come England where I could speak English with native ones .

_Arale_

Posted: **Sun Sep 26, 2004 2:44 pm**

I hate the English. They are posh

Posted: **Tue Sep 28, 2004 4:39 pm**

Not all of them !However, the English Royal family has so many scandals.I like Dianna princess.

_Arale_

Posted: **Fri Oct 01, 2004 2:34 am**

Arale wrote:Not all of them !However, the English Royal family has so many scandals.I like Dianna princess.

_Arale_

Yup, not all of them. You can't base your opinions on one or two persons you've met, birrel. That's stereotype. By the way, I like English too. At least I don't have to remember the sex genders for things like inanimate objects. That's nonsense to me, no offense.

Posted: **Sun Nov 14, 2004 2:40 pm**

but, is this a choice? or is this related to the American Imperialism.......financial an technological superiority....?

Posted: **Sun Nov 14, 2004 8:25 pm**

maryemily wrote:but, is this a choice? or is this related to the American Imperialism.......financial an technological superiority....?

Long before American economy got strong English was already used in some part of the world due to English colonization. Nowaday English is used more than other languages (well, second most language is used after Chinese) for international communication because British had and maybe still has many colonies that speak English, American has a strong economy that most of people want to do businesses with. Therefore, people speak English to be able to do business with them. If you have noticed, Spanish, French, and Chinese are used widely also. It's not just English.
Business is a hard-core competitive field, you have to do anything to satisfy your clients. If they want something in their language, you have to translate your products, ideas, memos, etc to their language. You can't just use English and tell them if they don't understand you, it's their problem. If you do that, you'll lose a business. My boyfriend works for a translation company. They try to translate everything in business to certain language that their clients demand. Thus, although America has a strong business, we still need people from other countries to do business with us and we have to do our best to satisfy them. We have people who can speak several languages or tools that the clients can understand the products in their own language. It makes them feel more comfortable.
For personal used, for an example, I speak Vietnamese, you speak your language, we both don't understand each other but if we learn a certain language in common, why don't we use that to communicate? It can be anything, don't have to be particularly English. If I knew French and so did you, we both could speak French to each other instead of English, right?
Overall, the choice is yours.

Posted: **Mon Nov 15, 2004 10:14 pm**

but in fact, English is considered the mundial language. It is demanded, of coursefor bussiness reasons, but It has its historical appearence. people did not choose English as the most demanded language for financial relations because people thought it was beautiful or easy or something else. It had a stronger reason.......When France was the most powerful country, people needed to speak French more than any other language....now it is English..... It has its origin in the way EUA command the world between lines.....

Posted: **Tue Nov 16, 2004 7:29 am**

maryemily wrote:but in fact, English is considered the mundial language. It is demanded, of coursefor bussiness reasons, but It has its historical appearence. people did not choose English as the most demanded language for financial relations because people thought it was beautiful or easy or something else. It had a stronger reason.......When France was the most powerful country, people needed to speak French more than any other language....now it is English..... It has its origin in the way EUA command the world between lines.....

Not totally true. If you compare it to French then English doesn't sound as nice as French. Why would the French choose to something less nice over something is nice? In fact, most French people don't like to speak English based on a tight relationship that they have with England in history. They speak English just for business and other international relations. If a country has people speak French, they would speak French instead of English to those people. My cousins who speak French and English speak English to us since they don't know Vietnamese and we don't know French. English is the only language that we have in common. They speak French to grownups who can speak French in my family. And they also change back to French if they know the person they're speaking with can speak French.
By the way, when was France the most powerful country? They've lost every single damn war. When were they powerful? Show me the timeline when they were because I can't find it in the history timeline.

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