Sunday, January 19, 2020

A Global Language Essay

As a Untied States citizen, English is the first language of any American citizen. If we add another foregin language to the criteria of our nation, The United States would not be a mixed diversity of race anymore. The Ethnicity would be the same, but our race would be different. For example, The United States of America has been a diverse country with many races such as, American, African American, Hispanic, Chinese, etc. As the generation ages, the country should be open to learning a new languages. When a language acquires a global identity as English has done, many unexpected things can happen. The two main conflicting issues that have come out as a problem are identity and internationalism. Internationalism here means the ability for a language to be understood. It calls for a standard that is agreed in terms of grammar, vocabulary, spelling, punctuations and the conventions of its use. There is no doubt whatsoever about English being a global language in these times we are leaving in. It has become the language of communication and technology and any one who does not want to be left behind in all this has no option but to learn it and eventually English speakers in the coming years will increase extremely. This in itself will disadvantage the native English speakers as they will be outnumbered by the non-native English speakers. They will be the only ones speaking one language as they will see no reason in learning a second language. With time the English language will be controlled be the many non-native speakers who will have become competent in it. The language will then diversify into many versions that will then bring about a lesser understanding than it was initially intended. Communication is the most phenomenal factor in the live of human beings and this has been greatly advanced by the existence of global language. This is language that is used beyond the borders of a single country and this has created understandings among the countries. A global language is sometimes known as ‘lingua franca’ and includes French, English, Latin, and German among others. Having such a language is sometimes beneficial and may also be detrimental to those who are using it. This discussion will explore the instances where English as a global language is overridden by disadvantages. It is important to note that most of people use English as their second language besides their native language. People whose English as their mother-tongue language have an advantage over the other group of people since they easily develop the ability to manipulate the language. This will however be disadvantageous to the other speakers who have English as their second language and will have many problems and waste most of their time trying to master the language. Dominance of English as a language also creates the notion in the minds of many people that their native language is not important and unnecessary. This will create a room of discrimination of the minor groups in the society and further enhance it because language in most cases is used as an identity. This may make the threatened individuals to abandon their language thus enhancing extinction.

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