January 18, 2010 09:32:23
Posted By P & L Blog
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"If English Is a Global Language, Who Makes the Rules?" asked if native English-speakers will lose control of the language. In "Language as a Blunt Tool of the Digital Age", Anand Giridharadsa says not only is that already happening, but the rise of English as the global language has other consequences. "The English-learning boom in developing nations also corrodes their own languages. Their young increasingly learn enough English to do a global-economy job but not so much as to be articulate in it. Yet many give up on mastering their native languages. They end up, as the Indian writer Pavan Varma has called them, 'linguistic half-castes,' functional in many tongues, without command of any." You can access the rest of this very interesting article at The New York Times.
Image by Renato Costa under Creative Commons license. |