All languages evolve. Ten years ago we didn't "friend" people, we had friends. We searched, we didn't "Google". Phones were phones, they weren't "smart".

When non-native speakers use English for business and online, they often use the language differently.  Will that eventually influence the way the rest of us use English?

Jack Lynch makes an interesting prediction in his book "The Lexicographer's Dilemma: The Evolution of 'Proper' English, From Shakespeare to 'South Park'":

"All the signs point to a fundamentally reconfigured world, in which what we now think of as the English-speaking world will eventually lose its effective control of the English language."

Do you think this will happen?

Cindy King, a cross-cultural marketer, has an interesting post on different interpretations of times and dates across cultures.  It reminded me of a friend from Botswana who had a very different idea of time than I do.  He defined "later"  as any time in the future: today, tomorrow, next week, next month.  Appointments did not translate into being somewhere at a specific time or even on a particular date.  While this attitude was the norm where he did business, it would never have worked in the US.

So, what should you do when working with overseas customers? Do as the Romans: learn how your customers use times and dates and follow their lead. 

Image by Travis Jon Allison under Creative Commons license.

"After all, when you come right down to it, how many people speak the same language even when they speak the same language?"

Russell Hoban

There are many resources for language learners on Twitter, but can you really learn a new language through tweets?  Vocabulary, yes.  Reading practice in your new language, yes.  But do you think you could learn - not practice, not reinforce - grammar in a foreign language?

Well, not that modern.  You still need to mail your forms in.  The Census Bureau is using social media to raise awareness of the 2010 Census particularly among young adults.

There are two pages on Facebook: U.S. Census Bureau has a sample of the form as well as when the forms will be mailed and when they should be returned. 2010 US Census Bureau posts information on jobs. 

If you are on Twitter, you can follow the Bureau at http://twitter.com.uscensusbureau.  They only started tweeting in late October so the number of followers and the number of tweets should increase as their activity ramps up.

The Census has uploaded 46 videos which have been viewed 17,275 times on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/uscensusbureau.

Another group the Census Bureau wants to reach through social media are ethnic groups traditionally undercounted by the Census.  Unfortunately, the only way to access information in languages other than English is by clicking through to the main website from Facebook, then scrolling to the bottom of the page.  I guess the Census Bureau's interest in "conversation" only goes so far.

Image by H is for Home under Creative Commons license.