In class Friday, we began to discuss the concept of "la langue francaise" or a universal language. Is there a language that is spoken universally? Students studying business are highly recommended to learn Mandarin Chinese and/or Arabic because those are the up-and-coming languages in the business world. It used to be the people have to know English to be a successful in international affairs, but now I’m hearing more and more about culture emersion and how businessmen are adapting other cultures’ customs in order to show open-mindedness and their sincere desire to work together. I feel like there is no official “universal language” because people are trying to be more culturally flexible. For instance, I grew up in Texas saying “tomaTOES” while my peers were saying “tomAtoes” because my parents who speak British English taught me that the word is pronounced with a soft “a” instead of a hard “a.” It’s a difference in dialects, but when I go to Subway in the Eagles’ Nest and order tomatoes, literally everyone in the store stops what they are doing to say, “Did someone say tomatoes?”
Even a slight dialectical difference seems like a different language. We tend to specify British English and American English because there are so many dialectical variations that it is far simpler to split “English” into two separate languages. However, then must people wanting to do international business learn British English or American English? It is a matter of saying loo or bathroom, willies or rain boots, football or soccer. To make matters more confusing, Americans are using the British terms and [some of] the Brits, though not many Brits from what I gather, are using American terms. So even though the two “languages” are separate, we are using terms interchangeably.
I think that the era of a universal language has ended and the era of cultural expansion has arrived. People are becoming more focused on acceptance of other cultures and integrating other cultures with our own.
1. Nice reference :)
ReplyDelete2. I agree that globalization has united various cultures. However, I think the problem in the United States is the "WASP" history. We assume English is our language because it was first. Yet, first is not always best, and English is a universal langauge, not only the U.S.'s. In many other countries, children become tri-lingual: their native language, English, and a third language. Yet, many American students either a)do not value language or b)are not given the classes to pursue other languages. As you noted, tolerance is necessary.