But it makes _no sense_

[andrewducker]

At least, none that I've discovered so far.

According to The Guardianthe global spread of English is a threat to the UK..  This is because:

as the number of people around the world who speak English nears 2 billion, the advantage traditionally enjoyed by UK citizens is disappearing, with millions of students in other countries speaking English and at least one other language.

The reports author says

"When we are in competition economically, educationally or culturally, conversing in English alone is no longer enough." The report found that English is not taught as a foreign language in many countries, including China and India. Instead it is seen as a "basic universal skill."

So because everyone else now speaks our language we're at a _disadvantage_?

Oh no!  We can work anywhere in the world, with absolutely anyone and be understood across the entire of the financial and technical industries, whatever will we do!

Can someone please explain to me what the problem is?

Comments

[mirukux.livejournal.com]

eh? i totally don't get that article. i know it's probably bad given the history of the spread of the english language, but i feel lucky (and sometimes even smug) that i've learn a language that isn't going to fade out. english isn't perfect, but the way it gains new words, both by nicking them from other languages and adapting others to suit new purpouses is very handy. and at least it's not encumbered with gendered nouns (ugh), although it could do with having some popular non-gender specific pronouns.

[eleyan.livejournal.com]

"Oh no! We can work anywhere in the world, with absolutely anyone and be understood across the entire of the financial and technical industries, whatever will we do!"

That's the problem! Now every body else can too, so there goes our natural advantage! Waahhh! Everybody sulk!
:)

[andrewducker]

Well, exactly. We may not be quite as advantaged as we were, but we're hardly at a disadvantage.

Now if the entirety of Asia was learning Chinese rather than English then we'd have a problem, as we'd be locked out of that market entirely. But as it is, while it would certainly be handy to speak an extra language or 6, it doesn't seem to be vital in the same way it is for people speaking a minority language. Like, say, French.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

I'll presume this is one of those joke posts.

In the same way that someone with a certificate in something looks better than something who doesn't know how to do it; someone who speaks two "business" languages well looks better than someone who doesn't. A lot, lot better.

If you try and get a job in foreign climes, your lack of any language other than English -is- a disadvantage, while if a chap from said foreign climes is trying to get a job here, then he'll speak both his own language AND English. It is an advantage for them, because THEY can work elsewhere, you can't.

Just because lots of people can speak English, this doesn't mean that when Joe Lives-Somewhere-Foreign calls his local tech support, he is going to want to speak English. If the tech support is based there, he might reasonably expect them to speak the local language. Which'd mean you wouldn't have a chance of working there. Someone -from- there, on the other hand, will have the pick of that job, or one just down the corridor from you in Edinburgh.

I don't know if things have changed, but last time I paid attention, England (at the least) was notoriously lazy as far as learning other languages etc went.

Please tell me this was a joke post?

[andrewducker]

Nope, not a joke post. I really was struggling to see where we were at a disadvantage. I suspect we will have problems if we want to do phone-support for (say) China - but for that to be the case the world financial situation would have to be staggeringly different.

And as I said, having more than one language is handy, but I'm still not convinced we're at an actual disadvantage because other people are learning English.

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

Do you mean England or Britain?

Wales seems to be doing quite well for itself as far as multi-lingual populations go. Scotland hopes to go the same route with its gaelic initiatives.

Note that this actually supports your point, as I totally agree with it and you've explained it well. However I'm just calling for clarification on the country you're talking about.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

Oh - it's not English that a large proportion of students etc speak, by the way.

Take a look around - we're not in charge.

It's American English. I am always vaguely amused that (in my experience of Europeans of varying nationalities) very often teenagers etc will speak English with a pronounced American accent, using American slang (even more than the average youngster here)

Of course, I have no idea whether Americans tend to be multilingual or not. I'd suspect not, excepting Spanish and American English, but I wouldn't know for sure.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

Your suspicion is correct. Most citizens of the U.S.A are monolingual. The joke goes that "Someone who speaks French and English is French. Someone who speaks German and English is German. Someone who speaks Chinese and English is Chinese, someone who speaks several languages is a polyglot, and someone who speaks only English... is an American." Spanish is probably the most common second language - or perhaps I should say the most common first where English is second.

Americans generally do seem to like an mild English accent, which means it's popular enough to many attempt, but is generally not present or studied enough for an American to actually get right.

I was surprised when I once had an Egyptian professor who spoke English with what seemed to me to be a German accent.

[andrewducker]

There's a certain amount of bilingualism in the US, but only in areas where Mexican immigration has been quite high. Other than that I believe they're even worse than the English.

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

I think it is quite obvious. If large numbers of people are capable of speaking English to a high standard, then they will be able to obtain jobs in English speaking countries. They will be at an advantage because in addition to excellent english, they will probably be fluent in their own language as well.

On the other hand, the reverse is not true. Because English is the predominant language in many fields, the English speaking countries of the world do not have the same requirements to learn foreign languages. As a result, we have a notoriously low percentage of the population who are fluent in any foreign languages, making it almost impossible for us to go to foreign countries and get a job.

[andrewducker]

I'm dubious that "speaking English" is all that's necessary to get a job over here, or that the lack of that skill is all that's stopping a tidal wave of people from leaving their homes to come here and take them.

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

Probably not, but that's not usually enough to stop the Daily Mail running a xenophobic scare story. Yet, bizarrely, this came from the Guardian.

[andrewducker]

However, I can see that it definitely has _some_ advantage. So you get a gold star. Doesn't seem to be enough to justify the huge panic that the report writers seemed to be suffering from though.

Bring more Ice, Gin and Tonic Water, stat.

[whumpdotcom.livejournal.com]

Yes, but I'd be useless from the heat during a summer in Bangalore.

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

The problem is that *they* can work here. Or in all the same technical posts wherever. For cheaper than it can be done in the UK. Theoretically...

[andrewducker]

Them working here I can see. Outsourcing anything complex has generally been shown to Not Work - largely because of the lack of flow of information back and forth, which leads to all of the classic problems of the Waterfall Model.

[stillcarl.livejournal.com]

You spot a job in America you fancy. Once you'd only have to compete for it with Americans and those from a few other first-world English-speaking countries. Now add hundreds of million more English speakers who've till now been earning a tenth or less what those in the West are used to and that job is suddenly a lot harder to get. You've both more to compete with and their expectation of what a good income is is lower than yours. Plus they can talk Chinese or Indian as well. What's your competitive advantage again? That you're monolingual?

[opusfluke.livejournal.com]

At this rate everyone except Brits will be able to speak English. Y'know?