Teach English in TiAnjin Tiechang Jiedao [↑ exclave in She county, Hebei province] - Tianjin

english as a global languageSince the Tower of Babel, the world has been separated by language. Could it be, perhaps, that as time pushes forward, the world is gravitating back to a common tongue, to life before Babel, to a global language? It seems more possible now than ever, as technology expands and the world "shrinks." Of all the languages out there, english seems to be the front runner at a time in history when communication is faster and more widespread. This begs the question, will english remain as a global language, or will it go the way of Latin? greek. Latin. Arabic. spanish. Portuguese. french. All have had their heyday as a global language, mostly thanks to political, military and economic power. These three combined make for a powerful nation, and thus a powerful language. "A language has traditionally become an international language for one chief reason: the power of its people--especially their political and military power," writes David Crystal, author of english as a Global Language. Naturally, as a country begins to dominate the world stage, people begin to learn the language of that nation. In his book, Crystal defines a global language as one that: 1. Is made the official language of a country and is used as a form of communication in areas like government, courts, media and education; and/or, 2. Is the primary foreign language taught in schools. Currently, english has such status in more than 70 countries (Crystal p. 4). "english is dominant in a way that no language has ever been before," linguist John McWhorter said to the New York Times. "It is vastly unclear to me what actual mechanism could uproot english given the conditions as they are." The New York Times goes on to report in the article, the number of english-speakers around the world. The breakdown is as follows: Four hundred million people speak english as a first language. Three hundred million to 500 million people speak english as a fluent second language. Seven hundred fifty million people speak english as a foreign language. While the numbers may seem staggering, Crystal has also recognized the growth of english in non-native english-speaking countries. "english is now the language most widely taught as a foreign language--in over 100 countries, such as China, Russia, Germany, Spain, egypt and Brazil--and in most of these countries it is emerging as the chief foreign language to be encountered in schools, often displacing another language in the process." (Crystal p. 5). Although english may displace some languages, it is blending with others. In some countries, such as Nigeria, Singapore and Papua New Guinea, people blend english with their native languages and thus create a common language, a hybrid, if you will, of both languages. Even on the U.S., Mexico border, people are speaking "Spanglish," a blend of english and spanish. Linguists are calling these languages Englishes. Such developments make one wonder how many languages will emerge and whether any of them will take off as a popular, global language. (The New York Times). For now, english remains on the rise. Advances in technology, particularly the Internet, and english-dominated platform, have made its spread rapid and unlike the spread of any former global language. No one can truly predict where english will be decades from now, but it is not likely to die out any time soon. Sources: Crystal, David. english as a global language. 2nd ed. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Web. 29 Sept. 2011. Mydans, Seth. "Across cultures, english is the word." The New York Times. 9 April 2007. Web. 27 Sept. 2011.