Reply to: Juncker says ENglish becoming less important

[vetran]

I have to make sad unfounded attacks on Brexiters because I am sad

FTFY

Brexit isn't about nostalgia. It's about ambition. Trust me, I'm a historian

My point is that I – as a historian – don’t really want people to vote on the basis of some grand narrative or entirely false choice between sovereignty vs racial harmony, which has been invented only in the heat of this campaign. I’d rather they cleared their minds of all that junk. Get back to the basics. What does the EU offer? Does it deliver?

Remainers say we should give up some of our democratic accountability in exchange for access to the single market and, they claim, greater economic stability. Leavers say the deal is a bad one. We lose too much democracy in exchange for access to a declining market and a political union that is fraught with risk.

Let’s not talk about the past but the future: the EU is planning to create a unitary state. Its leaders have said as much – higher taxes, an army, greater authority for the bank are all on the table. The EU has decided that only faster integration will see it through the present crisis. They might be correct: what the EU wants to be it can only be if it is effectively one country. But that is not in Britain’s national interest, something we’ve signalled by remaining outside the Eurozone.

[Hobosapien]

Juncker iz talkin bolX. eng lngwij iz hEr 2 stA m8.



(The above is courtesy of an English to txt speak translator. I don't have those skills so had to outsource it. )

[tomtomagain]

English will continue to become more important.

It has a critical mass that far outweighs other European languages.

1.5B people speak English and 67 countries have English as their primary "official" language, 27 countries have it as the secondary "official" language.

English is the international language of business.

It has a strong network effect. Network effects are exceptionally hard to overcome.

If you were a German parent would you want your child to learn English or French? If you were a French parent would you want them to learn English or German? The numbers speak for themselves. They learn English. They might learn another, but English is in there.


My son is 9. He is learning Spanish at school. The problem is he is not exposed to any Spanish on a daily basis ( apart from the occasional holiday ). There are no Spanish YouTubers, Movies, Songs or most importantly games ( of course there are, but none of them actually break out of Spain ). So he doesn't get to practice it. He enjoys it, but is simply not getting enough exposure to the language to mean that he will really learn it.

My nephew is 12, an Austrian who lives in Vienna, his English is excellent. For him English is the language of the internet, it's spoken by the Youtubers he likes to watch, the language of the films he likes to watch and the games he likes to play. English is the language of pop music and popular culture. So for him, there is every reason to learn it AND he is constently exposed to English.

People are very quick to try and portray the lack of language skills in the UK as some sort of failing of either the English themselves or the education system. Whereas it is primarily caused by the success of the English language.

Junckers quip about the English language was simply that. It is way beyond the power of any institution to stop the spread of the English language.

[darmstadt]

“The English language was carefully, carefully cobbled together by three blind dudes and a German dictionary,"

Dave Kellett

[VectraMan]

Ahhh but which language was there first...

Brexiteers no doubt earnestly believe English was the first language and all others are inferior copies.

Old English was Germanic. It'd probably make more sense to a modern Dutch or German speaker than a modern English speaker. Then the French invaded. I know linguists still call English Germanic but with so many French words it's really a bastardisation of the two.

I find it really interesting : having learned French and German you can see which features of our language come from which. Like using s for plurals (french) and also using s for possession (german genetive). No wonder people get confused.

[SueEllen]

Dutch is much closer to German than it is to English. English is a Germanic language just like German Dutch, Nirwegian, Icelandic and Swedish, probably closest to amix of North German, Danish and Frysian

Ahhh but which language was there first...

[Eirikur]

Dutch and also I think some of the Nordic languages are closer to English than German. When you live in Germany as your German improves you will graduate to sounding like a "Dutchman", eventually if you work it hard enough you can sound a bit like a German from the Frisian Islands.

Dutch is much closer to German than it is to English. English is a Germanic language just like German Dutch, Nirwegian, Icelandic and Swedish, probably closest to amix of North German, Danish and Frysian

[darmstadt]

Dutch and also I think some of the Nordic languages are closer to English than German. When you live in Germany as your German improves you will graduate to sounding like a "Dutchman", eventually if you work it hard enough you can sound a bit like a German from the Frisian Islands.

Quite a few Germans think I'm from the north of Germany and I've had to convince some, more than once, that I don't come from Hamburg, even though I look like a drug dealing pimp...

[BlasterBates]

I knew a lady who worked in my local pub ( sadly not "knew" in any interesting sense). One day she told me she was Dutch. I had no idea.

People always think Germans all speak English, but in my experience although they mostly speak some they're a long way the Dutch or the Danes or the Swedes who can almost pass for native speakers. I've been looking at jobs in Germany and the vast majority say "sehr gute Deutschkenntnisse" which I can't really claim. It seems one of the many things the British share with the Germans is not being very good at languages.

Dutch and also I think some of the Nordic languages are closer to English than German. When you live in Germany as your German improves you will graduate to sounding like a "Dutchman", eventually if you work it hard enough you can sound a bit like a German from the Frisian Islands.

[BrilloPad]

Was he referring to Eurovision?

[VectraMan]

Including the Dutch, ironically. When I was at school with a Dutch lad (mid 80's so this is not exactly current) the English teacher managed to prove that the Dutch kid was better educated in English grammar (thanks to the high level of English taught in the Netherlands) than we were.
His family didn't even bother speaking Dutch at home.

I knew a lady who worked in my local pub ( sadly not "knew" in any interesting sense). One day she told me she was Dutch. I had no idea.

People always think Germans all speak English, but in my experience although they mostly speak some they're a long way the Dutch or the Danes or the Swedes who can almost pass for native speakers. I've been looking at jobs in Germany and the vast majority say "sehr gute Deutschkenntnisse" which I can't really claim. It seems one of the many things the British share with the Germans is not being very good at languages.

[Mordac]

That was definitely the case when I worked in Switzerland. Germans refused to speak French, the French refused to speak German and no-one was prepared to learn Dutch.

Including the Dutch, ironically. When I was at school with a Dutch lad (mid 80's so this is not exactly current) the English teacher managed to prove that the Dutch kid was better educated in English grammar (thanks to the high level of English taught in the Netherlands) than we were.
His family didn't even bother speaking Dutch at home.

[MarillionFan]

Russian and Mandarin after the 13th May.

#Baba Vanga

Told you.

[The_Equalizer]

Simply staying in the EU would save all the mincing about.

So would have not joining in the first place.

[VectraMan]

Transitionary EEA would save a lot of mincing about before a FTA is agreed.

Hard brexit to WTO would save a lot of mincing about before at FTA is agreed.

Both put the ball in our side of the court.

Simply staying in the EU would save all the mincing about.