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I wonder where the OP got their information from. The EC site doesn’t provide any information that English will be “the” official language. On the contrary, they have 23 official languages.
Did you actually read the post? It was a joke. Actually, it's been going around the internet for quite some time, but not always in the context of the EU's official language.
Did you actually read the post? It was a joke. Actually, it's been going around the internet for quite some time, but not always in the context of the EU's official language.
Yes I read the post and saw what they did. I assumed it was based on an actual story or report. Especially since most of the discussion was serious on the topic, if not the joke.
English is certainly one of the most concise languages... something that German certainly is not. However French is also a very concise language.
English is concise because it has borrowed words from the French, giving it, one of the largest vocabularies of any language.
German is extremely concise because they have a lot of words that are extremely specific. Example:
For example “Auto” (car) “Ersatz” (“Replacement”) plus “Teile” (Parts) can be combined to the word Autoersatzteile (which means “car spare parts”).
In English, we have some of those words, but the Germans take it to an extreme.
There is nothing "concise" about Latinate languages. As a speaker of one (Italian), I find things a lot more abstract. For instance, while there are words for cars, the preferred usage is "machine".
However, the vast majority of Germans I met while living there spoke English. In fact, everywhere I travelled in Europe, people spoke English.
For that, I'm truly sorry. Because if you only met English speaking people in Europe, then you never really got to see the real Europe and you really missed out in a life changing experience. I only found majority English speakers in places with HEAVY tourism. That wasn't the case in small towns in the countryside, where you speak to people using gestures, pointing, a dictionary and a lot of patience. And then, they invite you to dinner in their homes.... What an exhilarating experience!
The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".
In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.
In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.
By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" wiz "z" and "w" viz "v".
During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords containing "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl.
Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.
Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.
Baystater, Japan is not alone in teaching ESL. Almost all Asian countries have private companies who teach English as a Second Language. There are many reasons, one of them is tourism. English is the language of tourism for the most part (some countries do not use English). They want our $$.
Most people who teach ESL end up learning the language and, hopefully, the culture of their host country.
I still believe that if Hollywood movies and American music (past & present) never had been as successful as they were, English would not be as popular as it is now. If Bollywood would become the new Hollywood, would more people then learn Hindi?
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If Bollywood would become the new Hollywood, would more people then learn Hindi?
