The Language is English


by Jane Merrow - Date: 2007-02-01 - Word Count: 362 Share This!

The language is English and the French are upset.

In October of this year a winning logo to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Treaty Of Rome (The Birth of the European Union) was designed by a Polish artist and appears officially in English and the French are upset because the official version appears in English. You can get all the other EU of the logo also.

The French and the English have been squabbling for centuries (a polite euphemism for fighting each other) ever since William the Conqueror came from France and helped himself to England and subsequently the English went back and took large parts of France. Now Mme Royal the Socialist contender for leadership of France says that the UK must choose between the EU and the US to ally itself with. Since the US rescued us both in World War 2, this does all seem very silly and regrettable.

We have some really serious and tragic issues that we all must deal with on a global basis and countries with basically the same educational background and values simply cannot go on bickering between themselves. We should address those issues as citizens of the World and look after each other.

In the language jobs market, it would be easier if we all spoke one language. Once someone said we should all speak a common language and so Esperanto was born. "Esperanto is most useful for neutral communication. That means that communication through Esperanto does not give advantages to the members of any particular people or culture, but provides an ethos of equality of rights, tolerance and true internationalism", how true and sensible. However Esperanto was never really a success as a language to be used on a day to day basis and we carry on with those languages that appear to serve us best and are the most commonly used.

Language is about so many things, education, culture, history, it is not just about words, it is about all these other attributes and if we all could only respect that and each others' differences, we would be much happier and able to deal with those concerns on our planet that really need addressing.

2006 http://www.languagejobs4u.com


Related Tags: uk, french, us, english, eu

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