Eurotongue

[Mike Salovesh]

cbooth at ES.COM wrote:
>
> My apologies to the list for my last posting. I don't post very often, and
> apparently I had a bad address last time around. Or maybe my posting only
> came back to me garbled.
> This is from and article called "Eurotongue," by one Quentin Newark, a
> graphic designer, on the potential need for a common language for Europe. I
> find the six percent figure for "truly correct comprehension of the English
> language" rather surprising.
> "But we will need some common way to discuss and describe the things that we
> will soon share, including many of the artifacts for which designers are
> responsible: packaging, advertising, signage, TV graphics, and official
> documents.
> "The obvious language, one might think, is English; surely, most Europeans
> speak some English already? Not according to one survey (Van der Sandt,
> 1989), which found that only six percent of the total population had a
> 'truly correct comprehension of the English language [in Western Europe],'
> which 'falls noticeably beneath our most pessimistic expectations.'"
> The whole article is at:
> http://www.icograda.org/web/home/index.html
> Curtis

Interesting article, but it's built on an initial assumption that's
irrelevant.

I agree that the six percent figure sounds a little low.  In the context
of the cited article, it doesn't matter what percentage of Europe's
total population handle English well.  What matters is which people in
Europe already have to be pretty proficient in English as a secondary
language.

There probably aren't many small farmers in France or Germany, and
practically none in Poland or Hungary, who have much English.  They also
have little reason to learn: they're not called on to use it in their
daily life.

There are NO commercial pilots in Europe who can't handle English.
Fluency -- really comfortable fluency, at that --  is a job
requirement.  English is the language of airport control towers.

As a general rule, day-to-day activities that regularly involve contact
with those who speak other languages already demand the ability to
communicate across languages.  English is the most common default,
particularly when those who have to interact include native speakers of
more than one non-English language.  Within specific professions and
occupations, the more people are involved in international exchange, the
more likely it is that they do their business in English when their
local language doesn't serve.

Personally, I don't assume that I can make myself understood in other
countries by lowering the vocabulary count and raising the volume while
speaking English.
I certainly don't assume that it's the job of people who speak other
languages to learn English as an accomodation to me.  If and when
communication across languages is important to me, then it's my job to
learn whatever language is spoken among the people I want to work with.
The level of fluency I develop likewise depends on what my goals demand
of me.

A large and growing number of people in Europe find it useful to speak
English. They do.  An even larger number of people in Europe don't find
it useful, so they don't.  Those who don't find it useful to speak
English might well have no particular reason to learn other languages
beyond their own.

Quentin Newark, in the article cited above, suggests several
alternatives to English as a lingua franca in Europe.  He looks fondly
on Esperanto, and alleges that German is an active and viable lingua
franca in many parts of Europe.  What I think I see, however, is that
people who frequently need to  communicate with Europeans from a mixture
of language backgrounds frequently choose to speak English. It's more
likely to work than any other European language.  That tendency, not
anything like the imagined convenience of Esperanto Quentin Newark
mentions, will ultimately settle the question.

My bet is that some form of English is the most likely candidate for use
as the de facto standard language for international communication in
Europe. . .  at least for the next century or two.

-- mike salovesh                    <salovesh at niu.edu>
PEACE !!!