English vs. [none] as World/Global Language

[Grant Barrett]

On dimanche 1 octobre 2000 15:31, Douglas G. Wilson
<douglas at NB.NET> wrote:

>The Swedish gay doctors might have been well advised to make a
bilingual
>banner for politeness' sake, but they want to speak to the
world, so they
>use English. Maybe they'll appear on CNN worldwide!

The question, of course, is: Is English a "world" language
because of cultural and commercial imperialism, because of
international business and scientific and academic necessity, because of
inherent factors that make it easy to learn, or all three?

>From my amateur's viewpoint, I've always assumed in regard to
option number three above that English when spoken aloud is a very
forgiving language. I'd like to get an average Scotsman, an
anglophone East Indian and an anglophone West Indian in the same room
together and see how they get on language-wise. I bet it'd work.

Then we'd get them drunk and see how they get on after *that*.