"Yes, we want" -- who owns global English?

[Dennis Baron]

There's a new post on the Web of Language:

"Yes, we want" -- who owns global English?

A 1.8-million euro advertising campaign for Spain’s new Spanish- 
English public schools is being ridiculed for its slogan “Yes, we  
want,” which critics are calling bad English.

English is what the chanters of “Yes, we want,” want to learn, because  
English is the new global language. The ads, which evoke Barack  
Obama’s “Yes we can,” have appeared on Spanish television, radio,  
billboards, and buses, prompting complaints that the Education  
Ministry should be promoting its 231 bilingual public schools in  
correct English if it wants pupils to enroll in them.

read the rest of this post on the Web of Language: http://bit.ly/weblan

____________________
Dennis Baron
Professor of English and Linguistics
Department of English
University of Illinois
608 S. Wright St.
Urbana, IL 61801

office: 217-244-0568
fax: 217-333-4321

http://www.illinois.edu/goto/debaron

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