Psst, buddy, wanna save a buck? Stop speaking English

[Joseph Errington]

At 05:20 PM 7/23/2007, you wrote:
>There's a new post on the <www.uiuc.htm>Web of Language:
>
>
>Psst, buddy, wanna save a buck?  Stop speaking English --
>
>English is fast becoming the national language 
>of Europe, but not everyone approves.  A German 
>scientist wants to restore German at least as 
>the language of science in Europe, and a Swiss 
>linguist claims that dropping English for 
>Esperanto could save Europe an easy $34 billion a year.Â
>
>Five hundred years ago Europe shook off the yoke 
>of Latin, and vernacular languages 
>thrived.  But now, laments the German 
>biophysicist Stefan Klein, English is the new 
>Latin, poised to take over not just Europe but 
>the world (“Dumber in English,” July 12, 
>2007, signandsound.com).  According to Klein, 
>the goal of science is to improve the world and, 
>forgetting Germany’s fatal attempt to improve 
>it through eugenics, he would like to make the 
>world a better place by requiring German science 
>students to take their exams in German and 
>“encouraging” German scientists to use their 
>native language if they want to their grants renewed.
Â
>Â
>The Swiss linguist François Grin has an even 
>grander scheme to get the European Community off 
>the English-only bandwagon.  Grin is well aware 
>that talk is not cheap, that Europe, with 23 
>official languages, spends a large chunk of its 
>budget on expensive and wasteful 
>translation.  But the expanding role of English 
>means that Europe is pouring over 17 billion 
>euros a year into British coffers for such 
>things as translation services and  English 
>lessons, and Grin sees no reason for the British 
>to get rich this way (L'enseignement des langues 
>étrangères comme politique publique, 2005, 
>cisad.adc.education.fr/hcee/documents/rapport_Grin.pdf). Â
>
>...
>
>want to know more? read the rest of the post on
>
><www.uiuc.htm>the Web of Language
>
>www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage
>
>
>
>Dennis Baron
>
>Professor of English and Linguistics
>
>Department of English                   Â
>
>University of IllinoisÂ
>
>608 S. Wright St.
>
>Urbana, IL 
>61801Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â
>
>
>office: 217-244-0568
>
>fax: 217-333-4321
>
>
><http://www.uiuc.edu/goto/debaron>www.uiuc.edu/goto/debaron
>
>read the Web of Language:
><http://www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage>www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage
>
>
>
I will be reading email irregularly over the next 
week, and so may not be able to reply
promptly.

In case of pressing matters related to the 
graduate program in anthropology, please
contact karen.phillips at yale.edu.

Thanks for your patience.

Joe Errington  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lgpolicy-list/attachments/20070806/2615d2b4/attachment.htm>