Should English Be the Worlds International Language?
Essay by roopkaur1 • April 8, 2018 • Essay • 1,948 Words (8 Pages) • 1,000 Views
Should English be the World’s International Language?
The ability to read and write this essay demonstrates one importance of understanding the English language. The benefits spread further when we surf the internet and access websites such as YouTube, Reddit and many other highly visited sites that commonly have English-based content. If English were made the global language, people all over the world would be able to understand each other much more clearly, and information would be exchanged at a faster and smoother pace. Organizations would be able to create multinational corporations without the worry of being able to communicate with workforce employed from the local communities. Schools and institutions will have much ease communicating and teaching students from different nationalities if English will be a global language. Human beings have much comfort interacting and understanding each other if they have a similar mode of communication. Furthermore, compared to different languages English is already a commonly spoken tongue than any other. English should become a global language due to its ease to learn including the number of available English materials; it will facilitate businesses, scientific and educational research, communication in the traveling industry.
English is easy to learn and understand due to the number of available English content and the availability of reading and learning materials and the ease of access to them. Majority of countries use English as their native tongue or as their second language. The possibility of finding a well-trained English instructor is easier compared to a Chinese, or Indian teacher. Students that want to increase their English knowledge will be in luck as they will have teaching availability that would ensure proper dissemination of the education. Furthermore, English teachers being available also reduces the cost that one would require the compensation. When there is a high availability of a service, the price has to be lower so that people offering their work can get the opportunity for a job. However, a Chinese or Urdu instructor would require a much higher expense and amount of compensation since they know that finding another individual to do the job would be difficult. Not only that but in some cases, one would require getting the teacher from the native country due to their higher level of experience and knowledge of the language. 1.5 billion people across the globe speak the language (Statista 2017) making it the most spoken language across the world. It demonstrates the ease of how people can find another English speaker compared to other languages. In different countries across the world, English as a Foreign Language teacher has continued to be on the increase. In Australia, the number has increased by 45.3% in a time frame of five years (Open Universities Australia 2017). Hence, the importance of teacher availability makes learning easily available which makes English the most appropriate language to be international. Another example demonstrating the availability of content is the number of books, films and media in English. Different types of music are released throughout the world in a variety of languages respective to the countries. However, a lot more content is released in English which has provided a wider number of exposure for the music. More people can understand an English song compared to one in Spanish or French. The language has permeated the music even in non-native Anglo-speaking countries demonstrating how global the language has become. A lot of famous books are originally authored in the English language, e.g., Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, How to Kill a Mocking Bird, which has entertained readers all across the world. If English were to be made the default method of speaking, talented writers from different locations on the globe would have the ability to pen books that can become renowned, making them have successful careers. More people will also gain the ability to learn English to be able to enjoy books that they have never been able to enjoy before. In the film industry, America has been known to be the biggest blockbuster releaser than any other nation in the world. A significant amount of the success has also come from the fact that it has a huge number of audiences who can watch the movies due to the ease of understanding them. There are so many engaging movies in Spanish, French and Japanese but their exposure has been limited because they are of a different language. If English were made global, a lot of the films would consider using it which would increase their exposure. The higher availability and potential of exposure for media makes English a significant advantage if made global.
Furthermore, business organizations, science, medical and education institutions will have a more efficient experience by globalizing English as the default language. Businesses and corporations depend on communication for their level of success. It ensures that efficient transaction occurs between them and the customer which expands their business. Due to this, candidates for job positions with the best knowledge fluency in English tend to be the most considered. Numerous talented employees cannot be able to gain work opportunities due to lack of enough of exposure of the tongue. Globalizing speaking of English will help organization recruit skilled individuals in other countries as they will have an added opportunity to learn the language. Multinational corporations also flourish in areas where they have an understanding with locals. Language barrier tends to be problematic in these cases because English has not yet deeply permeated within the regions. For organizations to be able to work around these they might require to train several employees in the local dialect or look for translators which are an added expense to companies. When employees can be able to communicate easily with those of a different nationality, they can be able to work efficiently as a team. It has been stated that one of the major problems facing multinational teams is the issue of varying dialects (Schweiger et al. 2003). In one case, a Spanish manager had received data from the headquarters but was in a different language and he chose to ignore it (Marschan et al. 1997) demonstrating how language barrier is a huge issue. Globalization of English will give a uniform means of communication for organizations which increases its importance for being made international. Another sector which it will improve will be the science sector and the medical faculty. Research has been a key determiner of the improvement the world has witnessed for the last several centuries. Scientific analysis has been able to uncover a lot of information through qualitative and quantitative research. Communication with participants and native places have also been able to help a lot of significant history about places to be uncovered, However, lack of a similar language of communication has obstructed a lot of information from being gathered especially in areas where English has not been considered of importance. Also, a lot of medical journals and reports are all written in English which makes it a significant part of the scientific community. It only emphasizes the importance of the language being made international, so that different scientific communities can work together in exchanging of information and rural communities to be exposed to the language over time, further facilitating the work of research. In the medical field, a doctor can get a non-English speaking nation and face an issue of health emergency. To assist the patient he will be required to ask several questions to provide medical assistance. However, the ailing individual will face a lot of difficulty being treated if they do not have a common means of communicating with each other. The individual might end losing his life at the cost of a medical error that would have been fixated if the doctor knew the patient had a medical allergy or any other problem that required communication. Schools and educational institutions with large reputations have always taken knowledge of English as a key requirement for a professor or a lecturer to be part of the teaching faculty. It is because they understand that people of different ethnicities and nationalities make part of their student body. English has so far demonstrated to be the most versatile language in such cases. However, a student can have learned in a school that majored on the local dialect giving them trouble when traveling abroad to international schools. They will face a lot of difficulties keeping along with the studies as they will not understand a lot of concepts with the teachers. Having English as the international language, will make local schools make it a necessary part of their syllabus due to the administration's understanding of its significance.
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