Stephen van Vlack
Sookmyung Women`s University
Division of English Language and Literature
English for International Communication
Spring 2007
Week 2 - Crystal (2003) Chapter 1
Answers
1. What is a global language?
Trying to decide what a global language might be is really something that is hard to get a grip on. Despite the fact that we are constantly hearing about what a global village we live in and how interconnected we all are we still don`t have a clear fix on what is actually going on in many places in the world. Also, how do we measure language use or global language use for that matter? A scientific inquiry into the matter may lead to more questions than answers at this point. We, therefore, need to come up with a simple definition.
A global language is simply one that people worldwide generally acknowledge as being a global language. This may seem like a very circular definition, impossible to verify and really prove. It opens up at least one important question: Does believing something is true make it so? Well, yes. It does not make it correct or factual (in a neutral sense) but it does make it true. Truth is subjective.
Another way we can try to define a global language is by relying on two factors, recognition and emotional response. A global language needs to be recognizable globally and (here`s the clincher) should evoke fairly strong emotional responses. Any language that evokes emotional responses on a global scale is a global language, because that is what global languages do. English on the planet Earth in the 21st century does that. Very few people on the Earth today are immune to the effects of English. We are all confronted by the reality of English as playing some sort of role in our own personal reality. In this kind of situation there is a certain sense of powerlessness and anguish because, as we all well know, learning a foreign language well is a difficult task. At the same time we try to like this language because it bing s a wealth of opportunities with it. Because of all these different effects a global language never fails to create strong emotions in people all over the world. Everyone has an opinion about English.
2. What are some languages which have been global languages or close to global languages in the past?
Before English became a global language (or global lingua franca) there have been many other languages, during different periods of history and geographical regions, which are played a role as a lingua franca or semi-global language. Below is a list of some of these languages in no particular order.
French
Russian
Latin
Sanskrit
Chinese
Greek
Spanish
Portuguese
Swahili
Arabic
Mongolian
These languages extended their sphere of influence based on their power over a particular region and each of them experienced a wane in power prior to reaching global status. Much of this was due to the time in which they expanded their power. No language can become global without technological support. All of these languages made remarkable strides across the globe but never were able to affect the world in a profound way because the world was not yet indelibly linked like it is today. Any of the above-listed languages could have become a global language had they had their time of power in a different time, this time. A global lingua franca is only possible where there is technology which brings or, in fact, forces contact and competition between different local groups and peoples.
3. Crystal (2003) claims that the statement of 'English is the global language' has been widely accepted in recent years. What are the necessary conditions for a global language?
There are many different factors which may contribute to the development of a global language, but there is no one factor. For a language to become important and especially global many of these potential factors must be present. Some of these factors are shown below.
Fairly large number of speakers
Geographical spread
Economic power
Cultural power
Political power
Military power
Technological power
Looking at the brief list shown above the first striking realization is that most of the factors contributing to a language being adopted as a world language revolve around power. Power is certainly the most important factor, but power alone does not allow a language to go global. This power must be on a global scale and that requires both numbers and geographical spread. Looking at this list we might also think that a language becoming global is merely a matter of force but this is not true.
Looking a the development of English as a global language, the only one to date, we will see as we discus this in the coming weeks that there were several stages in this long process. The first stage in the process does require military power because such power is necessary for expansion and from this expansion other things follow, like political power (size equals power) and economic power (bigger means larger markets and access to more goods). From economic power other types of power like cultural and technological power can be developed and it is here were things begin to change.
The reality of a global language is that there will always be many more non-native speakers of a global language than native speakers. At some point the native speakers can`t simply force everyone in the world to learn their language (no one is THAT powerful). Language is one thing that really con`t be forced on people. They need to accept it. So, after all the military power and sometimes even despite great military power has hit its peak people around the world need to want to learn that language. It is a conscious decision made by local communities, governments, and individuals. A language must have a lot to offer in order to become a global language, not in the eyes of its native speakers but in the eyes of the entire world. As far as the case of English goes, and it will be so for all future global languages, it was all a matter of historical chance
4. What are the advantages and of taking a single global language worldwide?
The advantages of taking one language to use as a global lingua franca are all centered around efficiency.
As mentioned above this efficiency is required in a world were people of diverse linguistic backgrounds actually do need to contact each other on a fairly large scale on a daily basis. All this contact, ushered in by a massive explosion in world population over the last 200 years, requires advanced technology to solve a multitude of problems created by having too many people with limited resources. From this view point we can think of the development of a global language as a type of advanced technology. Like any other technology it requires technology to support it and also develops spin off technologies. Having one more or less accepted global lingua franca allows people all of the world to communicate efficiently with each other with a minimum of stress. Considering there are roughly eight thousand languages in the world, realistically how many do you think you could or would need to learn were there no global lingua franca? You would never be able to learn enough. And even if you could all this translating back and forth would cost you an immense amount of time and money. In a global world a global language is necessary.
5. What are the disadvantages and of taking a single global language worldwide?
The main disadvantage of taking one language to function as a global lingua franca is that the speakers of all other languages ae usually thought to be at a disadvantage. From the Korean perspective we can see how annoying it might be to have to spend years learning something that others simply just have. It is certainly not fair and as bad as this might seem it is the least disagreeable disadvantage. For speakers of minority languages living on the brink of disaster the introduction of a global will certainly be the nail in their coffin. English is a language which kills other languages. The direct influence of English and English speakers has killed several hundred languages in the Americas and Australia and will certainly kill as many more. A global causes languages and cultures on the brink to slip right over the edge.
6. If we choose English as an official language in Korea, will the Korean language and culture die out gradually? Why? or Why not?
English will not kill Korean language and culture, but it certainly will change it as it already has. Let`s not be over dramatic. All cultures change over time and quite often due to outside influences and pressures. In the past, though, these outside pressures came from neighbouring societies, who were perhaps more similar, and over longer periods of time. Now with advancement sin technology internal social change can occur due to outside pressure from a source on the other side of the world with very little real direct contact between peoples and very fast as well. That is the power of technology.