English as a world language: arguments for and against the use of English General information ~ 400 million people speak English as their mother tongue ~around 350 million to one billion people speak English as a second language Reasons: the countries where English is the official language are former British colonies. Negative aspects Positive, neutral aspects English as the English itself heavily global language of borrows words from business and other languages, e.g. science to bungalow, ketchup, more and more faux-pas, kindergarten, English words in etc. other languages. Many languages have Smaller languages become extinct long will become extinct. before English became the global language. English changes, there are many Englishes today, all correct in their own right. Different attitude in teaching English – being able to communicate is more important than grammatical correctness (as long as it’s still understood) Sometimes people from English-speaking countries (GB, US, CA, Australia) might NOT understand their international business partners. (But all native speakers understand one another, do they?) English words are English has become unnecessary in e.g. skill” if you want to “THE German because work in global business there are nice and or research, career suitable chances are better, equivalents in Internet, travel, fashion, German. Often music, food, English words are English is everywhere. being made up, You cannot do without e.g. public viewing, it. Handy, Beamer, Languages and cultures Fashion shooting, have always undergone Mobbing, Oldtimer,
English as a world language: arguments for and against the use of English General information ~ 400 million people speak English as their mother tongue ~around 350 million to one billion people speak English as a second language Reasons: the countries where English is the official language are former British colonies. Negative aspects Positive, neutral aspects English as the global language of business and science to more and more English words in other languages. English itself heavily borrows words from other languages, e.g. bungalow, ketchup, faux-pas, kindergarten, etc. Smaller languages will become extinct. Many languages have become extinct long before English became the global language. English changes, there are many Englishes today, all correct in their own right. Different attitude in teaching English – being able to communicate is more important than grammatical correctness (as long as it’s still understood) Sometimes people from English-speaking countries (GB, US, CA, Australia) might NOT understand their international business partners. (But all speakers understand one another, do they?) English words are unnecessary in e.g. German because there are nice and suitable equivalents in German. Often English words are being made up, e.g. public viewing, Handy, Beamer, Fashion shooting, Mobbing, Oldtimer, English has become “THE skill” if you want to work in global business or research, career chances are better, Internet, travel, fashion, music, food, English is everywhere. You cannot do without it. Languages and cultures have always undergone native
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