Once, I remember reading about how the EU was considering uniting into one "super power" in order to rival the United States, among other reasons.
But wouldn't you think that was unwise if you were Europe? I certainly would! Everyone would have to learn so many languages in school. It would just be so dysfunctional. Imagine each of our 50 states speaking a different language, while 65% of them have their own internal conflicts to deal with. That's how bad it would be.
"The more langauges we know, the more concepts we can entertain."
That's a really interesting way of phrasing it. When I read that the first example I thought of is how in the English language there is only one word for love which is used in so many different context whereas other languages use different words for the same basic umbrella term, for example, eskimos use many words for the word snow. I definately agree being bi or tri lingual is important but I was never any good at languages so I too only know English.
Don't get me wrong. French is one of my favorite classes. And I plan on taking Japanese or Italian in college (or maybe even a Balkan language, which I think would be very interesting) and study abroad at one point.
But the reason I never really allowed myself to think too much into the language issue and why it's importent is because in my school, no one really cares about that class very much. Things like art, music, language, anything of that sort are completely shrugged off by 90% of the school population. It's sad, but it's true.
And even though I know people in Europe most likely have a tendency to work harder, if they lived in a country made up of the EU where they had to learn all of its languages, they wouldn't just have to learn French and English and Spanish. If they really wanted to live a functional life, they'd have to learn Estonian, Polish, Italian, Romanian, Serbo-Croat, Macedonian, Greek, Turkish, among other languages.
Unless everyone learned English or French, or something like that, and when they went to a foreign state they could communicate in the common tongue rather than in their own language. But if the EU suddenly becomes a single nation and there are teenagers not learning these things in school and they need to begin, it would be impossible to have them speaking enough English fluintly within four or five years in order to communicate successfully if you were moving across one of the borders. Teenagers and adults can't learn a language very easily because they're so used to speaking in and being around their original language. The only way to make the communication completely smooth and untroubled would be to have translaters for every political leader and party member (people like that) and put all teenagers and adults in full-immersion language programs. This would be too much of an inconvenience and difficulty, I think.
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Date: 2004-04-24 11:21 pm (UTC)But wouldn't you think that was unwise if you were Europe? I certainly would! Everyone would have to learn so many languages in school. It would just be so dysfunctional. Imagine each of our 50 states speaking a different language, while 65% of them have their own internal conflicts to deal with. That's how bad it would be.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-24 11:47 pm (UTC)The human brain is made to imprint language. The more langauges we know, the more concepts we can entertain.
It's a shame that, in the wake of No Child Left Behind, many schools are chopping off their arts and language courses.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-25 12:26 am (UTC)That's a really interesting way of phrasing it. When I read that the first example I thought of is how in the English language there is only one word for love which is used in so many different context whereas other languages use different words for the same basic umbrella term, for example, eskimos use many words for the word snow. I definately agree being bi or tri lingual is important but I was never any good at languages so I too only know English.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-25 07:53 am (UTC)But the reason I never really allowed myself to think too much into the language issue and why it's importent is because in my school, no one really cares about that class very much. Things like art, music, language, anything of that sort are completely shrugged off by 90% of the school population. It's sad, but it's true.
And even though I know people in Europe most likely have a tendency to work harder, if they lived in a country made up of the EU where they had to learn all of its languages, they wouldn't just have to learn French and English and Spanish. If they really wanted to live a functional life, they'd have to learn Estonian, Polish, Italian, Romanian, Serbo-Croat, Macedonian, Greek, Turkish, among other languages.
Unless everyone learned English or French, or something like that, and when they went to a foreign state they could communicate in the common tongue rather than in their own language. But if the EU suddenly becomes a single nation and there are teenagers not learning these things in school and they need to begin, it would be impossible to have them speaking enough English fluintly within four or five years in order to communicate successfully if you were moving across one of the borders. Teenagers and adults can't learn a language very easily because they're so used to speaking in and being around their original language. The only way to make the communication completely smooth and untroubled would be to have translaters for every political leader and party member (people like that) and put all teenagers and adults in full-immersion language programs. This would be too much of an inconvenience and difficulty, I think.