Subject: Re: [lojban] decline of the english language

From: "Jorge Llambias" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 20 May 2001 16:32:20

la lojbab cusku di'e

>But on the Internet, the percentage of postings not in English is
>rising steadily.

But that is unrelated to any decline of the English language,
it only means that English speakers got there first and now others
are catching up. The percentage of English on the Internet still
exceeds by far the percentage of English speakers in the world,
so it is only to be expected that the percentage of postings not
in English should keep rising even as the percentage of people who
can speak or understand some English also rises.

I don't see any decline of English as the international language
either. A little anecdote: I was dining in a restaurant the other
day and there was a couple sitting at a nearby table. When the
waiter heard them speak with a "strange" accent he asked them
(in English!) "where are you from?", and he was very embarrased
when they said they were from Colombia. Not that this proves
anything, but I thought it was funny.

>Meanwhile in Japan, while every kid
>supposedly is taught English for several years, few actually reach any
>level of skill in the language.

As opposed to some time in the past when they did? Otherwise I don't
see where the decline is.

>(the trend away from requiring foreign
>languages in US schools also seems to be reversing in the last decade, but
>not in favor of German or Russian which are being studied less than when I
>attended school in the 60s).

I read an article in the New York Times recently about how the US is
becoming bilingual. It sounded mostly like journalistic crap to me,
but even if Spanish does gain ground in the US that doesn't diminish
the role of English as the international language of the world today.

co'o mi'e xorxes

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