We in the english world are so privileged

[Brian Ashton]

Here I am sitting in a cafe overlooking the Danube in a small town north of Budapest… We're surrounded by Serbs, Hungarians and a nice fellow from Uzbekistan… We're all hold outs from the lunch rush, drinking honey palinka and slowing getting to know each other… When I lived in Australia, I had a house near the university and would take in students from all over the world, China, Germany, Greece, Japan, Korea, Somalia… And the only thing we all had in common, besides being human, was english… The fellow from Uzbekistan couldn't speak a word of Hungarian. The hungarian he has been collaborating with for years on a business project couldn't speak either russian or what ever the Uzbekistan's native tongue was… So again their common language was english. My wife and I used to sit around the dining room table in house house in Australia doing puzzles with the various students and our only thing in common was english…

We are so fortunate in the english speaking world, or probably should be grateful for the power exerted by the economic might of the US (And I mean that in a very nice way), that the single most learned language in the world is english. But it's a double edged sword, because I meet so many people from all sorts of origins that have 3, 4, 5!, and 6! languages… And I only have one, and a few words of gibberish at that. I should be so proud that I can say cya later in 10 different languages, whoopty friggin doo!

I love being the fly on the wall where people are meeting together. To watch the dynamics taking place as people feel each outer out and the only way to communicate is with hand gestures and english - it's absolutely fascinating to watch. If nothing else it motivates me to be not so ignorant and learn other languages.

[Grant Wilkinson]

You certainly have the right attitude towards learning other languages, Brian. That's a huge part of being successful. I was lucky to have been given French language total immersion training in the mid 70's. I went into it eager to learn, and did so. I regret only having two languages, but there is still time.

[Chuck Wintle]

I recently visited prague and in that city it was difficult to find someone unable to speak or understand some english. As an english speaker myself i found this to be incredible. And the same for Berlin Germany, english is widely spoken although americans have been in germany since the last war. In the Czech republic I always tried to start the conversation in Czech with a few words of hello or information please. But they quickly switched to english for my sake. In germany it was English only everywhere.

[Eduard Nemirovsky]

It is always nice to find a common language to communicate, unfortunately prevalence of English's speaking is a history. It is more people on Earth speak Mandarine ( at least twice over English) and this language is more difficult to learn.
Ed.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

In our wanderings last spring, we were at a hosted dinner at a Mauri cultural center in Rotorua, NZ. There were a little over 100 people at the dinner. The host welcomed people and then carried on minor conversation in 33 different languages. We were amazed!

[Wade Lippman]

We are so fortunate in the english speaking world, or probably should be grateful for the power exerted by the economic might of the US (And I mean that in a very nice way), that the single most learned language in the world is english.

Nonsense! We are gifting the world with a common language. Bizarrely they often resist, but we continue to be generous.

[Frederick Skelly]

Nonsense! We are gifting the world with a common language. Bizarrely they often resist, but we continue to be generous.

Wait a 100 years and that common economic language may be Mandarin!

[Pat Barry]

Nonsense! We are gifting the world with a common language. Bizarrely they often resist, but we continue to be generous.

Now if the rest of the world would just learn from our language and covert to our units of measure the world would be a very nice place.

[Wade Lippman]

Wait a 100 years and that common economic language may be Mandarin!

40% of Chinese don't speak Mandarin.
All the Chinese learning English.
Almost no one is learning Chinese.
Already many companies in non-English speaking countries are adopting English as their company language, rather than the indigenous language.

Forget about 100 years; in 20 years all commerce, science, finance, and engineering will be in English.

It would be nice if we could show equal wisdom and go metric. But that's not going to happen.

[Rick Potter]

Sometimes we forget that, not too long ago, the sun never set on the British Empire. The rest of the world got a pretty good head start speaking English, well before the US became very involved in world affairs.

[Brian Tymchak]

40% of Chinese don't speak Mandarin.
All the Chinese learning English.
Almost no one is learning Chinese.
Already many companies in non-English speaking countries are adopting English as their company language, rather than the indigenous language.

Forget about 100 years; in 20 years all commerce, science, finance, and engineering will be in English.

It would be nice if we could show equal wisdom and go metric. But that's not going to happen.

That's interesting. One of the goals of the local school system is to expand Mandarin classes because there is demand for it.

[Rod Sheridan]

Now if the rest of the world would just learn from our language and covert to our units of measure the world would be a very nice place.

LOL....................Now that was funny...........Rod.

[Wade Lippman]

That's interesting. One of the goals of the local school system is to expand Mandarin classes because there is demand for it.

Sure. It is now as important as French or German, so it is taught in HS. Which is say, not very. When it is required for college graduation in the US, as English is all over the world, it will be evidence it is important.

[Chuck Wintle]

Now if the rest of the world would just learn from our language and covert to our units of measure the world would be a very nice place.

I grew up with feet, inches, gallons and miles. Then our leader in the 1970's Mr. Pierre Elliot Trudeau thought its a good idea to use the metric system so it became meters, liters, centigrade and kilograms. For woodworking I still use feet and inches because it makes more sense. For temperature, now it only makes sense for me to use the Celsius scale for mass kilograms. I guess its just what one is used to.

[Lee Schierer]

I speak two languages, with my fluency in the second declining rapidly from lack pf use. Whenever I have traveled t any foreign country I have always made and effort to learn a few phrases, like " Good Morning, Good afternoon, Good Evening, Thank You, excuse me, how to ask for my key at the desk, pay my bill etc." It has offered many opportunities and never has caused a problem except that they sometimes think you know more of their language than you do and start talking rapidly.

The "ugly American" image is widespread and we as individuals should do our best to show what we are really like as a people at every opportunity when we encounter foreigners at home or abroad.