ENGLISH AS A GLOBAL LANGUAGE
Submitted by RUBI BERA
(Department of BBA, Batch : 2017-2020)
University Roll No. :15205017052
A global language, is a language spoken internationally, which is learned by many people as a second language, the most popular one being English. A wide range of the lexical units in the English language were taken from German, Latin, French and other European countries. A large portion of the word borrowing uses as main source the French language justifying English language affinity for foreign words as well as mixed vocabulary.The main reason that the languages exist is because of a strong power-base, political and military or economic.
Linguists argues whether the simplicity of the English language is the main reason of it becoming a global language. Generally, nothing is considered to be easy. It generally depends on who the learner is.English is a very effective language, that it is proved by the many native and non-native speakers all over the world. For example, Chinese has more native speakers, however it is a more complicated language in terms of grammar, verbs, meaning of the words, etc. However, some linguists have different points of view as to weather a language becoming global depends on the number of people speaking it . Furthermore, English can help one to express various meanings. That is happening because English language not only has a lot of words with different meanings but also has various different types of syntax which help the speakers to be more accurate and to give more emphasis to a particular point if it is needed. Another interesting point is that the writing of English language is simple. There are even languages that have hundreds of letters in their alphabets that could have a different meaning when pronounced differently, like Chinese. The Roman alphabet is considered to be very easy to learn and surely much easier than the Chinese writing system which is very difficult for most people. Moreover, the Roman alphabet in English language is very phonetic, rather than character based, hence it can help to describe the actual sounds of words or phrases.
On the other hand, there are some poor features of English language. For example there could be words written in one way and then read in another way and a lot of people may get confused, especially if one’s native language is not English. The difficulty in English is mostly apparent when we go in different areas in England; there are different ways of pronunciation, making it difficult for someone who speaks English as a second language to understand people from different areas such as Wales, Ireland, and Scotland. Also, non- native speakers like people from India and Pakistan have a different accent.
Since English language is so widely spoken, many people believe is vital to learn as a second language. A lot of people believe that English is the language of trade. It is true that English has been introduced in the field of Business for a lot of years. In addition, English is a language that is been used in films, music, television, and in a lot of more technological features like World Wide Web (internet). A big amount of population of the world watches Hollywood’s movies. This expansion also led to the increase in popularity of English language. Moreover, English has enabled a common communication means between people of different backgrounds. For example, a German may not need to learn Indian in order to communicate with someone from India if both individuals speak English. Hence, English has helped to diminish certain cultural barriers between nations. However, there are cultural differences between countries and nations. The history of a nation may influence to their willingness to learn or speak another language than their own.