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> You might as well demand everybody on Earth speak English. That's working out quite well so far.
by lucian1900 12y ago
> You might as well demand everybody on Earth speak English.
That's working out quite well so far.
- lutusp 12y ago>> You might as well demand everybody on Earth speak English. > That's working out quite well so far. Not really. English is a minority language, spoken as a primary language by only about 5.5% of the world's population. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_... One more juicy anecdote: there are more Chinese people learning English right now, than there are English speakers in the U.S..
- jessaustin 12y agoYour postscript seems to confirm GP's point. b^)
- dllthomas 12y agoI don't know that that's a sign of it working well...
- lutusp 12y agoNot if the students' plan is only to remain competitive with native English speakers. Knowing how to speak English as a second language, for pragmatic reasons, isn't the same as being an English-speaker in the sense of the parent post.
- Dylan16807 12y agoWhy does the reason matter? It's the ability to speak it that matters. You don't need to be an expert on the language used in your package management. 'second language' is a rather apt analogy.
- lutusp 12y ago> Why does the reason matter? It's the ability to speak it that matters. Yes, I basically agree. I think there's a difference between a native speaker and someone who can order food in a French restaurant -- I mean, without getting snails when what he really wanted was escargot. But I agree, it's not a very important distinction.
- philh 12y agoWhy are you considering native speakers to be the relevant statistic here, rather than total speakers?
- lucian1900 12y agoSecondary language is good enough. As long as I am likely to be able to communicate with a random person on Earth, I'd say the goal is achieved.