English as the language of trade: my unconvincing opinion due to a lack of cited research and also (mostly) a thought-exercise
If you don't already know, the general acceptance of English as the language of trade is a concept which bothers me immensely. My greatest grievance is that those of us born into English speaking families grow up with an innate advantage over other people who have to work hard to learn English.
Okay, so some people have to learn a language. Why does that matter?* To me, it's more than just foreigners needing to learn English if they want to cultivate a successful international business career.** This is just an assumption, but I imagine most English-speaking families live in countries where the predominant language is English. Just by virtue of living in that country these people reap other benefits as well. Most of these countries have free public education, access to adequate medical care, and clean drinking water. I am not saying that these amenities are perfect and not flawed in any way (look at medical care costs in the US and the fact that Flint, Michigan still lacks adequate drinking water!), but I think it is fair to say that most people who live in predominately English-speaking countries such as the US, UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and so on enjoy a much higher standard of living than most of their counterparts.
So I thought, okay, it kinda sucks for those people who don't know English as their first language. What if the world were different? What if the language of trade wasn't English? And, realistically, in that case it would most likely be Mandarin Chinese or Arabic or Spanish or Hindi due to the sheer numbers of people who speak these languages.
But, my main issue is that most people who speak English are already somewhat 'well-off'. What if the language of trade were to be a minority group's language, especially a group which struggles economically?*** Let's say the Navajo. Perhaps they are a well-known group/tribe within the Native American community (and maybe rather well-off?), but in general I think they are not considered powerful players on the global scene.
So, what if Navajo was considered the language of trade? Perhaps Navajo culture would flourish, their economy would be stimulated, and other countries/political entities would bow down to their prowess. The Navajo could rise in status and economic standing, but there are many other minority groups out there, so what about all of those? We're kind of back to square one as far as 'those who know the language of trade are inherently well-off compared to other counterparts'. But another item which is important to remember is that while English is widely regarded as the language trade, this is not an official declaration.**** There is no 'international trade police' looking out for and banning trade conducted in different languages. So realistically, even if some super high power declared that Navajo is now the official language of trade and it's "off with your head!" if you aren't conducting trade in Navajo, unless there was a HUGE international organization behind this monitoring everything*****, I doubt everyone would be rushing out to buy price-inflated Navajo text books. People would still have their knowledge of English as well as other languages, and so why would they go out and learn Navajo for the sole purpose of trade when both parties can already speak English?
Then I thought, okay, clearly it doesn't help everyone in the world to choose a language which already exists to be the language of trade. In that case, we create a language of trade which everyone has to learn! Right? Absolutely not. The previous assertion of 'there is no international trade police to monitor transactions' still applies, but what if there was such a powerful organization?***** If it is that advantageous to know this trade language, and you are lucky enough to learn it, wouldn't you want your children to have that knowledge so they reap the benefits of it? Perhaps if there was effective policing of this as well, the idea as a whole would be feasible. Additionally, there would have to be someone or multiple someones in charge of creating that language, and it would be interesting to see what kinds of qualities the language ends up with. I imagine the learned languages of said person[s] would most likely be taken into consideration unless that bias is somehow controlled, but this may be kind of ingrained in the way we consider language.
I guess that makes the TL:DR of this writing thing "I don't like that English is considered the language of trade because it benefits those who otherwise have a lot of benefits already, but it can't be any other way unless all people who know how to speak English were to suddenly die out. And then in that case the language of trade would become a language which already exists and a lot of people already speak. So why am I even complaining about this in the first place? Just...give up."
* and I'm not even getting into the difficulty of learning English as a foreign speaker!
** it doesn't even need to be an international business career - the general assumption I perceive from foreigners is that 'knowing English leads you to where the money is'.
*** not to mention you would need a way to define/measure what counts as 'struggling economically' or 'how many speakers makes a language common versus uncommon'
**** as far as I know. Please let me know if it is!
*****hm...sound like anyone you know?
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