English is taking over the world

Mohsen Amerion (M.Phil)

Sweden

There are some reasons that determine the importance of a language. First of all is the population that the language is spoken by. Second the number of the countries that use that particular language as their official language. Third is the simplicity of the language that can be learnt and understood by non natives as easy as possible. Although these are the obvious causes that make a language important, but of course there are other facts that are behind the scene that should be depicted, like political and economical concerns, international relations etc.

English is one of the most prestigious languages that carry these special characteristics with it and nowadays we can find out that English is taking over the world. The most powerful countries which are governing the world in some senses, are English spoken themselves. Referring to ancient eras in history for example in fourteen century back when Arabs used to invade other countries and expand their territory, Arabic was one of the most influenced languages in the counties that were colonized by Arabs. Even in some parts of Europe like Spain, Macedonia and Turkey Arabic was the official language taught in universities and most of philosophers and scientists used to write and publish their books and articles in Arabic. Even some countries like Egypt forgot their own language as Arabic was penetrated strongly in their region and of course some other countries like Persia (Iran) could save their language, as well as, their culture from the invasion of Arabs, however their religion has been converted to Islam.

Today England and USA are two most powerful and developed countries, where the English language is their official and native language and they either officially or unofficially annex many countries in different parts of the world. So they can publicize their language in those condominiums forcefully as Great Britain did in Indian sub-continent.

The most prestigious and high ranked universities and research institutes are located in developed countries and the medium in such educational and training centers is English. The lectures are conducted, also the projects are defined, planned and implemented in this language, so that the state-of-the-art innovations are produced and presented in English and of course the media which are used for introduction of these new ideas such as famous magazines with high impact factors and some websites for example IEEE and Science Direct are in English as well.  

To achieve the knowledge of the utilization of such technologies and get adapted with modern society, English proficiency is an important factor for private as well as public sectors in all countries. Hence, when these technologies are imported into non English spoken countries, the culture of using such technologies which the language is a part of that culture penetrates automatically in those societies.

Most of the countries tend to join WTO in order to bloom their economy and make it as stable and growing as possible. The communication tool for the governments for dealing with each other and establishing solid relations is English. In order to consolidate with different multinational firms and to earn the benefits of signing international commitments, having representatives who have the perfect knowledge and fair understanding of English for each and every organization is a must. That is one reason, which encourages non English spoken nations to go through this language as there won’t be such an agreement which is signed in a language other than English.

Entertainments such as movie, music and especially video games are other factors that spread English language and culture across the globe.

The new generation almost in all societies spend their leisure time on activities such as playing video games, listening to music and watching movies. At the first glance, we can found the foot print of big industries such as Hollywood and Walt Disney, which produce the loveliest entertainments for the youth all over the world.

As far as the language is concerned, English is the most common one in these companies. When the new generation of human being is going to be brain washed with such hobbies then it is obvious that they also get familiar with the language that is spoken in such artificial products aiming at influencing a language. In 1960’s Beatles played an important role for introducing the western music in eastern countries so that the youth in that era who Beatles was their favorite music band intended to get in the same shape as Beatles used to appear in the public. Another example in recent decade is Metallica music band in USA which has many fans in different parts of the world and not surprisingly the way they wear, the shape they look like, and even the way they behave, is exactly followed by their fans in every country irrespective of the culture of their communities.

As we see, English is steadily penetrating in other countries, and due to aforementioned facts we can inference that other countries are going to open their door for this language in order to improve their capabilities in various aspects so that they can compete with others in this challenging and inarticulate world in order to survive and to keep going towards their glory future.  

Baloch Academy Of Humanities www.balochacademy.org