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EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)

european-views.com

131–140 of 267 posts

Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)

#131
post #40
post #29

The language of our time is English. There's just no disputing that. You can argue that it's because US won the cold war, and then indoctrinated the world via music and movies, and so on, and so on, but it doesn't change that fact. We should adopt English and move on; majority of people know it and study it. Why regress? The point of using a language in the first place is to understand each other. Everyone learning a…

> You can argue that it's because US won the cold war, and then indoctrinated the world Seems odd, surely you could argue it was because of British imperialism (which also brought English to the US)? The British empire once covered 1/3 of the globe, it seems far more likely a cause.

It is a bit paradoxical of course, since, as you pointed out, the British empire is the reason that the US speaks english. However, I would still argue that the US is really the reason English became widely spoken in Europe.

The British Empire dominated large parts of the world, but it never dominated continental Europe. English was not widely spoken or taught in Europe until the end of WW2, when American culture became highly influential (although the UK did have its part through pop music).

The final push for English came with the internet and thus again from the US, I think. In many European countries there is a big divide in terms of English proficiency between people who grew up in pre or post internet era.

Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)

#132

I don't think English will stop being EU's lingua franca any time soon. Agreeing on a replacement would be politically impossible (the Germans wouldn't accept French, the French wouldn't accept German, the Spanish would have good arguments to make in any of both cases); and having several languages in equal status would just be not practical (you cannot realistically expect every EU citizen to know their native langu…

and having several languages in equal status would just be not practical - Sorry but I have to disagree here. Look at UN, they have Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish as official languages. Why is there an absolute must to only have one official language? Why not chose several most widely spoken ones, including English, and let each speaker chose the one that suits them best? I live in a country wh…

Curious, what country is that?

Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)

#133
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The British position was special for at least three reasons: - British state doctrine has always been: We are the empire, the natural rulers of the world. We only live by chance near the rest of Europe, so we have to interact with the continent at bit more - Britain was a net payer. We may strive for that to not be relevant, but if you pay you have influence - Britain got many exceptions to the usual rules that allow…

> Britain got many exceptions to the usual rules that allowed them to further their position Can you explain what you mean?

Britain was allowed to not follow many EU laws, for example they were allowed to keep the pound and not join the Euro as the treaties mandate.

Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)

#134
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The British position was special for at least three reasons: - British state doctrine has always been: We are the empire, the natural rulers of the world. We only live by chance near the rest of Europe, so we have to interact with the continent at bit more - Britain was a net payer. We may strive for that to not be relevant, but if you pay you have influence - Britain got many exceptions to the usual rules that allow…

> Britain got many exceptions to the usual rules that allowed them to further their position Can you explain what you mean?

[deleted]

Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)

#135
post #72
post #29

The language of our time is English. There's just no disputing that. You can argue that it's because US won the cold war, and then indoctrinated the world via music and movies, and so on, and so on, but it doesn't change that fact. We should adopt English and move on; majority of people know it and study it. Why regress? The point of using a language in the first place is to understand each other. Everyone learning a…

It's vital small languages are preserved and that the world doesn't become monolingual. Communication is a funny word -- we often mean it to commuincate with others but often we communicate with ourselves in the present -- and to our furture selves -- e.g. code comments are often for your future self as well as other programmers. People who speak different lanaguges litteraly "think differently" and diversity of thou…

This! Diversity of thought is what separates us from mere robots. It what makes us non-linear and should be preserved!

Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)

#136
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and having several languages in equal status would just be not practical - Sorry but I have to disagree here. Look at UN, they have Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish as official languages. Why is there an absolute must to only have one official language? Why not chose several most widely spoken ones, including English, and let each speaker chose the one that suits them best? I live in a country wh…

Curious, what country is that?

Switzerland ?

Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)

#137
post #29

The language of our time is English. There's just no disputing that. You can argue that it's because US won the cold war, and then indoctrinated the world via music and movies, and so on, and so on, but it doesn't change that fact. We should adopt English and move on; majority of people know it and study it. Why regress? The point of using a language in the first place is to understand each other. Everyone learning a…

English is only the smallest common denominator really, and it hurts to hear Germans speak English imprecisely, stereotypically, or plain incorrectly. I'm far from being a language nationalist or something, but I think the EU (parliament, comission) should take the opportunity to move away from English, and begin to speak and publish in the "Common Tongue" (German, French, etc.) instead.

[deleted]

Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)

#138
post #102

Finished the article but I haven't seen a single proposal of what this actually would mean. EU English would be different how? And that's besides the fact that I also have yet to hear a single real advantage for forking the language and creating 15 competing standards. Reasons like "then it's fair for everyone" doesn't make any sense when the UK is gone anyway, it would make sense right now since one country has an a…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_English#Examples

Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)

#139
post #107

Great idea, and I'd be more interested in EU English Locale. I'm Ukrainian, and whenever I choose to have an English UI, I have a problem because U.S. and GB are using a non-metric system. Canadian locale works, but it would be nice to just have a common EU English one. UPDATE: just checked, Ubuntu's United Kingdom uses Metric system actually, no idea why was I thinking it'd be Imperial before.

I use en_DA for that.

Re: EU must adopt ‘EU English’ as its official working language after Brexit (2017)

#140
post #29

The language of our time is English. There's just no disputing that. You can argue that it's because US won the cold war, and then indoctrinated the world via music and movies, and so on, and so on, but it doesn't change that fact. We should adopt English and move on; majority of people know it and study it. Why regress? The point of using a language in the first place is to understand each other. Everyone learning a…

> The language of our time is English.

I take that as a powerful argument against granting it any official preference: English is doing fine with or without being forced upon anybody. That would just provoke organized resistance.

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