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

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

#161

Post by usrusr »

r3bl wrote: post #112
s_dev wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

We could all cherish and love our own native languages internally while relying on English abroad (and online). Those things aren't mutually exclusive.

If I had a choice between being better at English and being better at my native language, I'd chose the latter. Realistically though it would be much easier to become less bad at a second language (lot's of low hanging fruit left) than to go from regular to exceptional in you mother tongue.

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

#162

Post by 781 »

lucb1e wrote: post #152
781 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It's an existing thing? Interesting, I never heard of it. Thanks for linking. The Wikipedia article isn't very clear on what the language officially is. I don't see where I can find a reference of the changes it makes, aside from a few examples of ways to make English mainly more like French. It honestly looks as though it is just an excuse for people to use words incorrectly just because they have words in their own…

You are reading too much into the article.

The EU will never officially name this "EU English". They will just name it "English", and at most they might point to a "guide" of what some commonly used phrases which differ from British English mean.

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

#163

Post by Svip »

Jonnax wrote: post #3

This doesn't really make sense. American English which they propose adopting is removes more of the European roots of words. For example removing the 'U' from words like Colour. Ireland is also an English speaking country in the EU. And I don't know how much of the sentiment of "Let's Americanise!" Would be popular.

What confuses me most is the why chose American English? Considering that British English is already a working language of the EU, why go for a new one? That's just going to mean more work. If you are going to promote efficiency, a continuation of what we already have (that works) should be the goal, not open a whole other can of worms.

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

#164

Post by antirez »

In case we move away from English, the only thing that makes sense IMHO is Spanish, because it is very easy to pick up for most other latin-derived language speakers, and has an amazing amount of speakers worldwide. Moreover is not very hard. If EU goes for English, I totally agree US english is the best. It's phonetically simpler and more understandable, and is much more in the artworks we consume: TV series, music, movies, ...

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

#165

Post by tjansen »

s_dev wrote: post #72
rofo1 wrote: 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…

People speaking different languages may think different, but most of their thoughts are lost because they can't be easily translated to English. Countries like Germany and France used to have global cultural impact, but today they are almost irrelevant because their work is not easily translatable into English. When was the last time a German or French book, or movie, or song was globally relevant? How many globally relevant works did the comparatively-sized UK publish in the same time?

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

#167

Post by antientropic »

mekoka wrote: post #141

Looking into the history of American English hints at why it's so powerful. It was designed for pragmatism over elitism, to favor a broad adoption of a writing system for a population of then recent immigrants, many of whom were not native English speakers or had had little access to education. Its original purpose is practicality. It only gradually became considered a viable intellectual alternative to British Engli…

I don't get it. How is a word like "civilization" less elitist / more pragmatic than "civilisation"? How is that a revolution? Is there any evidence that these minor spelling difference had an effect on the success of American English?

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

#168

Post by inawarminister »

tluyben2 wrote: post #12
peteretep wrote: post #7

> It will rid the French or the Germans of the temptation try to make their language the dominant one in the post-Brexit EU It really won't, especially the French.

Spain will fight tooth and nail as well. And Germany too. So no it really won't.

I'm curious about Spanish objection to English language. Sure, they do have the issue with Gibraltar and British "tourists" perenially, but is there any effect for the language itself?

At least Spanish is spoken by an order of magnitude more people than German, though (Latin America, and nowadays a third of USA as well)

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

#169

Post by 7952 »

kayoone wrote: post #61

Living in working in the Berlin tech world, English is already the official working language in most companies. Even as I german i have no problem with this, my only gripe is that it makes it very hard for my non-german colleagues to learn german.

Why exactly is this? Are there really that many non Germans speakers that you need to use English? And would you use English to have a chat at the water cooler, or down the pub (or locally relevant alternative).

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

#170

Post by inawarminister »

danieltillett wrote: post #157

I have wondered for awhile if it is possible to have a world language - not that the world couldn't all agree (or be forced) to choose a common language, but that any single language spoken by 7.5 billion people would immediately start to fragment or the pace of change would be so fast you couldn't talk to your grandparents.

It should be possible if all 7.5 billion are connected to a world-spanning Network and produce and consume similar media.

Hollywood movies and pop music already proved this after all. And for the youngsters, video games and memes.

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