FIRST WRITING (THE FUTURE STATUS OF ENGLISH AS A GLOBAL LANGUAGE IS ASSURED)

THE FUTURE STATUS OF ENGLISH AS A GLOBAL LANGUAGE IS ASSURED

English is one of the most popular languages in the world because it is spoken internationally by many people in Europe, Asia and America. Moreover, English is considered the international language of the internet, music, and TV because it is everywhere we are. Nowadays many people including children know a lot of English words and some of them have been added to our native language as part of it. However, there are some people who believe that the future of English language is not assured because there are some countries that are limiting the use of English words. Other people claim that the language of the future will be Mandarin. Moreover, they think that the use of English has decreased in time, so it will continue decreasing in the future. Although many believe in these possible arguments, I think that the future status of English as a global language is assured for some evidences.

One argument of the opponents is that there are some countries that are limiting the use of English words in order to keep the purity of their mother tongue. They put as example countries such as Germany and China that have tried to ban the use of many words in English punishing the ones who break that rule. However, I believe that we can't avoid the use of these words as simple as it sounds. There are many English words and phrases that have been added to our native language as part of it. For example, words such as laptop, ticket and shampoo have been taken from English, and now they are part of the Spanish language, so it is difficult to avoid using them since some of them can only be called in this way.

Opponents also believe that Mandarin will be the language of the future, so many people will study this language. On the other hand I think that Mandarin won’t be a global language in the next decade since it is not an international language as English because it is only spoken in Asia continent. Moreover, this language is very difficult to learn because of the writing and the pronunciation. According to a research “Getting fluent in Mandarin is extremely difficult, and very few non-Chinese people are able to become functional speakers and writers of Mandarin.” (“Lingua Franca”).

The final argument is that the use of English has been decreased in time. Opponents allege that nowadays there are a lot of web pages in Spanish, France and Quechua and we don’t need more English. On the contrary, I believe that the use of English on the internet is necessary because recently updated pages are in English, so it is necessary because the only way to get updated information is through the English language.

Finally, I would say the arguments that say that future status of English as a global language is not assured are not valid. On the other hand, I really believe that English will be the language of the future because is has become a dominant international language, and nowadays more and more people want to learn this language because it allows them keep current.


SOURCE:
“Learning Chinese: How Difficult is it”. August 18, 2007. 10 Jan. 2012 http://thelinguafranca.wordpress.com/2007/08/18/learning-chinese-how-difficult-is-it/