This soundbite, from a delightful Russian drinking Veuve Clicquot in the ‘Tokyo Room’ at the Edinburgh night club with International Pretensions, Le Monde:
“English will become the universal, international language. What we will lose in terms of cultural diversity, we will make up for in mutual understanding.”
And yes, he did say it in English.
Хорошо. Но в Москве? Когда они будут говорить по-английский там? Не скоро!!
that’s a good one!
Yes, but is it English English, or American English? Or some other variant?
Clarice, from experience (I work in EFL), most want to learn English English, we get a lot of Columbians, Guatamalans, Argentinians and Brazilians; they want to speak “real” English. Canadians are ok.
The curve the industry is on will keep growing for about 15 years; after that, I’ll need a new job. Travelling in Greece was weird, everyone under 30 spoke perfect English, but most had never met a native speaker properly.
hey, did you used to live in texas robert?
It’s ironic that while British schools spend their meagre budgets on translators for children who refuse to learn English, and national standards of functional literacy are falling, english increasingly dominates global communication.