(HOST) Lately, commentator Olin Robison* has been thinking quite a bit about the extraordinary utility of the English language.
(ROBISON) There is speculation far and wide these days about the diminished influence of the United States in virtually all matters in most parts of the world. My view is that much damage has been done but that much of it can be repaired, and that will be a principle challenge of the next administration in Washington – whatever the political party of the next occupant of the White House. That does not, of course, mean that everyone – or even a majority – of the world’s people are going to like or approve of whatever the US does in the world. But there is a great deal of good will in the world, and much or maybe even most of it can, in due course, once again be aimed at the United States.
One reason for that, of course, is the extraordinary economic, political and military power the US still has at its disposal. But there is something else: it is the English language. There are over eight thousand languages in use in the world, and yet English is the one most commonly used. It has become the closest thing to a global language that we have. This, of course, bugs the French, which makes it even more satisfying – at least for some of us.
English is now the preferred language of diplomacy, of science and technology, of commerce, of higher education, and of course on much of the Internet. It isn’t the only language used in all these fields, but it is the one most used. It is, for instance, the common medium in aviation. Anyone who flies a lot knows that, wherever you go, English is the language that pilots use no matter where in the world they are.
I have heard an amazing bit about China; and while I do not know for sure that it is true, I have been told that in about fifteen years there will be more people in China who can speak English than there are people in the United States. Wow! If that is even close to the truth, it is an amazing fact.
A few years ago I attended a conference on Okinawa, a province of Japan, but a place where Japanese is the second language for most of the people there. English is the third, since the people of Okinawa have their own language, which is most used day to day. The international conference in question was attended by participants from eleven Asian countries plus me. Yet the conference was conducted in English. I thanked the lovely Japanese professor who was the organizer; I thanked him for choosing English as the conference language, but I did ask him “why?” His response was most instructive: he said that he and his colleagues had concluded that the choice of ANY Asian language would lose them participants. So English was chosen as a “neutral” medium.
It happens a lot in many different places. And, as a person who travels a lot, I feel very, very lucky.
Olin Robison is past president of both the Salzburg Seminar and Middlebury College. He now lives in Shelburne.