Re: One language for the world

At 00:47 07/06/00 -0500, you wrote:
>
>The current fashion of English is by no means assured.  At the moment,
>English is perhaps only slightly more widespread (due to mass-
>communication and masseducation) than French was two centuries ago.
>The major reason for the sheer numbers who speak English is the colonial
>habits of the British Empire, whose commercial expansion entailed military
>outposts which, in some cases, developed into full-fledged cities.  Excess
>population, too, was a reason for her North American colonies, and later
>places like Australia and New Zealand.    It is really only in these
countries
>where English wholly predominates.  Elsewhere, English is a trading and
>scientific language, no doubt, but often of questionable fluency (I think we
>can all agree that the French and Germans, though nearly universally
taught it,
>are not so often required to use it as, say, the Quebecois are).
Very true. And even our teaching of it is questionable. How can you become
fluent in English with 2 hours of English a week (and nothing during
holidays) while you hear no English at all elsewhere? My own fluency in
English (which I often find questionable) comes mainly from the list, from
my experience of work outside of France and from my foreign boy-friend :) .
Thanks to that, I got 945 points out of 990 at the TOEIC! :)) (I happen to
have had the best score of the promotion :)) ) Now, I've finished with
English classes for ever (while my studies are not finished), and finishing
with English classes when you are 24 is rather rare (only high technical
studies do that, my sister who is studying Right has only one hour of
English a week, and it will last only for the first two or three years of
her current studies, unless programs change). Generally, you stop learning
English after the Baccalaureate (at 18) or sometimes even before. As you
begin around 13, and with a system of teaching which is very bad in my
opinion, it's rather difficult to become fluent in the language, unless you
work on your own...

                                                Christophe Grandsire
                                                |Sela Jemufan Atlinan C.G.

"Reality is just another point of view."

homepage : http://rainbow.conlang.org
(ou : http://www.bde.espci.fr/homepages/Christophe.Grandsire/index.html)