Meditations

[Boingo]

(I'm not sure that I'm entirely satisfied on what I know of our "guidelines" or "ethics" )

If the oncoming collapse of the Republic of China doesn't come within the next twenty years, the Chinese Language is likely to dominate much of East/South East Asia (as it has much, lately*), and is expected to be a major player in economics and structure and space technologies-some even say that it may be worth so much to learn the Chinese Language for such reason, that they may, again like in the past, dominate technological advancement.
(Personally, I have great interest in what would happen if it does collapse.)

*South-East Asian countries suppress Chinese Immigrants to the point that the language is discouraged, and it is difficult for them to obtain citizenship until the third generation of Immigrants. Most of them moved between the Second Civil War and the Cultural Maoist Revolution in fear of their beliefs being banned to places like Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore (which wasn't a very happy place then) or across the seas to America (ditto). This resulted in mass-supression (although much of it can be justified). Whilst I am not in support of the Chinese Movement, it was somewhat unfair of the South East Countries to make life really difficult for those abandoning the ship that their government was trying to suppress diplomatic relations with.
The thing is, if you end up with refugees of a war, or "traitors to the Republic", you do something with them. Use them, make them part of the country. Unfortunately, both parties are guilty: One is wasting their money on an oncoming collapse due to mass-scandal (look at how their "government" works-see below) whereas the other is rejecting the ones who came from there because they had non-traditional, revolutional ideas!


"China is a Democracy. In China you can vote for which ever party you like*

*Please note that there is only the glorious, *ahem*--communist party
**Remember, China is a democracy because it counts everyone's vote (except for the ones for the Nationals-but they don't matter, because we are the only party, right?)
***And that if you don't vote for us, we will exile, place you into scandal or kill you.

Have a nice day.


Nuff said.

[Oleander]

What comes to mind now is for instance the position of languages in the modern world. Will English become the only language over time, or what will happen? Is this good or bad? Obviously there are economic benefits here, but otherwise I view linguicide in negative light.

English being a worldwide lingua franca would probably result in some degree of linguicide, but it doesn't have to, and if it did it would be bad regardless of the economic benefits of having one language that everyone speaks. Either way, I doubt we will lose every language except one at any time in the future. Many minority groups, because of their historical relationships with other groups (i.e. white people killing everyone else), have closed themselves off from outside peoples almost entirely. People like the the Piraha, and the Xavante, and to a more extreme degree, the Sentinel Islanders, are more or less entirely monolingual and don't intend on changing. Some members of minority/native peoples detest the idea of succumbing to so-called 'white/American culture' and various peoples will purposely isolate themselves to avoid that outcome. Hunter-gatherers in Africa live the same way they have for thousands of years, and they're happy that way, and they do a lot to keep themselves that way.

There's nothing wrong with these peoples choosing isolation, and unless something awful happens to all of them, or they have a major paradigm shift in their culture for some reason, the world will never be monolingual.

[The Kakama]

There is also a political factor, where some countries would try to promote their national language, with English as a second language.

[Boingo]

But why bother for a secondary?
For the sake of economic and diplomatic relations, right?
Or do they know that particular languages will be a valuable asset to every boy and girl they educate in their schools?

[ENIHCAMBUS]

But why bother for a secondary?
For the sake of economic and diplomatic relations, right?
Or do they know that particular languages will be a valuable asset to every boy and girl they educate in their schools?

Is more deep of what do you think.
Just see all here.
How is posible to make a forum or some other international/global feature if everyone talks its own languaje?
I know because I remember Vurn's and Borys' attemp to make a 100% polish thread, that was, at the end, banned by moderator.
All this is part of the globalization. If you don't want to be part it, just go and talk with the people in your place, I know its not a good plan for those who feels that the born in the wrong place (like me, or sunday), so here we are. However, the reason people borns in wrong places is anyway part of various issues of the globalization: The migrations, international paradigm, cultural degeneration, etc.
Maybe you're asking, why english?
Thats not due England, but due USA, that its right now the most powerfull country in the world, just due the fact it won the WW2 and cold war.
The most used languaje in the world is English, however most of the population uses chinese (due the high population in china). Alike english and chinese, spanish is the official languaje of many territories in Europe, Africa and especialy America. Its not a matter of power at all, it has many variables. If it could be a matter of power, then japanese or german would have more extention than spanish, that its not true.
However, the matter of power it has real effects in some parts of the globalization.
Just look how the culinary life of the northamericans (not that sane at all), have traslated trough the globe.
With the world as it is, something big will happen. I don't mean destruction or apocalypse; I mean change.


I also noticed:

Humans neglected the natural law of "the survival of the fittest".
Then: Overpopulation.
Then: Resource madness.
Then: "The survival of the fittest".

This proves that if you broke natural laws, then natural laws broke you.

[The Kakama]

Just because a certain language gives an economic or diplomatic advantage, or globalisation, as Enihcambus mentioned, doesn't make that language more comfortable for general use, ie. people don't want to throw away their current language for another one that easily though.
So even if you have a universal language made by globalisation, it isn't necessarily going to replace all other languages.

[The Abacus]

We do seem to be looking at a increased use of English and Chinese. Globalisation has definitely encouraged this, but it is really a loss of heritage for other nations/states. I doubt they will fully replace other languages (I sincerely hope not), but it seems that in modern society primarily it is these languages that are promoted (for a variety of reasons).

Maybe you're asking, why english?
Thats not due England, but due USA, that its right now the most powerfull country in the world, just due the fact it won the WW2 and cold war.

I thought that the reason why the U.S.A. was so influential not only because of past events and political relations, but also because economic power.

Spanish is the official language of many territories in Europe, Africa and especially America.

Official language? Commonly used, yes – but official? I don't think that that is true for Europe and Africa.

I also noticed:

Humans neglected the natural law of "the survival of the fittest".
Then: Overpopulation.
Then: Resource madness.
Then: "The survival of the fittest".

This proves that if you broke natural laws, then natural laws broke you.

And that is why I do not support any attempts to mess with nature (genetic engineering etc.)

[Oleander]

"Survival of the fittest" was made up by some person with a marketing degree, not a scientist. No evolutionary theory has ever claimed that the most physically and/or mentally strong traits will get passed on, and they often don't. Also, natural selection, which is what I think you mean, is an amoral idea--it's neither good or bad, it just *is*. It doesn't have anything to do with musts or oughts.

Also, people are a part of nature. It is literally impossible for people to 'mess with the way nature should happen' because everything we do is a part of nature's progression.

[Vortex]

I also don't think we should base our moral principles in some supposed "natural law". If some results are generally true in natural environments, that doesn't mean that any attempts to deviate from those results will inevitably fail. If that were true there would be no variation and evolution wouldn't have happened, since we would all be already "the fittest", and every ecosystem would only have one type of being, the one who has adapted the most. Similarly, societies that deviate from those "laws" aren't necessarily bound to fail.

We are not dominated by our genetics, we also depend on the environment, and we can change the environment to fit us (buildings, medicine, technology, etc.), instead of having to fit with the environment, as most animals have to do.

[Anteroinen]

There is also a political factor, where some countries would try to promote their national language, with English as a second language.

English is currently affecting all the languages, basically. I don't think there is a single one that has been studied that doesn't have a single loanword from English. English is also taking over certain fields of expression. Internet is one. Sure, we have Wikipedia in many languages and many languages are used around the web, but which Wiki is the biggest? English. Which community largest? English.

Another medium that is being lost to English is advertising, at least over here. People know English and you no longer need to translate all the ads, because who watches them anyway? Advertising is getting more and more English. This can also be seen in names of shops here, which are moving from Finnish to English, although contrary trends exist. Finnish will persist for a while, I'm sure, but it might not in the end.

Unfortunately, before that happens Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish and Russian will have killed the Sami languages. Russian will have killed the rest of the Uralic family. Those are currently endangered (save for Hungarian). Sure, there have been efforts to help the Inari Sami group, but with only 300 speakers (and between those, there are apparently dialects) can it survive? There is only one scientific journal that is published on a Sami language, for instance. How can they spread their language and culture to others or share their knowledge like this? (Sometimes though, it seems like the languages were meant to die. I once heard a Sami news reporter actually talk about a theater performance (in Sami) like theater in general was something stupid and weird. Way to be worried about you language!)

The scientific paper is a good example of another medium that English is taking over, by the way. English is the language of science.

Remember, when the time comes that the areas where you can use a language start getting smaller, that certain things cannot be spoken about in you language, that is not at all a good sign for the future or the language.

Oh dear, that got to be long, and here I was saying how I want to limit length...

Chinese

I honestly doubt this. Chinese is hard to spell (and to type into a computer, which good to keep in mind), even harder to speak, and the dialects vary hugely. Chinese is also more context based than English, which might leave things ambiguous for no reason. Obviously Chinese does have benefits over English too, but I don't know much about them. Chinese is more gender neutral, I believe. That is one thing.

Spanish is the official language of many territories in Europe, Africa and especially America.

Official language? Commonly used, yes – but official? I don't think that that is true for Europe and Africa.

Yes, Spanish is an official language in the European union. It is also spoken by a majority in an African country, although the name escapes me. Spanish isn't a very common language in Africa though. USA also has Spanish as an official language.