[ Translate This Page ]

Before I read “English Next,” I had not given much thought to the globalization of the English Language. Of course, I was aware that it is wide spread in its use around the world and its role in globalization but still am not entirely conscious of the cultural, economical and ethical issues it can bring. Hopefully, tomorrows lecture will help me understand the effects of the worldwide use of English.
In reading the section of the reading on technology and English, it seems that there was a trend in the international news media being dominated by the English language, but in the past decade has shifted toward other languages having representation in the world news media. However, while Latin America has a news channel rival to CNN and BBC broadcasts in Arabic, there are many news sources that had only once broadcast in a native language that now also have outlets in English.


“English Next” points out that English and the Internet also have a strong association, but again in the past decade the percentage of sites in English have decreased (85% in 1998 compared with 32% in 2005). It seems at first glance that the percentage of sites in each language shown may be in correlation to the percentage of the population percentage that speaks a particular language. But as the authors note, “the dominance of English on the internet has probably been overestimated. What began as an anglophone phenomenon has rapidly become a multilingual affair” (pg 45). This “multilingual affair” is especially apparent in global companies that have one site where the user can specify their preferred language in which they view the content. While the authors remarked that commerce sites, such as E-bay and Amazon, have their own national cites, I think is also fair to notice that the larger social networking sites (myspace, facebook) and media sharing sites also have their own national networks (although this is not to say that only native-language speakers stick to their own sites).


Many browsers also have the option to “translate this page” and while the translations are probably spotty at best, I would be surprised if this technology improves. As a monolingual speaker of English I would very much like if “translate this page” improves because I would probably then gather more information from global sources and then be able to grasp a better perception of how different cultures view each other. “English Next” mentions Global Voices, a site that “aggregates data from blogs to supply journalists with an alternative news feeds.”


I don’t necessarily think that global English as the “lingua franca” is a horrible thing even though the way in which it emerged as such carried social and cultural implications. Consequently, the model of English as Lingua Franca is a valuable model in which to recognize the non-native speakers’ role in using Global English while retaining national identity but has the advantage over the monolingual individual. I found it interesting that countries like Chile, Taiwan, and South Korea are planning on making English as their official second language do not look toward the UK or US as their model, but other non-English speaking countries that are now using English as a second language (pg 89).
Many places around Chicago have bilingual services in several different languages and although it probably has a lot to do with commerce, I think that is pretty cool that an ESL speaker does not have to be intimidated to adapt. I grew up in a neighborhood that was largely Spanish speaking and while I may understand more than the next dabbler of the Spanish language, if I knew more of an other language, I may be more informed of media affects as it relates to immigrant culture in the US because I would be able to communicate better with people who actually experience it. I think that as long as a we address issues of cultural identity of non-English speakers and continue to implement “user/speaker preference,” it will be very interesting to see the affects of global English in the future.