Date: Sun, 16 Nov 1997 21:19:10 -0800 From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com> To: Charles Mott <cmott@srv.net> Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: The Language Barrier [Was: Could FreeBSD be ...] Message-ID: <24684.879743950@jkh.cdrom.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 16 Nov 1997 17:27:52 MST." <Pine.BSF.3.96.971116172057.10703C-100000@darkstar.home>
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> Who knows, maybe the English language has reached its zenith. I have > actually found myself a few times wanting to read foreign language > websites and being aware of my complete lack of language skills. Actually, if anything I'd say that english has become more of a "lingua franca" than ever. I haven't personally been to every single country in the world (yet :) but it seems that there's almost none where one can't find english spoken in some capacity if it's truly you language of last resort. 100 years ago, that was also true for French, so I think it's simply a shift in what people consider to be a reasonably common language to learn if they wish to communicate across borders. Esperanto was a nice try for this, but it appears that few wish to really learn it (with the exception of a few die-hards here and there who subscribe to Esperanto newsletters and such). A pity since English, by comparison, is a cast-iron bitch to learn if you're not a native speaker: cough, plough, dough, that sort of berzerkness abounds in this language. ;) > In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Americans working in the areas of > physics, aerodynamics, chemistry and chemical engineering often had to > _learn_ German (not just pass an exam) in order to keep up with > developments. Yep, or French if they worked in the standards bureau. I think that time is definitely past though (und das ist wirklich eine Schade :-). Jordan
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