Why English is spoken all across the globe T
LOVE at first sight doesn’t exist according to Dutch researchers.
Which is a bit of a blow for romantic novelists and those of us who beg to differ.
A team investigated Lafs (love at first sight) which is an acronym that immediately makes you wonder just how seriously they were taking their work.
The phenomenon is not true, they say, because the emotions involved are too complicated to happen all at once. People make the claim genuinely, with hindsight and the benefit of an established relationship, but it is more likely that what was felt at the time was a strong physical attraction. Or, to put it in the vernacular, lust at first sight.
The research also found that love at first sight is rarely mutual, a point upon which I agree.
During my early formative teenage years I fell in love at first sight with Doris Day and Brigitte Bardot as I progressed from innocent 14 to maturing 16 and my hormones changed. HE majority of secondary school children in European Union countries learn English as well as another language. Britain are second from bottom at learning another language with only 5% – just ahead of Greece with just 1%.
Luxembourg has 100% France, Czech Republic, Romania, Finland and Slovakia on 99%. The EU average is 59%.
Why are we so far behind everybody else? Is this partly why the nation voted for Brexit? Because we didn’t understand Johnny Foreigner? Even when we shouted?
On the other hand, perhaps we don’t teach another language in schools because we don’t have to. According to the Power Language Index English is by far the most powerful language in the world, which is why others learn it.
“It is the dominant language of three G7 nations (USA, UK and Canada) and British legacy has given it a global footprint. It is the world’s lingua franca.
“Mandarin, which ranks second, is only half as potent. French comes in at third, thanks to its prestige standing in international diplomacy. Rounding out the top five are Spanish and Arabic.” An estimated 1.2billion make Chinese the most spoken language in the world but that’s based on the country’s population. Native English speakers number only 360 million, but half a billion foreigners speak it as a second language. And it’s all because of Empire. Two thousand years ago Latin became the multi-national language because of the influence of the Roman Empire. The dominance of English is based in the conquests of the British Empire which took it around the world, including to America. Immigrants from many countries settled in what was to become the United States but the founding fathers sensibly chose English as the unifying language of the new nation. It’s world influence was consolidated through an American Empire based on Hollywood, popular culture, Big Macs and Coca-Cola and reinforced in the 1960s when London Swung Like A Pendulum (to
English is still the language most pop hopefuls use in Eurovision.
Neither reciprocated.
That’s not forgetting the occasion I was madly attracted to a Dutch girl who wore inflatable shoes. Tragically, by the time I had plucked up the courage to ask her out she had popped her clogs.
Despite the research, I maintain that it was Lafs with my wife Maria when our eyes met across a crowded room at a party: she was 16 and I was 23. And whichever way you interpret the acronym, it was valid and it’s still working. quote Roger Miller) and teenagers around the globe followed the Beatles, Stones and British popular music. English is still the language most pop hopefuls use in Eurovision. In this year’s contest, 35 out of 42 entries – that’s 83% – were sung in English.
Still, I don’t think we should be complacent and I believe there is a definite place for language skills in schools.
Even if we don’t need to use them on holiday.