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English 4 Sale
English 4 Sale
We live in a Type 1 civilization, almost. I’m going by the definitions created by Dr. Michio Kaku, a theoretical physicist and futurist who popularizes the science by infusing sci-fi comparisons and pop-culture references.
According to Dr. Kaku there are three stages of civilizations hoping to be discovered by scientists in search of extra-terrestrial intelligence. Type 1 is a fully globalized economy and government like Buck Rogers (his words, not mine), Type 2 is an extra-solar, multi-star system civilization (Star Trek), and Type 3 is galactic (Star Wars). When Dr. Kaku isn’t contributing to the Theory of Everything, the all encompassing equation uniting the universe’s known forces into one - as in String Theory, String Field Theory, M-Theory, and Mc Theory (the theory explaining the all encompassing craptacular taste of McDonald’s food in every restaurant around the world) - he spends his time trying to identify where our current civilization stands on this meta-physical, meta-futurist scale.
According to Dr. Kaku, we're almost at Type 1. We have the European Union and NAFTA, the first step towards global government, the rise of China and the East, and the decline of the West, the rapidly integrating global economy. All the signs are there, and according to Dr. Kaku, the official language of this new Tier 1 civilization will be English.
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It doesn’t exactly take a futurist to identify English as the dominant global language. It is already spoken by over a billion people on every continent on the planet. You’d be hard-pressed to find a continent that doesn’t have at least one country with English as an official language, perhaps South America. A little Wikipedia research gave me some statistics: native English speakers currently number about 400 million people, and ESL speakers at more than twice that. Whereas Latin was once the language of the known world, and French the language of diplomacy, English has become the language of everything.
I can’t speak of all Asian countries, but in Japan it is now almost impossible to find a billboard without English slogans or street signs without an English translation. English has become the language of marketing and advertising, with most TV ads and company slogans delivered in English, whether or not people understand it. That doesn’t mean Japan has yet integrated English into its culture. It’s only at the surface, merely for economic and tourism purposes, often to irritating levels. I used to rely on the English announcement translations on the bus and train systems, but now that I understand most of the Japanese announcements, it’s starting to feel a bit patronizing. “For those with destinations at the city ward office, please get off at this stop. The next stop will be Sendai Station. Please do not smoke on this train.” Okay, I get it. Next time I’m going to bust the speaker, light up a cigar, and then get off at my stop!
The rising economic powers of the East are hitting a cultural wall, in terms of growth, and slowly climbing over it. In China and Japan, the written language for communication has traditionally been Kanji, the Chinese and Japanese alphabet. But now both countries have English only newspapers, magazines, and radio, but not yet English only television. Japan has always been at odds with the adoption of Kanji, historians still arguing to this day how it officially arrived in Japan from China. Lately the Japanese people have begun renaming, or rewriting, their own cities, opting for Hiragana only names (Saitama = さいたま) or Romaji, the Roman alphabet. ABCs. 東京 = Tokyo.
Japan may be in the midst of replacing one of its three alphabets, Kanji, with Romaji. It’s not quite full integration of English, just English lettering.
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The corporate powers in Asia have not ignored the economic impact of English as a global language. The EFL market, English as a Foreign Language, has exploded in recent years, and in some cases imploded (Nova Group in Japan.) The English language is being bought and sold and traded as a service. English is for sale and jobs are plenty.
Working for an EFL company can be an interesting experience, depending on the company. In Japan there are two distinct types of teachers. ALT positions, Assistant Language Teachers, work in the public school system, and EFL teachers work for private English schools and clubs. Most positions have a varying age level for students, and in most cases English is being taught at a very introductory level. Lessons are generalized down to simply showing how fun and entertaining English can be. That is not always easy to do when dealing with students who don’t want to be there in the first place. If it was hard for you to learn how to spell words like “knife” “foreign” or “asphyxiation” – now imagine what it would be like to teach it to a student whose first language isn’t English. And contrary to the conventional wisdom of Asian academic aptitude, they have just as many dumb kids as we do. It’s just a different kind of dumb.
In the future, the supply and demand is only going to increase. Recently Japan’s education system has decided to, in the next few years, extend the English curriculum throughout its public system, making it a mandatory subject from Kindergarten to Grade 12, and that’s just playing catch up to the rest of the world. Other countries and cities are far ahead of Japan in terms of English integration - Hong Kong, Singapore, and Indonesia are now nearly entirely bi-lingual, language and economic-wise.
In the hyper-modern era, and hyper-modern future, the English language can be synonymous with opportunity, for those willing to learn, and those willing to teach. Having the English language on your resume means you can do just about anything, and live on any continent you wish. I have no doubt in Dr. Michio Kaku’s prediction that English will be a world language, if it isn’t already. With it comes opportunity, and many cultural implications. In other words, expect Asians to do better than you on their English test, and not just their math test, and hope others don’t learn to curse you off with the same four letter word in every country you visit!
We live in a Type 1 civilization, almost. I’m going by the definitions created by Dr. Michio Kaku, a theoretical physicist and futurist who popularizes the science by infusing sci-fi comparisons and pop-culture references.
According to Dr. Kaku there are three stages of civilizations hoping to be discovered by scientists in search of extra-terrestrial intelligence. Type 1 is a fully globalized economy and government like Buck Rogers (his words, not mine), Type 2 is an extra-solar, multi-star system civilization (Star Trek), and Type 3 is galactic (Star Wars). When Dr. Kaku isn’t contributing to the Theory of Everything, the all encompassing equation uniting the universe’s known forces into one - as in String Theory, String Field Theory, M-Theory, and Mc Theory (the theory explaining the all encompassing craptacular taste of McDonald’s food in every restaurant around the world) - he spends his time trying to identify where our current civilization stands on this meta-physical, meta-futurist scale.
According to Dr. Kaku, we're almost at Type 1. We have the European Union and NAFTA, the first step towards global government, the rise of China and the East, and the decline of the West, the rapidly integrating global economy. All the signs are there, and according to Dr. Kaku, the official language of this new Tier 1 civilization will be English.
-
It doesn’t exactly take a futurist to identify English as the dominant global language. It is already spoken by over a billion people on every continent on the planet. You’d be hard-pressed to find a continent that doesn’t have at least one country with English as an official language, perhaps South America. A little Wikipedia research gave me some statistics: native English speakers currently number about 400 million people, and ESL speakers at more than twice that. Whereas Latin was once the language of the known world, and French the language of diplomacy, English has become the language of everything.
I can’t speak of all Asian countries, but in Japan it is now almost impossible to find a billboard without English slogans or street signs without an English translation. English has become the language of marketing and advertising, with most TV ads and company slogans delivered in English, whether or not people understand it. That doesn’t mean Japan has yet integrated English into its culture. It’s only at the surface, merely for economic and tourism purposes, often to irritating levels. I used to rely on the English announcement translations on the bus and train systems, but now that I understand most of the Japanese announcements, it’s starting to feel a bit patronizing. “For those with destinations at the city ward office, please get off at this stop. The next stop will be Sendai Station. Please do not smoke on this train.” Okay, I get it. Next time I’m going to bust the speaker, light up a cigar, and then get off at my stop!
The rising economic powers of the East are hitting a cultural wall, in terms of growth, and slowly climbing over it. In China and Japan, the written language for communication has traditionally been Kanji, the Chinese and Japanese alphabet. But now both countries have English only newspapers, magazines, and radio, but not yet English only television. Japan has always been at odds with the adoption of Kanji, historians still arguing to this day how it officially arrived in Japan from China. Lately the Japanese people have begun renaming, or rewriting, their own cities, opting for Hiragana only names (Saitama = さいたま) or Romaji, the Roman alphabet. ABCs. 東京 = Tokyo.
Japan may be in the midst of replacing one of its three alphabets, Kanji, with Romaji. It’s not quite full integration of English, just English lettering.
--
The corporate powers in Asia have not ignored the economic impact of English as a global language. The EFL market, English as a Foreign Language, has exploded in recent years, and in some cases imploded (Nova Group in Japan.) The English language is being bought and sold and traded as a service. English is for sale and jobs are plenty.
Working for an EFL company can be an interesting experience, depending on the company. In Japan there are two distinct types of teachers. ALT positions, Assistant Language Teachers, work in the public school system, and EFL teachers work for private English schools and clubs. Most positions have a varying age level for students, and in most cases English is being taught at a very introductory level. Lessons are generalized down to simply showing how fun and entertaining English can be. That is not always easy to do when dealing with students who don’t want to be there in the first place. If it was hard for you to learn how to spell words like “knife” “foreign” or “asphyxiation” – now imagine what it would be like to teach it to a student whose first language isn’t English. And contrary to the conventional wisdom of Asian academic aptitude, they have just as many dumb kids as we do. It’s just a different kind of dumb.
In the future, the supply and demand is only going to increase. Recently Japan’s education system has decided to, in the next few years, extend the English curriculum throughout its public system, making it a mandatory subject from Kindergarten to Grade 12, and that’s just playing catch up to the rest of the world. Other countries and cities are far ahead of Japan in terms of English integration - Hong Kong, Singapore, and Indonesia are now nearly entirely bi-lingual, language and economic-wise.
In the hyper-modern era, and hyper-modern future, the English language can be synonymous with opportunity, for those willing to learn, and those willing to teach. Having the English language on your resume means you can do just about anything, and live on any continent you wish. I have no doubt in Dr. Michio Kaku’s prediction that English will be a world language, if it isn’t already. With it comes opportunity, and many cultural implications. In other words, expect Asians to do better than you on their English test, and not just their math test, and hope others don’t learn to curse you off with the same four letter word in every country you visit!
Comment
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Comment by Jonathon Jones on June 19, 2008 at 5:55am -
maybe they were going for pronunciation rather than spelling
"i sheet on you"
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Comment by Frank Moher on June 15, 2008 at 3:30pm -
Does the adoption of Romanji mean that eventually the Roman alphabet will dominate in written Japanese?
Anyway, interesting article. What's going on seems to be a combination of localism (rejection of Kanji) and globalism (adoption of Romanji) at the same time (unless, of course, I'm completely misunderstanding both, which is entirely possible). I think we'll see this more and more -- cultures becoming at once more globally interconnected at the financial/trade level but at the same time, and in response, more tribal culturally. "Tribalism" is usually seen as a pejorative, but I'm not sure it's a bad thing. "Living where you live," as I like to think of it.
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