Gordon Brown hopes there will be more people speaking English in China than in America, Britain, Australia and New Zealand by 2025. I wonder what that will do to the language.
Language evolves with culture and society and the English-speaking countries are radically different from China.
Fundamental to the English-speaking countries is democracy and human rights, freedom of expression and individualism. EM Forster said he would betray his country rather than his friends. Noam Chomsky can freely criticise US policies. It’s very different in China where society matters more than the individual.
It is possible, of course, for a country where English is the common language to practise a limited form of censorship for the sake of racial harmony and political sensitivity: look at Singapore. But it is the exception to the rule. And it is too small to have any major influence on the English language. Not so China. That schoolchildren in China will now have to learn English from the age of six will affect popular culture, the publishing industry and the teaching of English as a foreign language for starters. The vast Chinese population is bound to make a difference.
India
It is true there are other large, populous countries where English is widely used such as India, which have had only a peripheral influence on the English language. But one reason why India has not contributed more to the English language than a smattering of words and phrases and several gifted writers is that the Indians tried to emulate the English — and later the Americans — and shared the same values, cherishing freedom and democracy.
And though English is widely used in India, by no means is it the common language, which it will be in China if every Chinese has to learn the language from the age of six. That is bound to have a profound influence on the language.
Gordon Brown has ambitious plans to teach English to the Chinese using the internet and all the latest doodads. He believes English language teaching will become one of Britain’s biggest exports, earning 50 billion pounds a year by 2010, and bringing countries closer together.
Separated by a common language
I am not sure about the latter, though. From America to India,freedom struggles against British rule were led by people who knew English. And there is no denying the aphorism about America and Britain being “separated by a common language”.
Gordon Brown is offering English language teaching as Britain’s “new gift to the world”, ignoring the fact that it’s not new, nor his to give, says the Financial Times. It is British English, of course, he wants to promote, “not Hollywood’s and certainly not the bastard version used wherever non-native English speakers gather to do deals,” it adds.
Well, I wish we Indians were taught American, not British, English. Hollywood and American popular culture have contributed more to the spread of the English language than anything else. Even British English has been leavened by American words and expressions. So why not learn the English of the day?
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dont agree with you sir. wy should we indians be taught british or american english when we are most comfortable with indian english. let us talk of standardising indian english and teaching that in the school;. we are a force to be reckoned with in the world economy and world IT sector. the world will accept our version of the english language. it had better. pl read my blog on a related issue: http://pareltank.blogspot.com/2006/12/mallu-english.html