Shatha Hakami
07/06/2014
In the article "Can English be dethrone?" that is written by Roland J. L. Breton, the geolinguist and emeritus professor at the University of Paris, there is a major idea about languages domination and protection. Breton mentions that English language, specifically, has the power that makes it simply to spread and easily to use. He states that the domination of English, either politically or economy, might not be organized or supported by any power, as it is thought. Furthermore, Breton affairs that major languages have the ability and the strength to stand up against any foreign languages, such as English, that could effect and then eliminate them. Breton, on the other hand, conveys that the real language war could be between major languages, such as Arabic, Turkish, Dutch, Portuguese and so on, and native minority tongues, which puts the minority languages in danger of disappearing and die out. As a conclusion, Breton ends his article with two questions about how major languages can protect themselves from English domination and how minority languages can be saved and developed.
The article mentions that English has been grown globally since the beginning of 21st century because of the economic revolution. As a computer science student, I agree with the author. From my experience, I have never known the importance of English until I start my studying. Besides I had to understand lectures and text books, I also have been obligated to email and have conferences with professors and people from all around the world using English language only. Furthermore, after I graduated, I recognized that the majority of jobs in Saudi Arabia, for example, required the knowledge of English language. According to the article “Salary Expectations for Teaching English in Saudi Arabia” by Steve Patton, a part of marketing team LanguageCorps and a freelance writer, there are a variety of benefits for teaching English in SA, such as accommodation, tax-free salaries, airfare reimbursement, health insurance, and contract completion bonuses. All these benefits are in order to encourage English teacher whose first language is English to teach Saudis English language for education and employment reasons.
Additionally, Breton conclude his article by such a suggestion to protect minority languages from disappear in a question form which I think it is a weak conclusion. Despite his weakness approach of emphasizing the idea, I agree with him. In my opinion, speaking local language forms an identity for individuals. American, for example, can identify each other based on their accents. These accents may have much new vocabulary that other American could not understand. Similarly, Saudi people have tenth of accents because of the wide area that Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has. In order to protect this kind of identity, we have to protect their languages, their accents. According to the professor Peter Trudgill in his article “Language and Place,” which is posted on BBC website, the professor said,” An important component of this local, personal identity is the way we speak - our language, accent and dialect.” He continued, “Other people can use this information to help work out where we are from, and will say things like "You must be a Londoner", "You sound as if you're a southerner", "Whereabouts in Scotland are you from?", or "You're from Yorkshire, aren't you?". And labels for people of different regional origins are freely used - for example 'Geordie', 'Cockney', 'Jock', 'Taffy', or 'Scouse' depending on what you sound like when you speak.” What professor has said approves the idea that we have to protect local languages from the major languages domination.
07/06/2014
In the article "Can English be dethrone?" that is written by Roland J. L. Breton, the geolinguist and emeritus professor at the University of Paris, there is a major idea about languages domination and protection. Breton mentions that English language, specifically, has the power that makes it simply to spread and easily to use. He states that the domination of English, either politically or economy, might not be organized or supported by any power, as it is thought. Furthermore, Breton affairs that major languages have the ability and the strength to stand up against any foreign languages, such as English, that could effect and then eliminate them. Breton, on the other hand, conveys that the real language war could be between major languages, such as Arabic, Turkish, Dutch, Portuguese and so on, and native minority tongues, which puts the minority languages in danger of disappearing and die out. As a conclusion, Breton ends his article with two questions about how major languages can protect themselves from English domination and how minority languages can be saved and developed.
The article mentions that English has been grown globally since the beginning of 21st century because of the economic revolution. As a computer science student, I agree with the author. From my experience, I have never known the importance of English until I start my studying. Besides I had to understand lectures and text books, I also have been obligated to email and have conferences with professors and people from all around the world using English language only. Furthermore, after I graduated, I recognized that the majority of jobs in Saudi Arabia, for example, required the knowledge of English language. According to the article “Salary Expectations for Teaching English in Saudi Arabia” by Steve Patton, a part of marketing team LanguageCorps and a freelance writer, there are a variety of benefits for teaching English in SA, such as accommodation, tax-free salaries, airfare reimbursement, health insurance, and contract completion bonuses. All these benefits are in order to encourage English teacher whose first language is English to teach Saudis English language for education and employment reasons.
Additionally, Breton conclude his article by such a suggestion to protect minority languages from disappear in a question form which I think it is a weak conclusion. Despite his weakness approach of emphasizing the idea, I agree with him. In my opinion, speaking local language forms an identity for individuals. American, for example, can identify each other based on their accents. These accents may have much new vocabulary that other American could not understand. Similarly, Saudi people have tenth of accents because of the wide area that Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has. In order to protect this kind of identity, we have to protect their languages, their accents. According to the professor Peter Trudgill in his article “Language and Place,” which is posted on BBC website, the professor said,” An important component of this local, personal identity is the way we speak - our language, accent and dialect.” He continued, “Other people can use this information to help work out where we are from, and will say things like "You must be a Londoner", "You sound as if you're a southerner", "Whereabouts in Scotland are you from?", or "You're from Yorkshire, aren't you?". And labels for people of different regional origins are freely used - for example 'Geordie', 'Cockney', 'Jock', 'Taffy', or 'Scouse' depending on what you sound like when you speak.” What professor has said approves the idea that we have to protect local languages from the major languages domination.