Friday, September 10, 2010 x 6:22 PM

Explain the significance of language in today's society and the need for a common language.

Language in today's society plays many important roles. Other than being a tool for communicating ideas and information with others, it is also used for expressing feelings and emotions towards others. Language is even part of someone’s identity and integral in what defines a person. However, in this day and age, is there really a need for a universal language? Although it is true a universal language would definitely bring about economic benefits, this would ultimately lead to extinction of minor languages. This would ultimately lead to a loss of cultural diversity and as such, I disagree to a need for an internationally spoken language.

In retrospect, there have been attempts to develop a universal language - the Esperanto language. This language was created with many similarities to other European languages with the purpose of creating a universal lingua franca. However, Esperanto is hardly used in current society, and there are many possible reasons. The most striking of the reasons is because it is impractical to teach the whole world a language. It would be very expensive to do so and the poorer people living in rural areas who are unable to afford education would lose out. There would even be many who would protest with this notion as minor languages which are on the brink of dying out would be compromised further. It is still not plausible to introduce a universal language to the world, therefore the bilingual education system in Singapore, so as to maximise the business markets Singaporeans can venture into.

However, having a common language does not require you to give up your mother tongue. This means that a universal language might not definitely lead to extinction of other languages, and since there is good use for it; better communication globally, a universal language should be adopted. As a matter of fact, constant usage of two languages in a bilingual community like Singapore has brought about Singlish, a very colloquial form of English used by Singaporeans with words originating from Malay and Chinese dialects; this universal language might contribute culturally to other countries and languages as well.

Following that, what would the criterion to what this universal language be? English would arguably be the best choice as more and more people in the world speak and are taught English. This is because English is the current lingua franca for international business, science and technology. In fact, more than 50% of all scientific entries are in English. However, is this criterion enough to decide which language should be the internationally used language? Most people in the world speak Mandarin Chinese yet why is it not considered? It is simply not possible to pick an existing to be used as a universal language without garnering any disapproval. Minorities would think they are being picked upon and there would be even more racial disputes in the world.

In conclusion, an internationally spoken language would only bring about unhappiness in majority of the people (less than half the world speak the most spoken language in the world, Mandarin Chinese) as they would be forced to learn a new language that they are unfamiliar with which might lead to eradication of their own mother tongues. Even though hypothetically having a universal language would lead to many economic benefits, cultural diversity must not be sacrificed for such a purpose. There is no need for a common language in today’s society.


By: Justin Lee 4G

562 words.

I wrote an essay.

Changing blogskin now.

Labels: Life