Will English be the international language in the future?

Question

As China, India and Brazil grow as World powers, wich language(s) will prevail? Will next generations have to learn Portuguese like 500 years ago?

Answer 1

It already is an international language.

We need an "International auxiliary language" like esperanto.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_auxiliary_language

Why not english as the International Language? This seems a reasonable question, but

* English is by no means easy to master it is, generation after generation, the international language of a certain elite
* any nationally dominant language puts non-native speakers (in this case 90% of the world population) in an unfavourable position
* English - no matter how widespread still only reflects one specific type of culture, which may be upsetting to some
* in stress situations, one tends to lose ones ability to speak an irregular foreign language
* the above also applies to all other big languages as French, Spanish or Chinese.

Answer 2

No, English as we know it will not prevail. The universal lingo in Africa seems to be French. That is an example how different regions focus on different languages. America was the center of the computer boom and responsible for a lot of technology. This put English ahead of many other languages as the tech language. But, as you point out, Asia and Central America are having a huge impact on the world. English will not be ousted by another language, rather, it will become the nucleus for a new synthetic language that incorporates elements of all the big influences. This phenomena, known as creole, has already been proven. Look at the wildly variant influences on Caribbean culture. English, Spanish, Chinese, Amerind, Portuguese all found there way into the mainstream common language. Today's creole as spoken in the Caribbean is based on an archaic British form of English with strong elements of the fore mentioned languages. The typical American who listens to creole will feel lost but that you can almost understand what is said, but not quite. This will be the trend as population demographics change.

A perfect example of this is the street speak in Blade Runner. The common person spoke creole while the educated spoke English. Similar patterns will emerge around the world. I feel french will still play a huge part in several areas of the globe.

Answer 3

No offensive, and with all due respect, that's kind of self-centered as an American. English is not the only language that has any sort of influence in the world. If I remember correctly, it's only the third most spoken language in the world, after Mandarin and Spanish and followed closely by French. Besides, Mandarin is only spoken on Mainland China, mostly by the impoverished people in remote areas who wouldn't have much influence if China becomes a superpower anyway. Hong Kong and Macau, two of China's most populous and internationally influencial cities, speak Cantonese primarily. And even so, if anything, one or both of the most spoken Chinese languages (Mandarin or Cantonses), will enter the ranks of languages that would be beneficial to know like English, Spanish, French, and arguably Japanese; it won't be replacing anything.

Answer 4

Possibly for although China will develop into a leading world power it kanji based language is too slow to record developments and so English is used as a matter of routine except for documents relating to reporting to the public (where English is not taught)

Chinese schools are rapidly teaching English as s second language.

the second highest population is India where English is already the official language,

and then we have the English speaking countries, UK, USA, Canada, Australia, S Africa etc where English is the first language.

countries like Brazil and Russia may be large but propertionately the contribute littel economically to the world and besides in these countries english is used as the international language of usiness.


It may not be the first language but it is destined to become to common language of exchange and business..

Unless China changes its writing system and makes a typable chinees then we are destined to learn NEW Chinese!!

Answer 5

Probably english but definitely not chinese - a lot of chinese people cannot read chinese cos its so difficult - over 5000 characters in their alphabet ffs. Whoever said it was was either being sarcastic or is just plain dumb. English is apparently one of the easiest in the world (well even yanks have managed to learn a simplified version of it) and yes lots of people already speak it, not to mention its the language of technology so it looks fave to me.
Portugese : no way jose - not on ur nelly!!
Indians pretty well all speak english so they wouldnt need us to learn an indian language (of which there are a few).
Brazil: Do they have a language or do they just speak spanish or sumat? And when did they become a player - thats news ot me im afraid, could b wrong obviously........

Answer 6

I think English is already the dominating international language. The majority of schools worldwide teach English as a second language, much of the Net is in English and many developed countries speak English. When you go abroad to popular tourist areas, signs tend to be both in the local lanuage and in English. China and India, both growing countries, place emphasis on learning English.

Answer 7

English is the one language on Earth that is most easily adaptable and speakable. While the spelling may be a bit complicated, it doesn't have the problem of tonal inflection like Eastern languages, and it isn't as constrained as some languages that genderize everything.
Also, it is already spoken in more countries than most other languages. Most of the people who speak Chinese, etc, are in their home countries.

I think some form of it will stay the international language for the foreseeable future.

Answer 8

Probably Portuguese or Spanish might become a second language. (Latin America is growing, you know?)
English will always prevail due to American and British power in the world.

Answer 9

500 years, who the heck knows. For the next 100 years, though, we can predict English will remain a desired language, with Chinese coming right along too. Don't forget Spanish either.

Answer 10

It is likely Chinese or Spanish will gain a lot more influence than they currently have. Spanish is already a lingua franca in the US, and although English and French are the international languages of buisiness and science, it seems that they won't stay that way forever, now the British and French empires no longer exist.