Is my skepticism about American bloggers valid?

Question

Lots of political/social issue bloggers claim they are trying to provide information to help with national and international issues. Yet, American bloggers--from what I can tell--never take a stand and recommend that Americans learn a second language. It's as though they expect the six billion people in the world to all know English. I see this as very egocentric. I have a blog and am always encouraging people to study a foreign languge to promote intercultural communication, and to show that they are making an effort to reach out to other cultures. Not doing so to me is a lazy, hypocritical attitude. I learned Spanish (nearly fluently) so I could communicate with Latin Americans who might not understand English because I feel I should practice what I preach (and translation software programs are worthless). Can anyone understand my viewpoint?

I think I didn't make myself clear about my question--my mistake. What I meant is that do you think that bloggers in the U.S. should try to learn a second language, not necessarily recommend that ALL Americans learn one. Bloggers can be the alternative communicators of fact, opinion, etc. of life in the U.S to others. How can they be effective if they expect everyone to understand English. Example, (don't know if it's true now) The NY Times REQUIRED its chief reporters abroad to have a working knowledge of the major language of the country they were reporting on.

Answer 1

Hello, holacarinados,

I was born and raised in Germany, and English is my second language, I have now lived in the USA for 30-ish years and still embrace both languages as I lend my services as translator between the two.
Blogging -- it all began as a nice idea, people sharing their individual interests on a global forum.
Recently, internet business has taken hold of it, and a lot of Blogs today are dedicated to nothing more than 'content' and thus web traffic.
Many Blogs are carried by google or yahoo ads to offset the cost of bandwidth. Not that you can blame anyone..
People look upon the internet as a source of 'free' information when it no longer is, at least some of the time.
What was once a domain of the few and educated is being inundated with the many and erhh.. 'not so educated'..
English is the most dominant language in 'civilized' countries today.
Most computer language is in English. Peoples of foreign nations must learn English in order to be proficient with most computer language.
It could have been French. I'm glad it isn't. Part of my required courses of study in Germany (where I was born and raised) was French. I hated it. I also learned Latin and Greek. I don't use it - much.
It is quite acceptable to me that most people converse in their own native language, and I think it is of benefit to get at least some rudimentary exposure to a foreign language, any foreign language!
Consider that for someone, for instance in China, English would be a second language.
A lot of writing work in English comes out of India, where people learn UK English as a primary language, although they may grow up with one or several of the predominant Indian dialects spoken at home. Indians have a good grasp of spelling and grammar of UK English and are very competitive in their rates, because of the favorable exchange rate between rupee and dollar.
Back to American Bloggers: Why are they blogging? Isn't the pursuit of one endeavor as dignified as the pursuit of another?
I absolutely respect the outreach to another language and/or culture, but I would not seek to make judgment upon those who don't happen to be on my 'bandwagon'.

Answer 2

as the current dominant economic (and military) power in the world, we can push our language ahead. If other countries want part of the economic cut and do business with us, it is in their best interest to have people who know our language. Why? because if they don't another country will gladly step up and go the extra effort for economic interaction.

While I commend you on learning a second language, the fact of the matter is that even with required foreign language classes shoved down every public school student's throat, having a nation trying to make every citizen bilingual is not very likely. Take China for example. Despite China being an old country with long enduring deep culutral roots, they are incredibly broken apart by dialect barriers. These barriers have not led to a greater understanding, but rather cultural genocide.

I say that rather than embracing diversity of language, the world needs to strive for unity of a universal standard language