Is English the ideal language to become a global common denominator?

Question

Purely from a lingustic standpoint, is English easy to learn? If not, which language would make a better choice, regardless of politics or economics?

Thanks

Answer 1

It can only seen from an extra linguistic point of view. So far, english is the best one. Not "the best" in a linguistic sense. The best.. because many people think it is "the universal language". It is obviously NOT. But many think that. and, as a gossip, it spreads like fire... and many more get convinced by that. So.. as many think english is THE international language, they'll me motivated (or forced?) to learn it, thus giving support to the gossip. But despite this, it can't become the universal language. None can.
I'd still support a IAL for that. Esperanto is the most successful of them all. So.. much as in the English example, I support Esperanto.

Answer 2

No America did not chose the English language. The English language is originally from England a country in Europe and its people are called the British. the Americans didn't know about English and the whole North and South America was UNKNOWN to the rest of the world until Christopher Columbus,a sailor discovered both North and South America in September 1492. The Americans were perfectly naked and didn't wear clothes at that time. The Britishers were very powerful in olden days and they captured america (U.S.A) and taught them English. Before learning English the Americans used to speak in THOUSANDS of different languages which they stopped using after learning English from the Britishers and just like that the Britishers captured many parts of the world, taught the English language to the people living over there and showed the whole world that are the most superior country in the world and that's the reason why English is considered as a global language. If the Spanish were powerful instead of the British and if they had captured many parts of the world then today on internet and in school we all would have been talking and chatting in Spanish AND THAT THE BOTTOMLINE.

Answer 3

I've been told English is a hard language to learn. I've also heard the average Chinese memorizes like 4000 characters.

Personally, I learned a great deal of English before I can remember (like most Americans), and the rest in grade school... and people are sponges at that age. Learning it as an adult, I'm not sure how hard it is, you'd have to ask a foreigner who has had to do that.

On the other hand, I took Spanish in high school, and loved it. It was so easy. English is notorious for constantly breaking its own laws, and Spanish just doesn't seem to do that. Once you have the basic concept of conjugations down, Spanish is a breeze. Also it helps that it's one of the direct derivatives from Latin, and although English is as well, Spanish deviates from it far less often. This makes a difference since Latin is an extremely well structured language base. It makes it easier to hear a word and figure out what it means just by the sound of it. The only thing I ever had trouble with is rolling my tongue!

So, it's kind of a two part answer. Learning from birth, I'd say English. But if you're learning as an adult, I think Spanish would be easier.

Next question.

Answer 4

English is the ideal global language for -me-, because it's the only language I speak fluently. 8^)

But English is difficult to learn as a second language. It has many irregular verbs, and the rules of pronunciation are very strange--for instance the letters 'gh' are pronounced six or seven different ways depending on the word. It takes a long time to become fluent because of all the little quirks of the language one must learn, and even then a person speaking English as a second language will almost always sound different from a native speaker.

I think the best language would be an 'invented' language that was contrived to be simple, with all regular verbs, tenses, person, etc., all standardized to be easy to learn. There have been many attempts to do this. I think Esperanto is the best known. Esperanto is much easier to learn than any 'real' language. And it would be -everyone's- second language, so everyone is on the same footing.

Answer 5

The most commonly used language around the world are variants of English. It is used for official purposes in many countries.

It is likely that a form of English will become the International Language given time.

The driving force behind the spread of English are the Americans, mainly because of trade.

The official English speaking countries are, UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, USA.

In addition there are huge number of English speakers in India, almost the entire middle class in fact who use it extensively. That's about 220million Indians by the way. That's just the middle class.

In the EU most of the new member states use English as their second language and find it very convenient. The Nordic and Germanic countries of the EU prefer English over French or German and are pushing it for all it's worth.

One major nation which used English extensively and for business and official purposes are the Chinese. They use English as a technical language, for the most part, not conversational.

Why do so many people like English? English is an entirely democratic language in that it starts life out there on the streets. There are no scholars in ivory towers telling the people how to speak and use English.

The OED [Oxford English Dictionary] usually wait for a word to be in common use for about ten years [as slang] before adding it to the language. Once it has been included, it remains there for ever. There are now about 600,000 words in the OED.

English speakers do not have to refer to the OED and can and usually do have their own versions of an English dictionary or dictionaries.

Why not? It's free ain't it?

English is not apparently all that difficult to learn. It is crammed full of words from every language under the sun and people learning English quickly realise they have already got a few words already, even before they start.

Answer 6

It's not easy, but then again no language is easy. However, being as I learned how to speak English when I was 6 along with Egyptian, I can speak both pretty good and cannot say one is harder than the other. Just different. English is superior only when regarding politics and economics, if excluded however, then all languages stand a fair chance.

Answer 7

I would have thought it already is a global common denominator. Yes, it is very easy to learn among the western ones I´d say it is perhaps the easiest although that has got mainly to do with the learner´s background. The only crooked thing about it is the pronunciation-not even English-speaking people get it right sometimes- and may I also add the spelling differences between UK and US English. I am not sure about Australian spelling rules...;-)

Answer 8

I don't know how easy English is to learn as it is my native language but I do know that most of the world's population already learn it as a second language and it IS the global common language .. however much the French may hate that fact!!

Answer 9

It already is global. All commercial pilots and air traffic controllers have to use it to avoid confusion. Scientists in many countries use it because their language is too slow and inflexible, especially asia. Keeping in mind the difference between american english, and the queen's english. Modern american english is very flexible and can adapt to and adopt new words and abstract meanings. Whereas older languages are more set in stone.

Answer 10

Ok,I would suggest German as the language easy to learn of useful to practise after English.
Actually Turkish is also one of the languages becoming common on the world eventhough it is said to be hard to speak...
I made my suggestion,and the rest is your choice...
I hope it helps!