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Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2025 8:42 am
Cultural and linguistic hegemony For British language expert Robert Phillipson, "English is a kind of linguistic cuckoo clock […] it forces non-native speakers of English to adopt its customs and its language."
READ ALSO Our foolproof tips for mastering a new kiribati business email list language In his book " The Domination of English: A Challenge for Europe ", he protests against the hegemony of this language in European institutions. It is important to know that within the EU, 82% of official documents are written in English .
The same phenomenon can be observed within the UN, where this percentage rises to 85%.
In response to this observation, a French law, the Toubon Law, was created in 1994 to affirm the government's desire to protect the French language against, among other things, anglicisms.
Its main objective is to guarantee that French citizens have access to information in French in their daily lives.
This linguistic imperialism sometimes even has dramatic consequences: at the beginning of the 2000s, at the Epinal hospital, cancer patients died due to the faulty use of a radiotherapy device , which did not have instructions for use in French.
Should we only speak English?
Faced with this admittedly somewhat defeatist observation, it seems logical to say that English is the only language worth learning if you want to be understood anywhere in the world.
But to rely on this reasoning would be a serious mistake.
Learning a language other than English is a decision you probably won't regret, and here's why.
READ ALSO Our foolproof tips for mastering a new kiribati business email list language In his book " The Domination of English: A Challenge for Europe ", he protests against the hegemony of this language in European institutions. It is important to know that within the EU, 82% of official documents are written in English .
The same phenomenon can be observed within the UN, where this percentage rises to 85%.
In response to this observation, a French law, the Toubon Law, was created in 1994 to affirm the government's desire to protect the French language against, among other things, anglicisms.
Its main objective is to guarantee that French citizens have access to information in French in their daily lives.
This linguistic imperialism sometimes even has dramatic consequences: at the beginning of the 2000s, at the Epinal hospital, cancer patients died due to the faulty use of a radiotherapy device , which did not have instructions for use in French.
Should we only speak English?
Faced with this admittedly somewhat defeatist observation, it seems logical to say that English is the only language worth learning if you want to be understood anywhere in the world.
But to rely on this reasoning would be a serious mistake.
Learning a language other than English is a decision you probably won't regret, and here's why.