Mnr A de Lange makes a most interesting point regarding the difficulties
in communication among and between peoples, and expresses a worry:
"But I also have this other worry nagging at me. The more English becomes
the super lingua franca of all the cultures in the world in order to
communicate information on the lower levels of complexity, the more
difficult it becomes for people of the English culture to steer its power
to open up dialogue in the higher levels of complexity. In other words,
the price to be paid for having English spoken all over the world by all
its peoples, mostly as their second language, is not to be able any more
to speak to English people on all that matters, especially the soul."
Like John, I too am not worried about english becoming the super lingua
franca of all the cultures. Having one universal language (whichever one)
will allow for the peoples of the world to understand one another's
writing and speech. In my experience, this creates bridges that then
allow us to further explore the depths of our various cultural
perspectives, other ways of interpreting reality. It creates an automatic
bond just in the fact that we can indeed communicate. If English does in
fact become the common tongue, it will no doubt be influenced and enhanced
by other languages. It's all very exciting and feels very expansive to
me.
S. Sauve
ssauve@mus-nature.ca
(Love consists in this, that two solitudes protect and touch and greet each
other. - RM Rilke)
--"Sauve, Suzanne" <SSAUVE@mus-nature.ca>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>