As the world “shrinks” — international flights get cheaper, international commerce increases, etc. — many parents today recognize that imposing bilingualism on their children will give those kids big advantages in tomorrow’s job markets. But if you and your spouse are monolinguals, what can you do? In recent years, more and more school districts and communities are offering various forms of “bilingual education,” “FL immersion education,” etc. How do you go about choosing an educational program for your children that will best help them to master a second language, without jeopardizing other aspects of their educational development?

First: What you need to know about early FL education –
If your child goes through a bilingual/immersion program, that does not mean that you can sit back and assume fluency on their part. First, due to the fact that they are learning solely through the educational domain, there WILL be vocabulary gaps (all FL learning is about experience — if you don’t experience something in the FL, you won’t know it). Bilinguals who learn the FL from school (even at early ages) are very different from those who grew up speaking both languages. While it is reasonable to assume that most children will develop a high level of competency, they may still have a light accent or difficulties in certain aspects of language proficiency.
Next, it’s necessary to be aware that some children do “reject” the FL. Not every learner placed in an immersion setting is a successful learner. Usually, this rejection will be due to personality issues (such as the child despising the teacher, and thus relating the language with this disliked person in his/her mind), and can thus be wholly unpredictable. The stress of being thrown into an unfamiliar language setting can also be upsetting to the child.
Finally, be aware of the burdens that will be placed upon YOU (the parent). Little things that we take for granted (like helping a child with homework) may become infeasible when the homework is in an unfamiliar language. The child will still look to you for support and help, and you’ll need to find ways of offsetting your lack of subject knowledge (such as enrolling the child in outside study-groups).

I’ve found that many parents, and even many educators, do not properly distinguish between bilingual and immersion education. Bilingual education refers to (or should refer to — as noted, the terms often get confused) a theory that child learners will learn a second language faster if they are provided with content knowledge (scholastic stuff!) in their native language, as opposed to trying to grapple with subject content (e.g., science class stuff: the water cycle, etc.) while simultaneously struggling with the foreign language. According to this theory, an incoming immigrant child will learn the language of his/her host faster and more efficiently if taught in a mix of his/her native language and the target language. The native language input allows the child to learn new concepts, which he/she can then apply to the new language. The goal is to gradually increase the level of FL input until the learner is ready to be mainstreamed into a monolingual class. In theory, this should take just a few years, and the child will become bilingual with equal access to subject matter in both languages, and thus fully able to compete and learn in an FL language environment. At this point, I imagine that more than a few (American) readers are snickering in memory of the debacles of protest and various state amendments that have been passed to outlaw this practice. To put it simply, the implementation in various locales was lousy. Many immigrant parents even protested the practice, which they saw as an attempt to hold their children back from learning English. I’ll save a full critique of what went wrong for later, but to put it simply, there was a large disconnect between the theory and its implementation on the ground. That being said, there certainly were successful examples of bilingual education across the country. The point of all this is to let you know 2 things about bilingual ed.: 1) it’s purpose is not really to teach English-speaking children a 2nd language, so it’s not your best option if that’s what you’re looking for; and 2) choose a program carefully — talk to parents whose kids are already there, and take heed of any criticisms of the program.

Immersion education is, admittedly, much more rare, but is actually what you want if you are in your own country, and just want to give your child an early head start at language learning. The confusing thing is that many “bilingual ed.” programs are actually immersion education programs. Refer to the above note on teachers and administrators frequently confusing terms. Immersion education basically entails dropping kids into an all- FL educational environment from Kindergarten, usually through 6th grade or so. The teachers are usually FL natives, but (important distinction) are still fluent in the children’s native language as well. They have to be, because the children, of course, won’t usually respond in the target language initially. In fact, under most program guidelines, children are allowed to respond in either language (unless they’re doing specific language drills) until around 2nd grade. It’s well recognized that child FL learners have a “quiet period” where they are simply absorbing, and not responding much. This curriculum caters to that reality. The children are taught literacy (reading and writing) in the FL first. This is sometimes jarring to parents! Native language literacy is usually introduced in the 3rd grade, and is treated almost like a foreign language, but of course, as the children already are fluent speakers of the language, they usually master the literacy skills quickly, and without undue problems. By grades 5-6, there is often some attempt to introduce some parallel subject content in both languages, as it is recognized that the majority of students will commence native language education in junior high school.
Strangely enough, the immersion format is exactly what bilingual education advocates say would be most harmful to children and should be avoided, but this form of education is much more likely to be found in (pricey) private schools than in public ones. When it really comes down to it, success will probably depend more on the individual child than on the method of instruction.

If you have the opportunity (i.e., availability and financially viability), both immersion and bilingual programs can be excellent, but you really want to investigate carefully before signing your child up, as not all programs are created equally. You definitely want to make sure that the program is set up to meet your own child’s needs. If no form of FL K-12 (or K-6) schooling is available in your area, you may still check out the possibility of specific language schools. These are extra-curricular schools that simply teach the language as a separate subject. They are much more widely available. Community centers often offer language courses — some geared for children. Often, if there is an immigrant community where you live, they will have special classes set up for their own children to learn the heritage language (particularly literacy). If you know a speaker of the language you’re interested in your child learning, you could simply inquire about having your child undergo some FL tutoring, as well.

There’s a lot of options towards helping children to learn an FL. As a parent, your job is to simply investigate the options and to determine what would be best for your child.

As I mentioned earlier this week, last week, I received the following email (name removed via request):

Here is my situation. My husband and I are expecting a baby soon, and we need to develop a plan for bringing him/her up bilingually. We don’t want to use the standard one parent - one language rule, or the other system some people use, the “minority language at home” rule.

To the extent possible, we plan to spend time in both countries (the US and Argentina), and we would like to have a household in which both languages have equal weight and no parent is ever the “minority parent.” The idea I have is that we would alternate languages on a daily basis at home, but I have not been able to find any examples of other families who manage bilingualism this way. I have reviewed the existing books and websites, but they all seem to assume people will use one of the two mainstream systems. If you have any ideas about how I might learn about alternative systems, I’d love to hear them.

The literature really does have very little to say on this topic. It seems that the majority of “mixed language couples” will only have one language in common, whether that means one partner who exclusively speaks the other’s language at home (strangely enough, demographic data shows that this person is, more often than not, the woman — I don’t really know what that says about us guys….), or both partners using a third (neutral?) language. Most everyone I know who was raised with mothers and fathers speaking separate languages would admit that one of the parents frequently didn’t know what was going on. Essentially, the kids would speak “past” the other parent when using the other language. To be honest, this must require the patience of Job on the parent’s part. I, for one, do NOT like to be left out of conversations…
Still, what do you do if you both understand one another, and you are already used to conversing in this way? I, for one, believe that this kind of household will afford the children with an extraordinarily rich linguistic upbringing. Being able to get multi-lingual input from both parents could help to solidify concepts in both languages, and will help to put both languages on equal footing as far as the child’s mental “ranking” of language importance goes. If input in both languages comes from both parents, the child will possibly grow up considering bilingualism to be “normal.” Furthermore, the chance to regularly traverse between cultures is an opportunity to develop cultural sensitivities that most people will never truly grasp.

The following is excerpted from my reply:

I can certainly understand the desire to maintain the bilingual status quo within your household. Interestingly enough, most relationships tend to forever be bound to the language(s) in which they started and were developed. For example, most of my Chinese-speaking friends from way back before I ever studied Chinese still consistently address me in English, even though it often would be much easier to converse in Chinese (as I am sometimes more proficient in that than they are in English). The language choice of English is simply an ingrained habit between us.

The “one parent, one language” rule is still very practical, despite your and your husband’s bilingualism. My initial opinion is to adopt a flexible variation of this. Many people misconstrue the purpose of this “one parent, one language” method. It is not merely to enforce native speaker accuracy in each language. To be honest, you could speak Spanish exclusively, and your husband speak English, and the results would not vary that significantly (particularly if the child is getting frequent input in both languages from other sources). In your situation, where you are already used to switching with your husband, varying your speech with the child could actually become disconcerting and exhausting. From a listening/comprehension standpoint, hearing “blended language” at home should not slow down your child in the least bit.

The major advantage of “one parent, one language” comes in how the child chooses to respond to you. If the child hears both languages from both parents, he will still learn to discriminate between the two languages without problem, but oftentimes, children will have a marked preference for using one language over the other. I would try to institute some regularity in your expectations of how the child is supposed to respond. You need to encourage the child to exercise both languages equally if you expect him to be a balanced bilingual. Clear expectations of when to use each language will have 2 practical benefits:

first, it will help the child to differentiate which language is appropriate for which settings. It is a common problem for bilingual children to face some initial confusion with monolinguals. Second, and more importantly, when the child begins to socialize outside of the home, be it in the US or Argentina, he will face enormous peer pressure to speak only their common language. Children are often very fickle creatures, and will often bow to peer pressure to “resist” speaking in a whichever is the foreign language to their peers. Upon beginning schooling, many parents report children becoming less willing to address parents in the “foreign” language. Speaking the foreign language to parents, especially in the presence of peers, can cause embarrassment to the child. However, if the child has been raised speaking only one language to a certain parent, it barely even enters their mind to do otherwise. Some bilinguals I know have said they were barely even cognizant that their parents knew English until well into their teens.

So when to use each language? That’s the big question…

I would say, in your (our) situation, you might want to “mostly” address your children in English — certainly all beginning utterances. You could use Spanish still with your husband, and certainly join in discussions-in-progress. You would have to agree on details with your husband, but what you might want to do is have a standing, “when alone with me, we only speak _______” rule with the child. When both parents are present, it could be a free-for-all of blended conversation. Do be mindful to teach the child as he grows which language is appropriate in certain situations (e.g., when English-speaking guests are present, it’s best to speak only English, and the opposite for Spanish speaking guests).

Today we’re going to take a closer look at family bilingualism, and some general recommendations for what parents can do to create a bilingual environment for their child.

As mentioned yesterday, family bilingualism is when two (or more) languages are spoken by children within the home environment. The classical model of this situation is having each parent address the child in a separate language. This can also be achieved through FL-speaking, live-in grandparents. There has been a recent move in America towards conscientiously seeking out FL-speaking (typically Spanish, although according to some news articles, Chinese has become a hot option in some trend-setting cities) maids/domestic servants amongst the upper crust of society. This mirrors a centuries-old tradition of enforcing bilingualism in children by hiring FL-speaking “governesses.”

Some words of warning — while it is not necessary to be absolutely fluent (i.e., native speaker) in a language in order to teach it to your children (if, and only if, the child has immediate access to a large and varied community of speakers of that language), you do need to be sufficiently comfortable to continue using the language exclusively with your kids across all conversational domains. I’ve seen a lot of casual FL speakers who try to speak to their kids only in the language. They usually last at most a day or two. When you’re with your kids, it’s hard not to break into your native language — both natural instincts for “baby talk” and the desire to communicate as effectively as possible with your children tends to kick in… Mind you, some long term immigrants do manage to do exactly this. As I discussed yesterday, it used to be standard educational policy to encourage immigrant families in the US to speak to their children only in English. Thus, it’s possible, but why deprive your kids of the most natural and fluent language capabilities which you possess (i.e., your native language)?

Also, I’d like to issue my opinion on hiring FL-speaking maids to do the bilingual “dirty-work” for you. While this may seem like a good option to monolingual parents who want to give their kids a linguistic “leg up,” personally, I would simply not be very comfortable having my kids growing up speaking with someone who’s essentially a household member in a language that neither I nor my wife really understand. There are simply too many ways that this can backfire! You will be plotted against in the language. That much is the least of your worries. Essentially, I think it’s best if at least one of the parents can always be fully abreast of what’s going on within the home.
Additionally, if neither parent speaks the language, you will never really know how much language fluency the child has actually attained. I have known many a parent who would, in a heartbeat, describe their children as “fluent” in a foreign language. When I investigate the child’s ability however, it quickly becomes apparent that the child simply knows a few limited phrases. No knowledge of the language yourself = no means for assessing your children’s progress. This can be caused by any of a range of factors. The “maid” and the child may simply not come into contact as much as one assumes. The child may resist using the other language (especially if he comes into contact with it well after developing first language skills). It can also be due to duplicity (of a sort) on the worker’s part. In East Asia, I once met a person who enthusiastically hired a live-in caregiver for her children, thinking that this woman (a high-level speaker, although not a native, of English) would allow her children to grow up speaking English (a highly desired trait throughout much of East Asia). Whenever the mother was present, the caregiver would address the children in English, but whenever the parents weren’t there, she would switch to the children’s native language. It seemed rather blatant, as she was doing it in front of me. I asked why she kept switching, and she simply replied that the children “wouldn’t listen” when addressed in English. While she was well-aware that she had been hired for her English speaking ability, she seemingly hadn’t made the connection that this had to be done full-time!
Another issue to keep in mind is that if a “language of intimacy” is created between the caregiver and the child, this may create an emotional bond between them that may make it very difficult to an employer-employee relationship. This may be more my middle-class (re. “servant-less”) upbringing speaking, but I find the idea of someone else raising my kids in a language that I don’t understand somewhat creepy.

Tomorrow: variations on bilingual families…

Welcome back!
Today we’ll be taking a closer look at raising a bilingual child — specifically, we’ll be looking at the actual techniques behind encouraging a child’s bilingual development.

First, it is necessary to pose the question “what is a bilingual?” Good question! I wish there were a real answer that I could relate, however, a hard and fast definition doesn’t actually exist. Sure, we all use the word from time to time, and we probably “know” what it means, but, like in my previous discussion of the word “fluent,” nailing down an operative definition is actually quite difficult. One must first distinguish between two types of bilingualism (or multilingualism). There are bilinguals who learned through simultaneous acquisition (i.e., they grew up speaking both languages together), and those who learned via sequential acquisition (i.e., they learned the second language later in life — whether as a child or an adult - it doesn’t matter). In the course of today’s discussion, we’ll be referring solely to simultaneous acquisition. Another issue to grapple with when considering bilingualism is “language dominance.” It’s very rare to meet a child (or adult) who speaks two languages equally well (the so-called “balanced bilingual”). Normally, they will be more capable in one language, or their language preference may depend upon the topic of discussion. This may drive some nuts, but I’m just going to out an draw an absolute line in the sand by saying that no bilingual has or will ever have absolutely equal facility in both languages. This is logically impossible as one will note that it’s nearly impossible to have one-to-one translation equivalents straight down the entire lexicon of a native adult speaker. There will always be domains that one encounters in one language and not in the other. Additionally, there are simply words in every language that don’t really translate to others. Even beginning learners are typically aware of at least a few words that don’t have direct English equivalents. A major reason for this typical split in language use (and thus dominance and ability) becomes apparent if we look at the way that most bilinguals become bilingual.

Bilinguals can generally be categorized into the one (or more) or the following groups: family bilingualism, community bilingualism, and educational bilingualism. These groups are merely the major ways by which children can grow up with two (or more) languages. Family bilingualism is typified by the “one parent - one language” approach, wherein different caretakers speak different languages to the child (typically the linguistic division is between mother and father, but can also be grandparents, a maid, etc.). Community bilingualism can be a community where two languages are frequently spoken side-by-side, and facility with both is expected (which will often be reflected within the home, as well), or, more typically, where the family speaks one language, and the outside community speaks a different language, which the family uses outside of the confines of family discussion. This is the common situation for children of immigrants, who may speak their parents’ native tongue inside the house, and English everywhere else. The final category, educational bilingualism is often excluded from the books, as it is often synonymous with community bilingualism. I added it to reflect the prevalence of people who receive K-12 education (sometimes starting earlier) in a language other than what is spoken at home or in their immediate community. This can take various forms: from the suburbanites who send their children to expensive immersion schools, to people in India who (often already having 2 or more family or community languages) are often educated solely in English.

The way you learn a language will greatly impact the domains you are comfortable speaking about. Someone who speaks Spanish at home and English at school will probably be only able to discuss science matters in English, but may have trouble remembering English terms for household items (such as cooking implements). My wife is a great example of this. She speaks only Taiwanese at home, and in fact, her mother can’t really carry a conversation in Mandarin (the national language of Taiwan). My wife didn’t speak a word of Mandarin until she began school at age 6, but now at age XX(you think I’m seriously gonna tell…. I VALUE my life!!!), she considers Mandarin to be her 1st language, and indeed she is much more proficient in Mandarin. HOWEVER…. Every once in a while, I come across a term (very often culinary-related) that she simply doesn’t know in anything other than Taiwanese.

The relative prestige of languages will also greatly influence how well a child will learn. Children are amazingly sensitive to social critique. In most societies where languages “rub shoulders,” we unconsciously “rank” languages in order of prestige. For example, in the USA, English, being the dominant language, will of course be ranked higher than other languages, but other foreign languages are not all equal. For example, Japanese tends to hold a higher prestige than Spanish. While any language can potentially become a source of pride and cultural/ethnic solidarity on the child’s part, peer pressure will exert more force towards squashing the child’s desire to develop any language that is negatively viewed or poorly ranked by society at large. Despite some guilt-racked liberals who would claim to the contrary, this is not a phenomenon unique to America or the Western world. This is a human condition. We make snap (stereotyped) judgments about people based upon the language they speak, and more often than not, this is largely based upon the popularity and economic standing of the group connected with the language. I have found it fascinating throughout my travels to realize where American English falls in the ranking orders of other countries (– it doesn’t ever seem to be in the middle — it’s always either ranked very high or very low).

Enough for one night. We’ll get into specific recommendations for parents tomorrow.

Last week, I received an email from a reader asking for specific advice on raising bilingual children. She gave me permission to reprint the letter (minus her name) and my response, which I will do later this week, but first I would like to discuss a bit about the purposes, practices, and principles of raising bilingual kids.

First, it frequently comes as a surprise to many in (largely) monolingual countries like the USA, but bilingualism/multilingualism is the norm in the world, not the exception. That is to say, more people grow up speaking more than one language (on a regular basis) than grow up speaking a single language. Throughout the years, there have been educational movements that have taught that bilingualism is inherently confusing to children, and retards their development. Many children of immigrants to America in the 50’s and 60’s will report that their parents were advised by school counselors to speak only English (however poorly) in the home, rather than confuse the children by having to deal with two languages. I certainly hope that this goes without saying, but these schools of thought are simply wrong, wrong, wrong. The psychologists who developed such reasoning seemed to basically forget that they were talking about children! The theory is predicated on the thought that learning a language is “hard” and “potentially confusing,” yet it blithely ignores the fact that children are continuously (successfully) learning their mother tongues without undue stress. Today, one would be hard-pressed to find a linguist or psychologist who wouldn’t enthusiastically encourage able parents to raise their children bilingually.

A lot of the debate between whether or not learning more than one language would place a higher burden on developing children comes from a debate (as of yet still unresolved) amongst linguists over whether bilingual brains have a single language system encompassing both languages, or if they have two separate (dueling?) language systems. While, to be honest, the evidence is heavily in favor of the latter, it must be admitted that there are fierce defenders of both sides, and no one can claim with any degree of certainty to “know” the answer to this. It should, however, be pointed out that evidence for presupposed determinants for a single language system are often missing. For example, we would guess that a learner with two languages thrown into a single system would make mistakes of mixing grammar, sentences, etc. There is little evidence to suggest that this happens, however there is enough anecdotal evidence to prevent the theory from being tossed altogether. Some bilingual children, for example, have overextended morphological markers (such as the plural “-s”) inappropriately to the other language, however this is almost always short-lived, and usually primed by an exception (e.g. the famous example is that of German-English bilinguals seeing “women” and “men” as evidence that the “-en” plural marker from German may extend to English, causing strange words such as “toy-en”). There is also the case of code-switching, which I’ve talked about before. This used to be the major “proof” of slowed development in bilinguals: they scored miserably on vocabulary tests. However, once someone actually thought to test words in both languages (as opposed to monolingual testing), it was quickly determined that bilinguals’ vocabulary developed at the same rate (if not sometimes better) than monolinguals. It should be fairly apparent that one does not always have equal access to vocabulary in both languages. Certain subjects are simply more likely to come up in some settings, and not others. For example, if Mom always brushes my hair and dresses me speaking in Greek, and Dad always plays soccer with me in English, guess which language I’m more likely to know sports terms in…

Bilingualism is associated with a lot of good traits, not the least of which is simply being able to function in two languages and cultures. In addition, bilingualism is associated with higher levels of creativity, memory, metalinguistic abilities, cultural sensitivity, social skills, science and math ability, etc.

So, to close, if you have the ability to raise a bilingual child, go for it!!!

Tomorrow: What is a bilingual, and how do I raise one?

The shift in use of English to other countries has resulted in a rise of norm-providing, English-speaking countries from outside of the traditional Anglo, Judeo-Christian sphere. English speakers in Africa and Asia are coining new varieties of English to reflect their unique African or Asian experiences. While this increasing pluralism is viewed as antagonistic to some “Eurocentric” Anglophones, the expansion of the English canon to embrace other norms is precisely what has allowed English to become a global phenomenon. The use of English to express new ideas from varying cultural backgrounds enriches English vocabulary, and demonstrates the creativity of the multilingual people coining new terms and expressions. Some, such as Soyinka (1993, p.88), applaud this new use as former colonies twist “the linguistic blade in the hands of the traditional cultural castrator.” The English language, once a tool for forced colonization, is being used by the former conquered peoples to express their unique identities. Unique Indian, African, and SE Asian forms of English have come about, with rich expressions which combine native languages with English, to express themselves. In India, for example, one finds expressions such as cousin-brother (male cousin), crore (ten million), opticals (eyeglasses), and nose-screw (a woman’s nose ornament). In Singapore, one finds Chinese grammatical features such as the ending particle lah (As in, “The price is too high lah!”), and the omission of the copula (“You pretty!”).

Of course, changes in the English language are not a new concept. English has been adapted to local needs wherever it has gone: from Scotland, to America, to Australia. In the colonial US, words like tomahawk, wigwam, and teepee were added to reflect the realities of a new continent. Thomas Jefferson wrote, in a letter to John Waldo in 1813, “The new circumstances under which we are placed call for new words, new phrases, and for the transfer of old words to new objects. An American dialect will therefore be formed” (as reported by Menken, 1921).

All trends show that English will continue to rise in prominence, and as long as that happens, we can expect for people to continue adapting the language to reflect their own circumstances, culture, environment, and desires.

Thus, we can determine, that when foreign words enter into a new language, they have the potential to become deracinated from the original loaning language, and to truly become part of the other language’s natural lexicon. When words from other languages are embraced to describe the unique cultural experiences and observations from another land, that word has truly ceased to be “owned” by the original lending culture. Thus, in answer to my question in the title, there is potentially no real “ownership” of words — just usages…

Menken, H.L. (1921). The American language: An inquiry into the development of English in the United States, 2nd ed. New York: A.A. Knopf; Bartleby.com, 2000. Retrieved 2/4/05 from Bartleby Books online website at http://www.bartleby.com/185/

Soyinka, W. (1993). Art, dialogue and outrage: Essays on literature and culture. New York: Pantheon Books.

English has, in the last 500 years, spread from a small, regional Germanic tongue, spoken exclusively on a few islands off the western coast of Europe, to a language spoken on every continent and geographical region across the globe. But it is only in the last fifty years that English has risen to the status of a true world language and means of international communication.
I witnessed some of the effects of the rise of global English first-hand during the last six years, working in Japan, Spain, and Taiwan. Having seen the vast market for English teachers/trainers in those countries (one can go to eslcafe.com or tefl.com and see the demand for native English instructors), I can attest to English’s perceived importance in the world. Many of my students in these countries professed that learning English is seen as a means to better employment, or enrollment at better universities. Promotions at international companies (such as Johnson & Johnson, Madrid, where I worked in 2000-’01) are often based partly on English proficiency, due to the need to deal with customers and other branches located in various countries throughout the world. In Japan and Taiwan, there are specific English level examinations as part of the college entrance examination process for the better universities such as the University of Tokyo, and Taiwan National University.
English is no longer the exclusive domain of the major Anglophonic countries, the USA, UK, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and Ireland. There are about 75 different countries today that give “a special place” (usually legal recognition as an official language, but not always) to English (Crystal, 1997). Estimates vary, but one could still conservatively guess that there are about 670 million people who speak English as a native language, or with native-like command. If one measures reasonable communicative competence (rather than native-like fluency), the number goes up to 1.8 billion people (Crystal, 1997). Thus, over one quarter of the world can be said to have a reasonable grasp of English. Braj Kachru (1995) breaks spread of English into three concentric circles, labeled the inner circle (traditional Anglophonic countries, such as the UK and USA), the outer circle (countries where English plays some official role – usually former British colonies such as Singapore and India), and the expanding circle (countries that, recognizing the economic potential of English, have put tremendous resources behind training their citizenry in the use of English – this is the domain of EFL, in places like Japan, China, Poland, etc.). English has become the a means of international communication. It holds official status in most international organizations, is the most frequently used language for scientific papers, and is frequently used as a medium of higher education, even in countries where it has no official status, such as Sweden and the Netherlands (Crystal, 1997). The British Council estimated that in the year 2000, there were about 1,000,000,000 people learning English (Graddol, 1997).

References (in case you’re interested)

Crystal, D. (1997). English as a global language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Graddol, D. (1997). The future of English: A guide to forecasting the popularity of the English language in the 21^st century. UK: The British Council

Kachru, B. (1995). The intercultural nature of modern English. A speech delivered at the Global Cultural Diversity Conference Proceedings. Sydney, Australia.

Continuing on the thread of language mixing…. People who argue the spread of a “World English,” in particular, point to the resources spent by governments of English-speaking countries to promote English-learning abroad as evidence of a nefarious plot to undermine other languages. The truth is, all countries promote their own languages to a certain degree. That is one of the (many) functions of consulates. In fact, a quick tip to language teachers and learners: contact the nearest embassy of a country that speaks the language you are teaching/learning. If you explain that you are interested in that country and language, they will likely send you a packet of free resource information on the language, and tourist information on the country. They are merely in the business of attracting tour traffic, and promoting interest in their country. To put it simply, the sum of government thinking is: more ability to communicate = more ability to trade = $$$!
Almost every country wants to promote and facilitate people’s learning of their language. There are a few exceptions for various reasons, but for the most part, people are flattered by others wanting to learn their language. In the case of English, the desire/willingness to learn is often quite high. English has been put into the standard curriculum of most countries’ public educational systems. Far from being due to pressure from English speaking governments, this is instead due to market forces. English has become the language of world trade. Even when no English-speaking countries are involved, it forms a lingua franca for which businesses and countries to approach one another. In Spain, I taught employees at Johnson&Johnson Corp. Contrary to popular opinion, these Spanish employees did not need English to talk to “American bosses” — indeed most had little or no dealings with Americans (and when they did, it was almost always with fluent Spanish-speaking Americans, of which there is no shortage). Instead, they used English to speak with Norwegians, Germans, French, etc. When Thai and Chinese businesses make deals, you can bet they discuss in English.
In this light, the fact that English-speaking countries promote English-learning, offering substantial resources to other countries, is more of a public service than any nefarious imperialistic design. In fact, most English-teaching/learning services offered by the US State Dept. falls under the classification of foreign aid spending. Surely, the US benefits from the promotion of English abroad, but they benefits go disproportionately to the country being assisted, as they are given a tool with which to promote trade with any partner — not just the country providing the help.

As we’ve looked at the mixing of vocabularies that occurs as languages and cultures bump up against one another, we’ve seen that it is 1) a naturally occurring phenomenon; and 2) it is not an issue of pressure or force, but is shaped by innovation and ideas that are widely accepted. This debate has come into full focus in the linguistics community mostly as we see English learning, language, and vocabulary spreading throughout the world (and infiltrating the world’s languages) at an unprecedented rate. This has caused some to decry a perceived linguistic imperialism — a conscious promotion of English by English-speaking communities over, and at the expense of, other languages. Today, we’re going to be looking at whether accepting foreign ideas and terminology is indeed a value-laden concept. Put roughly, is it good, bad, or neutral?

While many bemoan the ready acceptance of foreign over native vocabulary as evidence of a degradation of national values, and indeed a corruption of the very language itself, it is my opinion (note: OPINION — there are no definite answers on this issue - anyone who tells you otherwise is lying) that these naysayers are merely falling victim to what I’d like to term “Grandpa Simpson syndrome.” GSS is the condition “mysteriously” acquired by each successive generation, and worsening with age, that convinces one that ever member of younger generations is completely incapable of intelligent speech or writing. Sufferers tend to wander around pondering what their grandchildren mean by expressions such as “phat.” They also are confused as to why those dumb kids don’t understand expressions such as “the bees knees” and don’t know who Ginger Rogers is. While in certain cases, I’m sure that could be the case, the real problem here is that language changes at a startlingly rapid rate — so much so that we don’t even really keep up with the changes in our lifetimes. Language changes with popular culture. Slang expressions are usually simply the cutting edge of language change. While not all slang expressions endure, those that do end up changing the language. Acceptance of foreign terms usually has its start in slang or industry terminology. If it is accepted by the broader culture, it will then enter the standard lexicon — BUT it will only generally be understood or used by those
either directly effected by the concept (i.e., I am writing a “blog” — a very new word to be sure! While the term has caught on, there are certainly still many people who don’t know the word or concept). This typically shows up as a generational effect.
I would thus put the intrusion of foreign vocabulary into languages as a “value-neutral” category. It’s driven by the same forces that caused, for example, the word “gay” to pass from the meaning of “happy” (during my grandparents’ time), to “homosexual,” and more recently, many of the younger generation have been using the term as a general put-down expressing stupidity or banality (e.g., “That idea is so gay!”). While the promotion of foreign vocabulary over native words may be mourned by older generations, the youngsters are merely being trendy. There has been some suggestion that there is a human drive for adolescents to experiment with language — that by coining their own expressions and uses, they are truly claiming ownership over the language and the identity that comes with that language community. To bring in a personal example, while living in Japan, I noticed a great disparity in the frequency of use of English-derived vocabulary between adolescents (whom I was teaching at the time) and older adults. Just to pull out one example, I noticed that when stating that something was “private,” kids would inevitably use the English-derived “puraibeto.” If I used the native Japanese equivalent “shiteki na” most kids didn’t even understand (though by junior high age, most would know it when they encountered such in writing). While adults were (mostly) fully aware of both forms, people well over 40 were much more likely to employ the native Japanese word.
Some might complain that, if kids are allowed to displace native words like this, the words themselves might disappear. Once again, this is completely natural. There are many English words whose time passed many years ago. How often do you employ terms such as “bouffage” (very satisfying), “ugsumness” (terribleness), “snirp” (shrink) (The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten ). Languages change over time. The sooner we can accept that, the happier we’ll be….

Greetings!
Continuing from last Friday, we’re going to look today at the oft-bandied complaint that the influx of English-derived words into the vocabularies of many of the world’s languages is negatively impacting those languages. At the most extreme end, there are those who charge the English-speaking world with a near-conspiratorial plot to impose English through imperialistic force. We can see in world history that there is no compulsion needed to bring in foreign vocabulary. Certainly, no one is suggesting that anglophiles are holding a gun to the collective head of the world populace and demanding they accept English words such as “weekend” (a banned term in France) or “email.” Looking at the history of language mixing between neighbors and trading partners, we do see what is necessary for vocabulary to transfer — a good idea. Ideas and technologies worth replicating often carry the original vocabulary with it. Think of the term “telephone” — throughout European languages, it has not changed very significantly. The word “email” is bandied about in every language I speak (often in contradiction more “correct” terms made up by “language police”). Those items were simply good ideas that people embraced enthusiastically. Of course, the term doesn’t always follow the invention. This is mere tendency, not a fast rule. For example, “telephone” in Chinese is “dian hua” or “denwa” in Japanese.
Japanese actually is a downright fascinating language to look at when we look at assimilating foreign concepts and terminology. The Japanese, throughout their history, have readily adopted foreign ideas and vocabulary as their own. One of the primary sources of “high” and “academic” vocabulary in Japanese is from Chinese. The pronunciation has been altered significantly due to the constraints of the Japanese phonetic system, but the use of Chinese characters in the Japanese language shows how much Chinese has entered the language. Mind you, not every Chinese character is reflective of adoption of foreign ideas — many characters were taken and applied to native Japanese concepts, and a handful of characters were Japanese creations. As China was the “big man on the block” for so long in East Asia, it was only natural for their neighbors to follow their lead, which included the assimilation of vocabulary for technological and philosophical innovations as they came along. When technological dominance shifted to the west, Japan quickly changed their focus, and a flood of European (today, mostly English, but it’s still a mixed bag) terms flooded into the language. A convention of using a separate phonetic script for “spelling” foreign-loan words developed, which allows such terms to be easily recognizable. The amazing thing is how quickly the Japanese truly come to think of such words as their own, to the point of abbreviating them (personal computer became “pasokon“), or applying alternate slang meanings (”cunning” in Japanese means to cheat on a test).
We can see thus that absorbing foreign words into your language is a natural process. Indeed, when language policies try to enforce a new language on a populace, this often fails miserably. The histories of war and conquest whereby language policies have failed are countless. As language is the primary means of displaying national identity, it requires an unusual degree of oppression to actually change a language by force. However, accepting innovation requires no force whatsoever. If a perceived need is met, the idea, and the word behind it will be readily adapted…