zaneisdayton wrote:This is one topic that is very interesting to me because it seems as if English is almost a "must-learn" language in today's world. When there are non-native English speakers, specifically people in power, it is almost deemed mandatory to know the English language. The English language has almost created a monopoly in the world, referring to language, due to the influence it has across many nations. In most countries, especially Europe, students are, for the most part mandated to learn English with sometimes an additional language as a requirement.
When someone cannot speak English, especially in a higher power role, people may think that since they cannot speak English, that they do not know any better. Even with English not being the most spoken language in the world (roughly 3rd), people believe it is necessary. Why do they have to learn English and if they do not learn English, then why should they be laughed or mocked at?
A great example of this is the United States. Most language requirements are roughly two semesters of a language in high school and all you have to do is pass with a "C." Then you can go to a cocktail party ten years from then and count to twenty in Spanish, and yet people are actually impressed, they aren't mocking you because all you can do is say profane words, count to twenty and say "cat." My personal opinion is that every country has their own language and that is what separates us from one another, language gives us our foundation of culture. Yet when we are mocked at because we don't speak English, such as some examples given, is degrading. There are some policymakers and power figures in the United States who only speak English because somehow and somewhere, we believe that everyone has to speak English and there are no if's, and's or but's about it.
Language learning, in my opinion should be a necessity (or else I wouldn't have found this forum, lol), but there should not have to be a designated second language that someone has to learn to avoid mockery and degradation.
I agree English shouldn't be the one designated language, there are other options too, and I think noone in the thread expressed that only English should be the only option. There are others, German or French should be common options in Europe, that is just an example, there are other regionally important options. And I am not even gonna start about the fact that the choice of one's foreign language is often taken as a cultural and political stance. The stereotypes may sometimes be harmful,but they are simply present.
But you are looking at it from the priviledged anglophone perspective. A monolingual Czech is bound to be isolated, just like a monolingual speaker of any other worthless language of a small unimportant country. It is the same in all the other areas of life. Noone is ever gonna learn Czech for business reasons, unless they are coming to the country, and usually not even then, very few will learn it for the culture (I am still surprised some people do, pleasantly surprised, but still surprised). Therefore not knowing a foreign language is considered a big failure for people educated after 1989, and usually for the older ones with means to learn too. It's like not knowing the basics of maths or geography.
This is the price we pay for stupidity of our ancestors, who decided to resuscitate/exhumate a dying language used only by the low social spheres in the 19th century. They should have let it die out. Officially, they are the heroes who awoke the nation, all the kids learn about them. In reality, I suppose the group of writers was simply too bad to succeed on the bigger germanic market, so they created their own, small one, and for some reason a few millions of people followed the crazy idea, as chopping nations to pieces was a trend back then.
Yes, an american counting to twenty in Spanish may be considered well educated. Someone with a small native language is not, especially a person under 45. Noone in the thread suggested that anyone not knowing a foreign language should be shamed, no. But when it comes to politicians, it is a reason for shame, if they don't have such an important skill even on the level expected from every high school graduate. They want to be the elite, they want to have all the benefits coming with the job, so they should fulfill the basic expectations.
Sure, it is not good English has such a monopoly. It should be normal for other big languages having some pride, that would force even the anglophones to learn at least one language to a useful level. But that is not the issue of this thread. For the non-anglophone rest of the world, being monolingual is simply a big personal failure, when you aspire for such a prestigious job, which being a politian at the national level or above (like the EU parliament) definitely is.
To illustrate it: Imagine everyone was required to know five works of Shakespeare really well, in order to graduate high school. Even workers never needing any literature for the job would need to include good knowledge of at least three in their CVs, in order to pass the first filter and get to the interview, where they would be asked about Romeo and Juliette and Othello on top of questions actually related to the skills needed for the job. And here go some politicians, saying: "ah, Shakespeare, yes a very important author. What he wrote? I think Hamlet... or was it Damlet?".