----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2003 3:10 PM Subject: Re: (OT) Why not Latin instead of Esperanto?
> > On Mon, 31 Mar 2003 "Samuel W. Heywood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > For use as an international language, why don't > > they consider adopting Latin instead of Esperanto? > > Hi Sam, > > The UN has 6 official languages - English, Spanish, French, Russian, > Chinese, and Arabic. > In most of the world, the 'official' (governmental) language projects are > driven primarily by the potential (future) economic needs of the > government. In a few (rare) cases, a grass roots demand has opened the > door for an additional language to be added to the educational > programming mix. Almost always, that additional language has been > English. US English is leading the world....too obvious. practically Spanish is the second unofficial language of the US..... love it or not ! BTW spanish is the official language of the Americas (except Brazilian Portuguese 180 millons pop. and a few millions speaking French Canadian) Just as sample, look at the white phone directories of the major US cities and look for non saxon last names or also look at spanish last names of the US troops. Look at the interest of nota few Representatives hearing the needs of US hispanic population !!! The history of the world shows that the background of people is what carries new language practices not at all official regulations (latin/esperanto, etc.) or prohibitions (like it was Welsh in the British Isles) Have a good day. Elliot Taken from a job forum where a recent laidoff of senior project leader (weiling) "Hey....man....if you have lost your IT job....why don't begin to learn UK english as spoken in Bangalore (Silicon Valley like) or hindi to get a new job in a offshore software company ? :-) Have a good day ! > So much of Europe has added English as a required second (or third) > language that most of the under-40 population has some capability in > English. Add to that the failure of the US and UK to have equally dynamic > language education programs and the result is a de facto common ground - > English. > > For better or worse, the common international language is becoming > English. The driving force is business (money). Unless you find a way to > make learning Latin economically beneficial, it won't happen. > > Additionally, various UN programs have their own 'primary' language. For > example, in the realm of humanitarian assistance the preferred UN > language is English. Translated, that means that an applicant for a UN > (or UN associated) position must usually be fluent in English, unless > local needs create another choice. Usually, that depends upon the scope > of the project and which countries are involved. Whenever the UK or the > US are involved as major players, the default language is English. > > In almost every area that has the potential for a humanitarian crisis > (including war), the local people want to learn English. I've been > working on a mini-version (about 1500 words) of English, so that the > leaders in those (crisis) communities would be equipped to handle their > own relief efforts and not have to rely upon the foreigners. That, and > not Latin, seems to me to be more beneficial and practical. However, I > still tell the local guys that they must "Carpe Diem" (seize the day) or > somebody else will. > > Bob > > > - > > ________________________________________________________________ > Sign Up for Juno Platinum Internet Access Today > Only $9.95 per month! > Visit www.juno.com
