Dear all, Being a mathematician by trade I tend to deal in facts and logic, and judging by a couple of emails I've received, I might have been a bit blunt in presenting my views on the choice for the competition language. At the risk of boring the list members with something rather off topic, I thought I might try again with a little more eloquence.
My intention was not to imply that English was in some way better than any other language, but that it seemed more sensible to have one international language, whichever that be. If you were designing the world from scratch, having everyone speak the same language would seem to be eminently desirable, and the present situation of having to change language every few hundred miles as you travel through Europe appears madness incarnate. Certainly the British, and probably the Americans too, are lazy when it comes to learning other languages, but only because English is, de facto, the international language. What need (except personal gratification or politeness if travelling abroad) is there to learn foreign languages when your own language is spoken so widely? Contrary to one suggestion that my views were racist and xenophobic, this is far from the case. I have myself studied French, German and Latin, and particularly like French, though wish I were better at it! I value other countries' cultures as much as the next man, but would still claim that if you want to increase international communication and understanding, having one common language is the only logical choice. Anyway, enough of that. There has been a suggestion that the competition be turned into a lucky dip whereby all participants, presumably in whatever language ;-) would have their names put in the hat. This seems a good idea if everyone is to compete on equal terms, though perhaps *compete* is no longer the right word! (In this case I think it should only be open to original contributions - I have a book of sundial mottos from which I could quote ad infinitum, as I dare say others have). On the other hand, who ever said life was fair... David Higgon London
