Job Discussion Forums

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

Seems like the world language is constantly changing. My husband just told me that the reason I have my job is because English is so popular. Anyone think that ENglish will be declining in popularity soon? I've been doing this job for 3.5 years, but wonder if I will have to start studying something else for the future.

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

When 98% of the material on the Internet is in English, and people around the world are consuming more and more English media, I don't see the TEFL industry disappearing any time soon.

sheeba · Joined: 17 Jun 2004 Posts: 1123

Here's a point to consider . Not my quote but interesting .

'It is known that English has been losing its grammatical morphemes and becoming more similar to Chinese in the past 1500 years. It is highly probable that Chinese language has gone through the stage at which it had a fully deveoped system of grammatical morphemes .'

So our undeveloped language has such a part in the future ? I like the simplicity of Chinese sometimes . Perhaps English will change so much that it becomes a different language anyway ! My student said to me the other day ' Chinese will kill English ' I said back 'I'll kill you ina minute !'

tedkarma · Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 5:15 am Post subject:

Those who suggest that Chinese is the language of the future are forgetting about India - with an even bigger population than China - and English as a unifying language.

While behind on the power curve - they are booming. Chinese is nice Question

but tis a bit difficult to read and write.

Uh . . . not in our lifetimes.

MELEE · Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 2:58 pm Post subject:

I've been teasing my students lately that they are going to put me out of a job if they keep "stealing" our words. Nearly everyone in Mexico under the age of 30 now uses the words meeting, chat and tip. What's wrong with the perfectly good Spanish words reunion, platicar/plactica and consejo Question

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 4:35 pm Post subject:

Here in Ecuador, they're also invented/stolen:

Lunchear- meaning to have lunch.

Ful- meaning busy. (Estoy a ful)

Man- meaning, well, man. (The plural is "manes")

and many many others.

Meanwhile,

How many time have you heard monolingual English speakers say "hasta luego" or "ciao." The process by which one language absorbs words from another is interesting...

Justin

guangho · Joined: 16 Oct 2004 Posts: 476 Location: in transit

I have an interju tomorrow with the menedzser of a komputer ceg.

avolkiteshvara · Joined: 15 Feb 2006 Posts: 33 Location: Seattle US

william wallace · Joined: 14 May 2003 Posts: 2869 Location: in between

Will. · Joined: 02 May 2003 Posts: 783 Location: London Uk

So it looks like a pay rise is on the cards for us then?

thrifty · Joined: 25 Apr 2006 Posts: 1665 Location: chip van

Will. · Joined: 02 May 2003 Posts: 783 Location: London Uk

Why does this not surprise me?

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

ikky · Joined: 22 May 2006 Posts: 60 Location: GUZTEPE

IMO the 4 most important languages in the world in/within the next 50 years will be English ( wont be No1 as now), Manderin, Spanish and Arabic.

kuberkat · Joined: 03 Jun 2005 Posts: 358 Location: Oman

Some interesting points have been raised here: most certainly languages borrow from each other, and the large base of English makes it the number one lender. Simplification is also happening: some posters have mentioned Chinese, and much as the Chinese writing system is a struggle (even for native speakers!), the simplicity of Chinese grammar is half the language's beauty. "International" English is a major playground for grammatical simplification that is probably benefiting us all. And don't forget the plain Enlgish movement, which is taking the pain out of legalese.

But to return to Naturegirl's question, I doubt that English learning will be shelved in our lifetimes: the actual question is how to make it more effective. How to get all those lower intermediate speakers past their plateau. How to eliminate that cluster of grammar errors that stubbornly pops up in a whole nation's English speech. How to make vocabulary stick. Even if English were not essential, there would be good reason to learn the language. I believe the challenge in the future will be how to teach- and learn- it better.