Job Discussion Forums

[Roger]

I often come across an opening statement in those posts like "I come from X (insert a town of your choice in an anglophone society), and you see people from every corner of the world there..." Fine, say I, but what does that imply? To me: that X numbers of foreigners have come to your country to go native there.
But a truly cosmopolitan character is something else. In biblical times, citizens in Jerusalem or Byzance had to be multilingual; Jesus himself spoke Aramaic, Greek and Latin, didn't he?
Yesterday I had a cup of Java coffee with 4 "locals": one was a native Ambonese, one from Kelantan, one a Sumatran and the fourth was from Western Timor; they had no mother tongue in common, so their first language in common was INDONESIAN; apart from that, they spoke EXCELLENT English - not the monkey-type that younger Indonesians acquire! Oh well, they were alumni from a famous foreign language institute...
I also met a Singaporean. As you know, English is their official language - or one of several. I have never met a Singaporean who wasn't fluent in at least three ttongues! But this guy surprised me when I asked him whether he knew an Indonesian language; he answered "no", but at every turn it was he who undertook the very necessasry negotiations and haggling over prices - in BALINESE, which he conceded he had "learnt a little bit" before coming here for the second time

Institutionally, no doubt European countries are the most cosmopolitan. Here is a rundown:
- In MOSCOW, you can see physiognomies from a 100 different nationalities, including Mongolian, Scandinavian (Russia still occupies parts of the former Finnish East), Caucasians, Jews, and a lot of Africans (at least when it was the SU!), not to mention the increwasing number of Chinese and Koreans.
- I spent a very interesting time in SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan; within a week I attended two different weddings of two different nationalities; in addition I was invited to a Jewish burial. There were Armenians, RUssians, Balts, KOreans (immigrants), Uygurs; most knew Russian as their official local language, but among themselves they had their own tongues.
- If you visit BRUSSELS, you are of course aware of the number of official languages of the E.U. All of them are spoken here. Plus, there are sizeable communities of Africans and Arabs.
- Ditto in STRASBOURG, which itself is a bilingual city, with a German-speaking minority under French authority.

When I lived on a kibbutz in Israel, the kibbutzniks hailed from Eastern Europe - some native Czech speakers, some Rumanian speakers, some BUlgarian speakers, many Yiddish speakers (Yiddish was their common language back in Europe). Most knew German; we had a kind of 'FAO', who spoke excellent German and excellent Russian on top of his Czech and HEBREW, of course!

South Africa's NELSON MANDELA himself a Zulu is a perfect Afrikaans and English speaker. Most South Africans are bilingual or multilingual.

Any other country with a similar cultural diversity?

[shmooj]

[nolefan]

it is truly hard to find a genuine cosmopolitan environment in that way. The closest I have seen was:

Tallahassee, Fl. As a student there, I was part of an extremely tight group of foreign students (MA, Ph.D...) from all corners of the world. We got together on a daily basis to play chess, drink coffee, chat politics, solve differential equation, and what not... Great times... where else would I find a Brazillian dating a Turk, a French married to a German, a Moroccan dating a norwegian, a Mexican married to a korean, a Gay activist from Peru and an ex-Russian top model around the same table ??? Man, I miss those days

[Magoo]

London, Rog? Actually, the most depressing thing I heard, whilst working in a pub in Peckham, was from one of the local gene pool escapees to a group of Turks:"Speak farkin' English, you idnorant[sic] cants!" When I explained that one had just arrived in jolly old Blighty, so he couldn't speak English, I was politely informed that he farkin' should. That clears that one up then

[Ellis]

[b]What you say about the world's being TRULY international, Roger, is no lie! Actually it's this very fact that initially drew me into the world of EFL, as well as gave me the impetus to study and reasonably grasp not less than 6 foreign tongues. But, when my EFL students sit back in amazement over this accomplishment, I merely say that language is neither Holy Scripture nor a magic exilir straight from Heaven. No, no ... it is but a TOOL OF COMMUNICATION ... something which renders us the ability to further understand our fellow Homo sapiens. Ergo, knowledge of only one language is hardly effective in today's multi-cultured society. That is QUITE obvious in a city like Los Angeles. No matter where you live in this area, you can step out your bloody door and think you're in M�xico City... or Hong Kong ... or Tehran ... or even Yerevan!!! Even while sitting at a table outside my favorite Starbucks coffee house near UCLA, I have engaged in German, French, and, on rare occasions, Portuguese conversations with other coffee lovers! NO ... it doesn't do the EFL business much good, not to mention my credibility as an English instructor. BUT it does go a long, long way in promoting international friendship and human understanding.
LONG LIVE THOSE GLORIOUS TOOLS OF COMMUNICATION!

[luneaz]

[luneaz]