While touring Eastern Europe, I had just landed in the Czech Republic. I was taking a bus from Prague airport to the city. The man sitting next to me was dressed in formal.
He was here to attend a meeting of the ESA, European Space Agency.
I asked, “What language is the meeting in?”.
“English”, he replied, nonchalantly.
Modern-day United States is weirdly mono-lingual.
The language of education is English.
The language of official work is English.
The language of business is English.
This wasn’t always the case.
In the 19th-century United States.
The language of education was Latin.
The language of official work was English.
The language of business varied between English, German, French, and Spanish.
In the 18th century United Kingdom.
The language of education was Latin and Greek.
The language of official work was French.
The language of business was English.
In modern-day Canada.
The language of education is French or English.
The language of official work is French and English.
The language of business is French(25%) and English(75%).
Even life 2000 years ago required multilingualism.
In ancient Rome.
The language of education was Latin & Greek.
The language of official work was Latin.
The language of business varied from region to region.
In ancient India.
The language of education was Sanskrit.
The language of official work was Sanskrit + a local language.
The language of business, especially long-distance, was Prakrit.
Modern-day United States is weirdly mono-lingual.
One can speak just one language and go about almost any aspect of his/her life.
此内容由惯性聚合(RSS阅读器)自动聚合整理，仅供阅读参考。 原文来自 — 版权归原作者所有。