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Welcome to the global community in 2012!
English has increasingly become the international language of business. Within more and more nations, businesses are demanding their executives become fluent in English. Some ignore such a requirement at their own peril.
English learning courses are popular around the globe. While perhaps one quarter of the world’s population can now converse to an extent in English, that share could rise to one-half by 2015 (businessreviewusa.com).
Japanese English
A number of major Japanese companies have already mandated that English is, or soon will be, the primary language of internal communications. Rakuten Inc., Japan’s largest online retailer, mandated a couple of years ago that English will be the “standard language” by early 2012. Major employers such as Nissan Motor, Sony, Fast Retailing, Sumida, and Nippon Sheet Glass have imposed similar mandates (The Wall Street Journal).
Rakuten employees are now required to speak and correspond with each other in English. The risk of dismissal from the company if English is not mastered is clear.
While we might think of Japan, now the world’s third largest economy behind China, as a manufacturing haven, roughly 70% of that nation’s GDP is now in services. If you are aiming to be a player in the global marketplace, you must communicate in English (npr.com).
Ironically, it is fiercely independent Japan where English skills lag other nations. Among the 34 nations designated as “advanced economies” by the International Monetary Fund, Japan had the lowest scores during 2009 on the Test of English as a Foreign Language, a proficiency test given to foreign students who want to study within the U.S. (The Wall Street Journal).
European English
I think this is amazing! Meetings within the European Union are routinely held in English…written documents the same. It is simply a reality that a much larger share of senior politicians within the European Community speak English as a second language rather than French, German, Italian, etc.
It has long held true that the aspiration of thousands of gifted students around the world is to study and graduate from a major American university. The combination of gaining a degree in business, or finance, (even economics), or engineering, or chemistry, etc. from what most still consider the world’s best, most up-to-date universities, combined with perfecting verbal and written skills in English, is a ticket to prosperity for those students who return home.
Student English
As one might expect, many nations around the globe have required their youth to routinely study English in the primary grades for years. What might have once been seen as a way to expand the horizon of younger people, such English language skills now provide people across Asia, across Europe, across South America, across Africa, across the Middle East, etc. with a vital tool to succeed in life in coming years.
Unfortunately, the rise of English places less need for Americans to study other languages than ever before. More schools do offer Chinese languages than before, but other language courses have been trimmed in many schools because of budget pressures. Some balance? I have granddaughters where half of their daily instruction in the classroom is in Spanish, the other half in English.
All Too True
What do you call a person who speaks three languages? Multilingual. What do you call a person who speaks two languages? Bilingual. What do you call a person who speaks one language? An American.
