Does English still rule the world?
LONDON. KAZINFORM Being an English-speaking country is a blessing - and a curse. It is a blessing to be native speakers of the language of Shakespeare - and the language of world science and popular culture (and financial capitalism ... well, maybe not).
The success of UK science is built not just on its excellence but also its English, which since the decline of the Soviet Union has been the only serious global scientific language. The success of UK universities in recruiting international students also owes a great deal to our language, the Guardian reports.
But it is also a curse. As the incentives to learn other languages decline year by year, we are increasingly locked into an anglophone prison. It may be an advantage to travel almost everywhere and be "understood". But maybe our ability really to understand, to get inside, other cultures is also declining. The Chinese speak English; not many of us speak Mandarin. Who has the advantage?
There are glimmers that we recognise our loss. BBC4's success in importing foreign-language series may be because of the need for subtitles not in spite of them. It is appealing to hear Danish or Swedish. If they were dubbed, they would lose authenticity. Maybe there is a wider lesson here: monolingualism inhibits multicultural sensitivity.