Varietes in English

The English language is today, and has for a long time been, the most widely spoken language in the world. And it is growing steadily. Trends and graphs from studies show that European countries, especially the smaller nations, are the ones learning English the most efficiently. Meanwhile, power nations like Spain, France and China are either struggling or actually declining in their English development, even though they are investing massive amounts of money in the subject. The causes of these unreasonable results are not always easy to accurately determine. However, there are some suggestive ideas that could potentially at least be contributing to the strangeness.

The first idea is, in my opinion, very logical, and thus the most probable as well. If you directly compare the struggling and the excelling nations by both geometrical size and native spoken language, you'll immediately discover vast differences. People living in small countries, speaking languages spoken uncommonly on a global basis, gain a natural attraction to English because of communicational demands. The large countries with vastly spoken languages follow a similar trend, but in the opposite direction. They do not feel as if they need to learn English. So basically, this idea relies on that the cause is somewhere within the motivation to learn English.

The other idea revolves around the wealth of the nations. It is a fact that wealth is not equally spread across the world. First of all, spending more money on English education usually gives better results. At the same time, globalization is greater in the wealthier countries due to Internet affordability and availability. Notice that China has placed strict limits to Internet accessibility, preventing the population from communicating with other countries. Furthermore, most Internet activities are based on the English language. Put two and two together and you see that Internet makes for globalization and then communcation in English. More communication in English makes for better English speakers, obviously!

I want to end this post by displaying the sources and statistics that i have been referring to:.

Statistics for English Knowledgeability from: http://www.ef.no/__/~/media/efcom/epi/2014/full-reports/ef-epi-2013-report-master-new.pdf

Sources:

Statistics and facts: http://www.ef.no/__/~/media/efcom/epi/2014/full-reports/ef-epi-2013-report-master-new.pdf

More facts: http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2011/04/english?utm_source=feedburner

Film Review: The Great Debaters

Today's blogpost is about the film "The Great Debaters", which we have watched in class today. The film takes place in the USA around the 1930s, and it revolves around racial segregation and oppression. The main characters of the film are playing reflections of actual persons, so the story is partly true.

During the period of time that the film is displaying, USA is struggling with several problems, among the stock market crash. The film is focused on the current problems with oppression of the black population. In Texas, white farmers are lynching black people, only because they are black. The white are struggling to accept the black as equals. The situation and atmosphere of the movie is very tense, as one runs the risk of being killed for opposing the oppression. Changes are necessary, but it seems impossible to implement them in a peaceful way.

The film shows us how the main characters manage to make a big impact on this war towards equality by joining the local debate team. By winning debates against other school teams they eventually reach the national masters, and they manage to display justice for the black population through national radio.