Why You Need a Foreign Language & How to Learn One
Chapter 3 (Excerpt)
the 21st century speaks many languages
The [old] linguistic new world order
On January 29, 1991, President George H.W. Bush delivered his State of the Union address before the U.S. Congress. He spoke of a "new world order" as "a big idea," in which "diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind." In many respects, the first President Bush was correct: during the 1990s, the global community did come closer to establishing universal norms of government, trade, and human rights.
The New World Order also had an impact on language. During the late 1980s, the bipolar world order of the Cold War years collapsed. Between 1989 and 1991, East and West Germany reunited, countries like Czechoslovakia and Poland jettisoned Communism, and the Soviet Union officially dissolved itself. In the absence of the bipolar conflict, the 1990s were dominated by the concept of globalization. Geopolitics, trade, (and the global use of language) was said to be heading down the path of homogenization. The only real powers in the world were the United States, and an amalgamation of smaller, weaker countries grouped together under the flag of the United Nations.
Almost by default, such an arrangement naturally favored the global usage of English. During the Cold War, half of the world was studying Russian as a second language. Suddenly, English was the only second language that really counted.
New Markets for U.S. Multinationals
The business conditions that were emerging when George H.W. Bush delivered his "New World Order" speech in 1991 also favored the global dominance of English. During the 1990s, U.S. multinationals moved rapidly into new consumer and labor markets around the world. American companies had numerous advantages over any local competitors: access to cheap capital, management expertise, and brand recognition. In addition, many new players--like Russia and China--were still learning the basics of capitalism.
The Americans were offering not only products, but jobs as well. The 1990s was also the beginning of the "outsourcing" or "offshoring" trend that would receive so much attention after the recession of 2001 and 2002. Multinationals discovered that they could significantly cut costs by moving production facilities to cheaper labor markets overseas. As a result, global hiring by U.S. multinationals soared during the 1990s. (For example, employment of Mexican nationals by U.S. companies more than doubled in the five years following the 1994 passage of NAFTA.) In much of the world, a job with an American company was seen as the surest path to personal prosperity. For the more desirable jobs, this usually meant learning English.
New Trends and New Challenges
There can be no doubt that the 1990s were an era dominated by the global usage of English. Nonetheless, three new trends are changing the global linguistic landscape—and making foreign languages more important to native English-speakers..........................
(End of Chapter Excerpt)
Copyright © 2005 Beechmont Crest Publishing
