Models and Monuments

　　It is fashionable nowadays to talk about "Englishes"—surely one of the least attractive of recent coinages. But it is an indication that the great community of users of English are now conscious of the fact that they do not all have exactly the same accent, or habit of grammar and idiom, or vocabulary. They have a choice, and they intend to use it. How does Britain stand in this comparison? What is the role of the British Council, and other British educational interests? How does a major initiative like the Cobuild project further the image of Britain abroad? Born with English

　　In Britain on the whole we do not have much of a choice. We can take steps to modify our language a little, and there are some famous recent examples of the perils attending that policy. But by and large we just use the language that somehow emerges in early development and usually seems adequate for our daily communication needs.

　　We should never forget what an asset it is to us all that this language is English. Everyone who has English as a birthright has an inbuilt (固有的) advantage in international communication. Not only are we spared the trouble and expense of mastering the language later on, we also have access to a mastery of it which is of such high quality that few foreigners ever reach the same level.

　　Such an asset beats North Sea Oil hands down. It must be worth billions of pounds a year and it is renewed solely by the operation of normal social processes. Only English

　　There are some disadvantages which must at least be mentioned. We in Britain are in danger of turning this asset into arrogance, insularity and complacency. Since there is no commercial pressure on us to learn any particular foreign language, we tend as a nation to be very bad learners of other languages.. This cuts us off from the ability to appreciate fully the culture of others, and denies us the ability to make the wonderful outward gesture of using someone else's own language. Both personally and commercially, most British people do not know what they are missing, and our competitors are well able to take advantage of this weakness.

　　Busy and important people nowadays travel a lot and find themselves frequently attending meetings and giving talks, which have to be in English although everyone else shares a common language. It would improve the situation if on each occasion the unfortunate monolingual were to give a simple and sincere apology. The old adage (格言) » that if you just speak English loudly enough everyone will understand, is truer than ever before, but is getting less and less effective.

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