Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by yboris 1631 days ago
Language is a way of thought. Languages come with their own quirks, and just like [plant] monoculture is bad for an ecosystem, so would a single language. Since I was born in Russia and came to the US (thus becoming fluent in both languages), and especially after reading the book "Metaphors we live by" I see how language forces certain concepts on us. Having a variety of languages is a benefit, despite introducing problems.

As of now, English has become the de-facto universal language: in many countries it's the #1 most-studied foreign language in schools. I don't see a problem with having English (or another language) be everyone's 2nd language for better global communication.
2 comments
ziotom78 1631 days ago
I second this. Better having a 2nd language that is common for everybody than have just one language and only one way to express thoughts. I speak Italian (my mother tongue), English, Romanian and a bit of German, and I really enjoy when I discover subtle connections between words/sayings and the culture of the people using that language.

(As an analogy, what if the world decides that only C++ should be used to write programs and libraries?!? Boooring!)

link
newsbinator 1631 days ago
> just one language and only one way to express thoughts.

There's no reason any reasonable person would suggest this

link
rileyphone 1631 days ago
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis always catches me as something we should investigate more, but unfortunately it’s mired in the broader conflict of cultural relativity, as I learned when my anthro professor tried to disprove it with a convoluted argument from an aboriginal tribes notion of direction. A diversity of languages means a diversity of thought, which maybe you could make the case for more multilingual teams from.

English seems to suck as a language but it has risen to be the lingua franca of our present world system - how much of that is because British and American superpowerdom vs being a good lingua franca is up for debate.

link
Sunspark 1631 days ago
It probably helps that it doesn't require one to memorize 10,000-20,000 individual characters and isn't a multi-tonal language so it also doesn't require excellent hearing discrimination.
link