George Boeree | Re: [LinguaFrancaNova] Re: Plea for a debate

• Autor: George Boeree (“cgboeree”)
• Tema: Re: [LinguaFrancaNova] Re: Plea for a debate
• Data: 2002-09-29 13:42
• Mesaje: 285 (a supra, presedente, seguente)

Hello, Alexandre.

You say...

To make big bussinesses around the world, English, this language wich I
dislike, is nearly enough.

That much is true.  However, the implication that business is therefore
dominated by the US and other English-speaking nations is unfounded.

Corporations NOT Based in the U.S. Include:
           9 of the 10 largest steel companies
           8 of the 10 largest automobile companies
           8 of the 10 largest appliance/household durable companies
           7 of the 10 largest electronics companies
           7 of the 10 largest banks

International business has adopted English as the de facto international
language for convenience, not because they are somehow dominated by
English-speaking interests.

We do know Amnesty International, Greenpeace and so on. These
organizations, of course, are ruled by
English-speakers, and we, the other, have a subordinated role in them.

Again, your implication is that these organizations have some evil
intent.  This is far from true:  They are honestly dedicated to good
works around the world.  They were founded by English-speaking people,
and use English as their working language because it is useful, not to
dominate others.  In addition,  I know that these organizations are
quite willing to use other languages when dealing with
non-English-speaking people. Surely, there are also human rights
organizations that were founded in, for example, Latin American, and
have Spanish as their working language.

The elaboration of such a language only among English-speakers simply
disrupts this basic human right, thus invalidating the process.

Niether this group, nor the groups that promote Esperanto, Interlingua,
and other proposed IAL's are in any way dominated by English-speaking
people.  English has the  largest native speaking population outside of
Mandarin, and the and has the largest second language population by
far.  It is useful to communicate in English, even when discussing an
IAL.

In addition, no one here has forced anyone to communicate in English.
We prefer that you communicate in a language that the majority of this
group knows, but we have gone out of our way to accomodate non-English
speakers and will continue to do so.  In addition, there are translating
devices (although far from perfect) readily available on the internet.
I know some of us have used them to understand others already.

Further, some of us, even while not being able to write in Spanish, can
read it relatively well.  You should know that LFN has been criticized
in the past for leaning  to much towards Spanish!

All this said, I don't believe that this kind of political debate is
what we intended in this group.  It is divisive and unproductive.  "With
you or without you, Anglos" is clearly a highly antagonistic phrase and
perhaps you would be much happier in other groups than this one.

George