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From: isr@rodan.acs.syr.edu ( ISR group account)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: ENGLISH/LINGUA FRANCA - GLOBAL E-MAIL COMMUNICATIONS
Message-ID: <2492@rodan.acs.syr.edu>
Date: 19 Mar 90 22:14:25 GMT
References: <90Mar17.164801est.58582@ugw.utcs.utoronto.ca> <0a1GtPy2aU-MMrIdlz@twain>
Reply-To: isr@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Michael S. Schechter - ISR group account)
Organization: Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
Lines: 19



>> The reasons are economics and existing numbers of speakers, and the
>> ready availability of teachers to pass on reasonable English to new
>> speakers of the language all around the world.  Even Esperanto has no
>> such claims to these factors!
>Whenever I see this argument, I cannot help wondering how convincing it would
>sound if Japanese,  German, or Chinese were the `de facto international
>language' and it were *my* language in the economic backwater.

I'm no language specialist so I may be wrong here, BUT,
how many English speakers are there as compared to say Chinese speakers?

After all, we're not talking the "ethnicity" of the language, we're talking
about the specific langauge.. You're obviously throwing all of asia together!
How many Japanese speak Chinese as opposed to English?
-- 
Mike Schechter, Computer Engineer,Institute Sensory Research, Syracuse Univ.
InterNet: isr@rodan.acs.syr.edu   Bitnet: SENSORY@SUNRISE