[Foundation-l] The problem with native languages vs. the lingua franca

[Thomas Dalton]

2009/7/10 stevertigo <stvrtg at gmail.com>:
> On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 5:02 AM, Milos Rancic<millosh at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 1:53 PM, David Gerard<dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>> I remember reading in Isaac Asimov's autobiography how, as a chemist
>>> in the 1940s, he had to learn French and German well enough to read
>>> papers in those languages. So the lingua franca in a field varies with
>>> time as well as field.
>>
>> English is the last lingua franca. In 20-30 years we'll have good
>> enough translators and in 20-30 years it is not big enough period of
>> time for changing lingua franca.
>
> If someone knows someone, putting eight billion dollars a year into
> English-language teaching in Africa, China, Australia and elsewhere
> would be a good place to start.

You're going to have to explain that one... what is wrong with the
current English-language teaching in Australia?