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

[Michael Snow]

Thomas Dalton wrote:
> 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?
>   
Maybe Henry Higgins could answer that.

--Michael Snow