> What is the point of having everybody speak English at the Social
> Forums (for ex) if the aim of the Forum is to fight against capitalist
> globalization ? How can you expect local activists (in South America,
> in India, in China etc) to master enough of this "basic world
> language" so they can "exchange" with other local activists ?
When did I ever advocate making everyone speak English? I would really appreciate it if you read what I write carefully and respond to what I write, rather than what you think I write.
> You seem to mistake the side effect (that English speakers all over
> the world can read Al Jazeera pages) for the main goal (reach the
> American/British audience).
How do you know that that is their main goal? Have they stated that anywhere? With their financial backing, it would be no problem for them to put up any number of web sites in various languages, but presumably the most efficient way to communicate with the non-Arabic-speaking world is to have an English site.
> I am talking about compulsory (primary school, J. high school) and
> senior high school education. And I did not say "forbid". Indeed
> foreign language education is not by law limited to English. But the
> reality is that all of compulsory education foreign language classes
> are English classes.
That's true; this is an aspect of the extreme rigidity of the Japanese government. They can't change anything for ages and ages because they would lose face, I suppose. Plus the great disadvantage of an educational system controlled by the national government (at least, that's the way I as an American look at it).
> The world starts at one's doorstep, and in Japan (and in a lot of
> other places on the planet) the language spoken on the other side of
> the doorstep is _not_ English. It is about time "locals" realize that.
That is very true; I think that the traditional Japanese prejudice against their Asian neighbors and the desire to achieve equality with the "first rank of nations" -- i.e., Europe -- which was inherited from the Meiji era have a lot to do with this preference for studying English (as well as French and German). It's still so hard, it seems, for many Japanese to admit that they are Asians, too. But if and when China becomes a real economic power, we will probably see a scramble to switch from English to Chinese foreign language education.
Reminds me a bit of the old joke in the U.S. when I was a kid, in the '50s: "The optimists are learning Russian; the pessimists are learning Chinese."
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ A gentleman haranguing on the perfection of our law, and that it was equally open to the poor and the rich, was answered by another, 'So is the London Tavern.' -- "Tom Paine's Jests..." (1794); also attr. to John Horne Tooke (1736-1812) by Hazlitt