What If The World Spoke One Language

husker

Sep 27 2006, 09:29 PM

Could you imagine the world just speaking one language? I have no clue what it would be, but do you like the idea or not? I think it would be helpful in some ways. It would save us all the time that we spend on studying languages and end some controversy. But I can also see some downsides. This would be a nearly impossible feat to achieve and would also get rid of the values the language had on the people. But, I still believe it is a good idea. There are many other things that make people diverse. Although it would be hard to do, I think we should have only one language.

Albus Dumbledore

Sep 27 2006, 10:48 PM

thats the best ideal i have ever heard right next to ummm nothing! lol

i absoloutly hate that there are other languages in the world..well not hate that there are other languages, but i just hate that everyone is forced to learn another language just because there are so many languages in the world.... and because america has a mixture of all of them

i think that is a great ideal, and i wish that was the way the world starte out and i wish that was the way it is now, that would save the time in the pointless class a foreign language and actually get some education time. and we just wouldn't have to worry about a native speaker wanting to order somthing at mcdonalds and only speaking their home language when the cahhier only speaks english

excelent ideal, too bad this will probably never happen -sighs-

icemarle

Sep 28 2006, 12:01 AM

The world may be extremely united or the exact opposite... Well for one, we wouldn't need translators which is kinda sad since I want to be one. XD Hmm... since there's only one language, there wouldn't be cultural diversion. No cultural diversion makes the world boring cause the language is the culture. It says a lot about the country. :/ I'd think of it as a nightmare because the world would be bland and boring speaking only one language... Being a person interested in different cultures and languages... yes... a nightmare indeed.

It might be the exact opposite since people can speak one language, the people could express their feelings more freely that can fight with each other more. (Of course misunderstandings are inevitable)

Though I think the world would become more unified under one culture and language. The reason for misunderstandings are because of the diversity and uniqueness of every person.

Still, I don't want that to happen.

sylenzednuke

Sep 28 2006, 12:27 AM

Well, on this one I agree with Icemarle, although the idea was quite good but first the downsides are more important as they can ruin this world although the upsides might only increase the smoothrunning.
This world would go crazy as because of many more misunderstanding because at times when I speak in normal English to my friends, they think that I am being sarcastic and stuff and really, I have seen that talking in English is a major problem as atleast I cannot express myself properly and yeah I am not stating that the language would be English but I am giving it for an example as it is the most widely known language and an international standard.
And I love cultures, okay I find it a pain in the arse to learn the language of my current residing place that is Marathi but yeah I am interested in learning French, Bengali, Punjabi so it's like you can say that I love the diversity in cultures and so I won't like this to happen.
But even if it does, I don't mind!

Kubi

Sep 28 2006, 12:47 AM

No culture man!
Just think about how many french words we use, how many other languages we use in every day speak. There are a lot of words that we used that originated from other places.

Food wouldn't be as good. Food will lose it's taste just because it doesn't have a fancy name! :]. I think the world wouldn't be as good as it is today if we all spoke one language. Even if it'd make things easier.

arnz

Sep 28 2006, 12:53 AM

While they are benefits to using the one language world-wide, we would lose our diversity and even the meaning of everyday things such as food and so forth. For example french food such as croissant, or pizza originating from Italy and so forth.

Personally I wont mind it if it eventuates, but it may even have a reverse impact to what may be predicted (ie unite the world if one language is used, YET.. it may even divide nations more) and also it would lessen the culture and diversity of many countries as said earlier. I'd say keep as is for now

Plenoptic

Sep 28 2006, 01:05 AM

We were just talking about this in history class today. About how lower classes spoke their own dialect in Europe in the 18th century and there was a different language every few miles. That was a time when they also thought about national languages.

Of course now if we were to try and start a national language it would be impossible. There would be rebellions because of pride in someone's own language and not wanting to have to change now. Of course people would say theirs is better than the other but really there is no "better language". They all allow communication and whatever there isn't a word for they can add words.

The idea itself I think would be a great idea. It would end a lot of controversy and the need for translations and what not. People can communicate with ease and reduce misunderstandings. The only problem would be though that people would still start to make their own languages to secretly communicate each other and what not and then sometimes it might spread and then the problem would start again but who knows. If it were possible I'd be all for it. I might not be all for learning the language though lol

Maybe even a universal currency? No need to make calculations for translating money just pay with smaller bills in smaller economies.

elevenmil

Sep 28 2006, 04:41 AM

Yes I could imagine the world only speaking one language. And I think it would definitely be an advantage. First of all, there would be less confusion. Many times we misunderstand or take things out of context. One language equals less confusion.

I don't see many disadvantages even as I look at the previous posts made in this thread. No, we wouldn't have fancy names, but imagine how much bigger our vocabulary would be. We have over 6 billion people, I'm sure our vocabulary would be much more advanced and many more words would be used, like strategery.

rvalkass

Sep 28 2006, 05:48 AM

If everyone was speaking one language it would probably be one of three: English, as a lot of people already speak it, Chinese, as the Chinese population grows it will become the most spoken language on the planet, or Esperanto, being a neutral language.

Having one language would make worldwide communications easier and tourists would find asking for directions, buying things etc, a lot easier. But isn't part of the fun of going on holiday trying to speak the language? Also, you would get people who simply don't want to lose their traditional language, or they just never get taught it. Changing the language of an entire nation takes some time.

It's like going metric here in the UK. All the school teachers know feet and inches better than millimetres and metres. All the parents know imperial better too. Therefore kids come out of school still speaking in feet and inches, which they pass on to their kids. The same would happen with a language change, but on a bigger scale. Parents and teachers can't change their language overnight, and some people just find it very difficult to learn a second language, so a language change would take hundreds of years in a country with a substantial education system, what about those without good schooling?

The idea and concept is a good one, but I think that it will simply never happen. Then again, it would avoid problems like this sign:
IPB Image

(The Welsh reads: bladder inflammation upset. That's what signwriters get for using Babelfish!)

wacky_stu

Sep 28 2006, 11:06 AM

Eventually with the rate that technology is increasing (and ease nations and people are communicating) there will only be one universal language.

Because people are becoming so bilingual and internationally aware that all languages will just merge into one universal language with different dialects.

Different laguages were inititally formed by isolation of different peoples. We can already see the breakdown of language with the dilution of accents. It is merely a matter of time before this happens to different languages.

Latest Entries

iGuest

Mar 11 2008, 12:03 AM

Absolutely
What If The World Spoke One Language

Replying to husker
I've been thinking about that lately, I think the world should only have one language. It used to: (Gen 11:1)

It would be great if some way we could form just one language...

patrickcurl

Dec 13 2007, 11:11 PM

I think it would be cool, if we all spoke pig latin.

Iay inkthay tiay ouldway ebay oolcay, fiay eway allay okespay igpay atinlay. LOLay

A200

Nov 20 2007, 12:00 PM

Ultimately its impossible to speak just one language, after a while a group of people is bound to speak it a little differently then it ends up being a totally new language..

This is what happened to Latin. RIP universal language.

midnightvamp

Nov 20 2007, 04:31 AM

I couldn't really see the entire world with just one language. I could see the world all knowing a language, but everyone also still holding onto the languages that have been around for so many years, because I feel like it would be a shame to lose something that historic, just to make it a little easier on people so that they don't have to learn another language.

I actually find it fun to learn other languages (call me a geek if you so desire... but small things bring me much pleasure, and understanding what someone is saying when they are talking in another language than the English that I grew up with is an amazing thing to me.) and I do so regularly, trying to improve on my pronunciation and vocabulary in the language that I'm currently working on.

My current task - Japanese. It's so different from English, and presents quite a challenge, but it's a welcomed challenge, and I love the sense of accomplishment that I get when I learn more and more of that language. In fact, there was even a time today that I got to feel pretty good, when my sister said to me... this is so cute, but I have no idea what they are saying, or even what language it is in!

So I went over there, and low and behold, they were speaking in Japanese... so I told her that and translated the parts of it that I could (which wasn't the entire thing, but it still was much better than nothing... and we had a fun time as she continued on with it, since she had a bit better understanding of what was going on. I love when moments like this arise, when I can be of some help to people because I've taken the time to learn something new... even though it was more for fun on my part.

Anyway, if there was no other languages out there to learn, I'd be missing a bit part of what I enjoy to do, so I really don't hope that it happens where all of the world only speaks one language.

Sure, I'd love for the world to be able to talk to each other in a certain language, so that it would make conversing much easier for everyone, but I would also love people to preserve the language and culture that they've been born with so as not to let any more languages become 'dead languages', because I feel it's a shame for that to happen, because once it's gone, it hard or impossible to bring back that knowledge (especially for the certain languages among natives or tribes in the different countries where there is already such a small amount of people that can speak the language.)

Liam_CF

Nov 19 2007, 04:31 PM

This would take out some of the cultural diversity on this planet and make each seperate place less unique. I'm not saying that it would not have it's advantages but I'm not really for this idea.

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