Cultivating your English #10: Universal languages
❤️”A warm smile is the universal language of kindness.”❤️ William Arthur Ward
One of my subscribers- FFW, an English writer and translator living in Spain said this: “I think your newsletters are fab, so many great ideas. My Spanish accent is still shite after 17 years, so I could relate to a lot of this! It’s so true that people can switch off when they hear an accent. Happens to me all the time - “QUE????”
(switch off here means that people often don’t make an effort to understand….. I’m sure that most of the people that do that are not bilingual and don’t have the empathy that comes with it!)
Thanks so much for your kind words. I feel your pain FFW, I’ve often had the same experience and I know that it can be a problem for my students when speaking English too.
Check out this interesting 4 min talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/jay_walker_the_world_s_english_mania
At the end Jay says this:
“English is the world’s second language. Your native language is your life. But with English you can become part of a wider conversation – a global conversation about global problems, like climate change or poverty, or hunger or disease. The world has other universal languages. Mathematics is the language of science. Music is the language of emotions. And now English is becoming the language of problem-solving. Not because America is pushing it, but because the world is pulling it. So English mania is a turning point. ”
I find this concept fascinating- I really think that problems are easier to solve when the people involved are able to communicate in the same language. This includes problems of all scales- from the smallest up to the biggest, as Jay mentions.
What global problems do you feel the most strongly about?
Imagine a world for a moment where everyone is capable of speaking English competently- as a first, second, third etc language. (And that all native English speakers could speak at least another language)
Could these problems be solved more easily if everyone could communicate in English? Press reply and let me know your thoughts about any of these topics.
😻Challenge😻
Why not follow a recipe in English?
Maybe this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDGs4ncYcGk or this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObBa_wM9XyU for example. When you are making the food- smell the English, listen to the English, when you have finished- taste the English. Share the English with your friends or family.
Thanks for reading and see you in #11!