Language is a unique and central part of every culture. However, it also presents a barrier in which the exchange of information between individuals is either hampered or prohibited. The trend of globalization has made a globally accepted common tongue desirable in all facets of life. In the case of science, a common language for publication of scientific studies would greatly increase the body of scientific information available, and in turn the pace at which groundbreaking discoveries are made. Communication amongst businesses would also be facilitated, increasing the ease at which businesses can make their products and services available to the global population. We as a species should accept that the time has come for a globally spoken language.
It seems that most would agree that a global language would be beneficial to humanity. The question is how do we get there, and what language should be globally spoken. The two obvious choices are Chinese and English, since they are the most widely spoken.
Native Speakers Total Speakers
English: 328,000,000 1,800,000,000
Chinese: 845,000,000 1,345,000,000
Source: wikipedia
English has already won the most total speakers and for good reason. Its simply more beneficial to speak English than it is to speak Chinese. The GDP of USA is roughly 4 times that of China, and is without question the wealthiest nation. From a business standpoint, it is certainly the most beneficial language to know. From a scientific standpoint, most peer reviewed and respected scientific journals are published in English, making a scientist who publishes in english more likely to be noticed, and his study more relevant. (There already exists a market for freelance bilingual scientists to translate scientific papers to English for publication). And further still, a vast majority of computer programming languages use English keywords. Knowledge of English is essential for a programmer, and without it, one would be excluded from what is currently an over 300 billion dollar industry.
Furthermore, in taking Chinese classes, I have noticed several disadvantages in learning the language. First of all I believe the character based architecture is inferior to the phonetic alphabet architecture of english and other latin and greek derived languages. In fact, China had to essentially re-write their language in to a simplified form in hopes that it would improve their literacy rate. A phonetic language is better than a character based language because you need only to learn 26 very simple characters to get started. In Chinese you must learn thousands to be considered well spoken. Not only must you recognize the characters, but you must also know the pronunciation. The pronunciations consist not only of a sound, but also of an intonation. Furthermore, the alphabetic system makes the looking up of an unrecognized word much easier, because you can follow the alphabetic order in the dictionary to find the meaning of any word, without fail. If you come across a character you don't recognize in Chinese, you might have no idea how to pronounce it or what it means, or a good way to look it up without the use of some software that can recognize the character.
There must certainly be arguments in the contrary of this line of thought (especially the last point I made), I would love to read them in the comments. Any and all responses are welcomed, and thanks for reading.
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