I strongly against this opinion. In my opinion, single language can help a country to be more solidarity, raise their citizen's sense of group honor. On the contrary, diversity of languages in a country might lead to disrupt. I will show you three countries for example.
The first is Japan. It is well known that Japan is a country with single nation and single language. This superiority makes Japanese be easier to get their energy together to do difficult things, such as developing their economy. This is the reason why Japan developed so fast after the second world war.
In the topic, it is said that "Australia is often cited as a good example of encouraging a diversity of languages". I doubt the reliability of this example from my own experience. One day, I was taking a tram to school with four Chinese old people and one or to locals. So empty carriage that we could hear everybody clearly. I heard these four old people talking in Chinese, and I also heart that one local woman complained these four people's talking. Not for noisy, but for the language they use, "it is in Australia now, they should speak English", then shacked her head and sighed. From this small case, I can only get the information that, some Australia do not willing to accept or even hear other languages,like Chinese, they prefer English. As a result, a diversity of languages will lead to misunderstanding or even disrupt, let alone "gain strength".
Another bed example is China. I am a Chinese, I know China have more than 100 dialects(or even more), a dialect used maybe only in one city. Can we regard China as a country with a diversity of languages? Too many languages in China create a natural gap between people speak different dialects. Although we have mandarin, oral speech sounds still exits. Some people look down upon people who speak a different dialect, then, with the time going on, disrupt is unavoidable.
In conclusion, there might be some other example support this argument. However, from the discussion I list above, I cannot agree this opinion: a country gains strength by encouraging a diversity of languages.
picture comes from: http://ec.europa.eu/research/headlines/archives_en.cfm?start=103
So, you' re just watching the shinking ship, aren't you?
ReplyDeleteI mean, how about the culture, because there is strong relationship between someone's language and her/his culture? there must be hundreds or even thousands different forms of language in a country. should they totally assimilate with bigger community?
I think, by monopolying languages, it raises separatism cultures..
P.S.( for the old lady, maybe you will never be everywhere, just stay in your country, in your trams...... :) )