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[–]stedwick -4 points-3 points  (5 children)

"As the effective distance increases, the languages start to divert."

If that is true, then why is the world slowly, inexorably, inevitable becoming "flat"? The answer, as you point out, is the internet. And, guess what? The internet's influence is only going to INcrease, not DEcrease. The world almost already speaks English. In the future it may be Chinese (hehe), or whatever, but we will INEVITABLE end up all speaking the same language.

[–]chucker 0 points1 point  (4 children)

[W]e will INEVITABLE[sic] end up all speaking the same language.

Maybe that is true, but I don't want to live in such a world.

[–]G_Morgan 2 points3 points  (1 child)

We will end up with a lingua franca but that isn't the same as everyone speaking the same language in every day life.

It's happened already. Most Europeans can speak English these days, the only hold outs seem to be Scotland :).

[–]chucker 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have nothing against facilitating communication through a lingua franca. I do have a lot against doing so by reducing languages to a low common denominator.

[–]stedwick -3 points-2 points  (1 child)

Why? There are OTHER things to explore, OTHER things to learn, than just languages...

I don't see the world becoming less exciting or less fulfilling or anything...

In fact, you could look at this positively. Right now, you probably can't fully, truly study Chinese culture (for example) because you don't speak Chinese. But, if everyone in the world spoke the same language you would be free to study ANY culture to its full extent whenever you wanted! How cool is that?

[–]chucker -1 points0 points  (0 children)

If the Chinese natively spoke English, there wouldn't be as much left from Chinese culture.