Polyglot perversity
Polyglot perversity
Why learn other languages, anyway? This article shows how thoroughly the point can be missed:
In fact, the knowledge of a foreign language could land you a translator's or interpreter's job -- which are not well-paid and may one day be replaced by the computer. Another career choice is a bilingual secretary.[via linguistic hegemony]
This is a really convincing argument, if you assume that everybody lives in Britain and will never want or need a job anywhere else.
Suppose you want to work for a bank in Germany or France. The working language is English, right? No problem there, then. Until you get out of work and want to go shopping or to a bar and the local populace has thoughtlessly neglected to learn English to the high standards that you, as a Discerning Professional, have come to expect.
Quelle horreur! (whatever that means).
At my last company I worked alongside German, Dutch, French and Mexican engineers and designers. They weren't doing translation and they weren't secretaries, they were doing the jobs they had trained to do, but in a foreign country.
If Europe wants to take itself seriously as an economic area, then we should aspire to being able to move from Portugal to Finland as casually as Americans move from Nevada to New Hampshire. Really.
In other news, Aftonbladet.se is covering the
Miss Sweden
contest. You won't be needing that translated, now, will you?