We know that the Americans were bombing a country in Europe as late as 1999, a war that eventually led to the removal of Serbian President Slobodan Milošević.
We know that Presidents Bush and Obama have – rightly or wrongly – led the USA and its English speaking allies to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and both presidents have supported the torture of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
Photo credit: Art by Edvar Ess
We know that the USA is the only country to use a nuclear weapon to kill thousands upon thousands of people, and we know that the USA, again rightly or wrongly, sends unmanned planes into foreign countries to kill people who they believe to be terrorists.
We also know that the top English-speaking nations (the USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada) share intelligence to spy on the rest of the world. Of course, even though German Chancellor Angela Merkel is aghast at the Americans spying on her, it appears everyone does it.
The love affair
And yet, here in Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic, everyone seems to love the Americans and British, and it seems everyone wants to speak English.
Everywhere I go, people speak to me automatically in English. This is even when I speak to them in Czech. Everyone wants an iPhone, listens to English music on the radio and in the trendiest clubs, and Czech television is dominated by American programmes.
What’s happening?
One of my students said after I first landed in Prague: “The Americans are just like the Russians, but with pens.”
I’m not really sure about that last point, as the Americans have more than pens.
But I do wonder: how long will English be ‘cool’ and represent freedom and democracy while the English speaking nations behave as they do?
What comes to mind when you think of our language?
Do you think of freedom, that you can be a black man and become President? Or that you can be gay or lesbian and live in peace? That if you’re gay, in some states and countries you can now get married to your true love?
Is learning English a political decision?
Do you think of the great bands who sing about making the world a better place? Do you think of the Beatles, the great Oscar winning films and the dream that Martin Luther King shared that one day, we will all be created equal?
Or is it simply being pragmatic: that the world has 3 spheres of influence, and being under American control or influence is still better than living under the Russians and Chinese? On this note, Australia is not a fully independent nation either – American soldiers are now on our soil, and we are dependent on the USA for our ‘security’.
Whatever your answer, the world is changing, and one day my job as an English teacher may go from being someone who simply helps people to being a foot soldier for promoting something other than freedom and democracy.
Maybe you think that it already has changed.
Please leave your thoughts below in the comments, I look forward to reading your perspectives.
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Art by Edvar Ess
I think that the English language supremacy has little or not to do with the economic and military power that the USA has or used to have, because, judging by the latests News (Syria, economics shutdown,etc,etc), its prestigie is in clear decline.
However, when it comes to language, the English is unbeatable, because it is everywhere (movies, music, internet and so on) and this explain why so manu people whether they like the Americans or not are still strugling to learn English.
Hi Sergio
Thanks for giving us your thoughts on a potentially controversial topic. I’d probably add that English is everywhere partly because of the influence of the USA but now the influence is so strong that people ironically might not even think of the USA when it comes to English.
I agree English is everywhere, but is it always a good thing? Some French intellectuals have recently expressed concern that it is taking away from French culture.
Of course, the other side of the coin is that English itself has taken from other languages and throughout history languages influence each other.
How do people in Brazil see English?
David
Hi David! To me, English has an absolutely independent value, and it has nothing to do with countries or politicians. It’s the same here, in Latvia, with Russian. The language itself can’t be good or bad, that’s why I love the old and rich Russian language, just as I love English! 🙂
Hi Baiba
Thanks a lot for joining in 🙂 It’s interesting – if a foreigner, say a Russian or Englishman, lives in your country, should their languages dominate as much as they do? Shouldn’t we all speak the language of the country we live in?
I’ve met a number of Russians in Prague, they’re very friendly, and interesting to hear the different ideas and mentality.
I know I’ve said it before but I’d be happy to publish your story of how you got to where you are in English, I think it’d be a good read..
Hello David,
First, thank you for the interesting topic. It’s especially interesting for me because, as you probably know 😉 I’m also Russian. When I went to my first year of primary school I became a little member (or probably even a warrior) of the struggle between the free people of Soviet Union and the capitalist western World. You cannot imagine what it was like. I remember how my first teacher was explaining us that the name of the famous American band “KISS” means something like “kids who support fascist followers”. Even that time it appeared weird to me. There were many ridiculous cases as I mentioned, but it’s not a topic of my comment. I just wanted to highlight that for me it had been a real confrontation between nations and English language was a part of it.
This struggle was reflected in our education. It wasn’t popular to study English. German defeated other languages in the Soviet education programme. Now I think it was an idea of Soviet leaders to cut us off from the dominant language in order to decrease the chance of finding out what people from English speaking countries had to say.
But time has passed and situation with foreign languages significantly has changed. Nowadays in Moscow (I can only write about this part of Russia) the studying of English is absolutely usual thing for nearly everyone pupil. Employers prefer to hire bilingual managers. Knowing English adds additional money and raises status. People do not associate the language with a political situation and western leaders. It’s just a way of communication that has brought only advantages to us. So, from my perspective Russians, at least those who have some intellect, don’t connect the language with foreign relations.
And actually I think the same situation happens in the Western Anglo-Saxon society. I’ve many times been to US. There are living very different people. For instance, I had met emigrants from Odessa who screamed (being drunk of course) “we will kill them all in their stinky Iran” but in a few days I had seen third-generation Americans who were marching for the purpose of discouraging military plans to invade into countries with a different opinion about democracy. And I believe there are a lot more people who want to spread the culture of the language but not war.
The more people study different languages the higher a chance to live in peace because the level of communication is getting better.
Alexander
Hi Alex
Thank you for your very well considered reply.
It’s interesting what you wrote about the days of the Soviet Union, and incredible now that today’s young generation probably don’t know much about how things were in the past.
Re: your comment about the immigrants from Odessa, quite often the most vocal and nationalist people are recent generations of immigrants who want to ‘prove’ themselves to the new culture and country. In Australia sometimes it’s the immigrants, for example in Western Sydney, who are most against those seeking asylum in our country.
I agree that learning different languages can help promote peace and understanding, but I do fear for the world when the USA is controlled so much by the military.
It would be interesting to hear more about what you were taught and told at school..
David