bozorgmehr
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- Dec 13, 2008
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You are missing 1 important point. English "is" the universal language.
I understand. But somehow that doesn't seem to have hurt the chances of the Japanese, Koreans or even French and Brazilians much. I'm not exaggerating when I say most Japanese can't even count to 5 in English. (I think most Iranians can) On the other hand India, Philippines, Ghana and Nigeria generally enjoy superlative English language skills and they're all 3rd world countries. So the perceived correlation between English language and advancement appears to be somewhat misleading.
All of this is not an argument against learning English or other foreign languages. Not at all! But it is almost impossible to think that some of these coherently structured societies can adopt English to the same breadth and depth as the former English colonies. Not unless they give it the pride of place and in turn give up something that goes to the core of their identity and which I suspect is more crucial to their success than their English language skills.