What if the whole world spoke only English?

I've been thinking about this article for a few days now. I even emailed the link to one of my old professors to see what he thought about it. I know no one actually reads this because this blog has absolutely no real theme, no consistency, no interesting images, and I post maybe once every six months. Well, on that note, for the invisible reader, this article is about English becoming a global language. The author argues that its somewhat politically correct to fear the loss of native languages with people moving into cities and all that, but that losing language actually doesn't have anything to do with losing culture- that this concern for language is a purely aesthetic concern. He also argues that the only reason we have this total hang-up against it is because English automatically has colonial associations, so we would be much less perturbed by the idea of one global language if that language were, say, Inuit, instead of English. I was really excited to stumble upon this article because in my last four months here (in China, I'm living in China now), I still haven't gotten used to the fact that there's so much English around. It's one of those things that I know-- I've traveled quite a bit, and its not 'surprising' to me, per se, but it just pops into my head once and again. It's like being amazed that the world is so big and there are so many people in it- it's something you already KNOW, but is still amazing, every time you think about it. This is how I am with seeing English around. Of course I know all the historical reasons that led up to English being such a huge force here, but it still feels so strange and arbitrary sometimes! Like going to an ex-pat bar in Hong Kong and hearing all these different people speaking English is tons of different accents. All these people from all over the world, and the default being English. It makes me realize (again, and again and again) how strange it is for us Americans, to never HAVE to learn another language. This must seriously make us so different from the rest of the world, have such a different frame of mind. I was eating lunch in a Vietnamese restaurant today reading "The Blind Assassin" when suddenly I heard The Star Spangled Banner playing on a Chinese news station on the TV. The song was dubbed in Chinese, though. So bizarre.

That felt good, actually. Maybe I'll start updating here more often. Pictures, rants, all that jazz.

http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/2009%20-%20Fall/full-McWhorter-Fall-2009.html

PS. Since Mad Men is over, I need a new fix. I'm starting on "In Treatment" tonight... we'll see how it goes

PPS. I've been thinking it over, and how can language NOT be a part of culture though? This past summer I helped my mother translate a Bengali short story into English for this online literary magazine and it was so much more difficult than I would've imagined. I knew all the right words, but it just didn't sound the same. Words have completely different tones and implications in different languages. I feel like a different person almost when I speak in Bengali, my other self. Is this just me not sufficiently being able to express myself in both languages? What's lost in it?