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In a globalized world, it becomes more and more common for people from all countries to
learn the languages regarded as “important”. English, for example, is the choice of most of the
people when it comes to learn a new language, because knowing Shakespeare’s idiom makes
one to communicate with counterparts all over the world. Some say that it’s only natural that
English grows in importance to become a global and “universal” language. This process has the
potential to make humanity more integrated, as more people can understand each other in
the same language. However, it can also lead the way to the disappearance of “less important”
languages, seeing as minor when compared to languages like English, Spanish, French and
German. What could be the consequences of this process?
The competence in a foreign language, especially in the language of countries politically and
economically more relevant, can inform nowadays the possibilities of one’s success, as more
and more companies, governments, universities and all kinds of institutions require that its
personal speaks foreign languages. Besides the importance for one’s job, as more and more
people are able to communicate with each other in the same language, the the flow of persons
and economic goods through countries rise.
However, the importance of language lays beyond its role in a globalized world. Language is
the venue through which a society can transform abstract conceptions, such as its cosmology,
in concrete words, full of meanings. The vocabulary of a society give its native speaker a sense
of understanding and belonging, and through the careful examination of a culture’s language
one can make sense of its world vision. This conception, however, struggles to prosper in a
world in which language is seems as tool to enhances one’s capacity to gain its place under the
sun in a ever more globalized and competitive world.
In one hand, contemplating a future in which people are able to communicate with each other
easily due to the fluency in a foreign language shows the potential of a more integrated and
cooperative humanity. On the other hand, this process can means the disappearance of
languages regarded as insignificant, such as the Apayaneco idiom, which would mean the
death of several cosmologies. The so-called process of human integration through the learning
of a “universal” idiom, such as English, deserves, then, careful and critical attention.