Lingua Franca

It's now pretty much established that English is the global lingua franca, especially in the realms of technology and business. That there's a common language to facilitate intercultural communication between groups isn't undesirable - having a language in common makes international gatherings a lot easier. But what's unique about the current situation is that English isn't some neutral third party language used for communications purposes only, there are millions of native speakers of the language who have a definite advantage when it comes to the manipulation and use of this lingua franca. This is in contrast to something like Latin, which was the lingua franca of the Catholic church, but which no one spoke natively.

English speakers are spoiled - the global lingua franca is their native language. They can reap all the benefits of the use of this global language, without having had to go through the long, slow process of learning a foreign language. As a result, there is an important number of English speakers who don't speak any foreign languages beyond Tarzan-talk - practically speaking, they don't really have to, so why bother? When an monolingual English speakers sets out on a trip, to assuage their fears of communicating in a foreign country, they can say to themself, " There's always someone around who speaks some English..."

And they're usually right. In major cities and tourist centres there IS usually someone who speaks some English. So you can get by.

But your bus driver, bar tender, the random person you ask for directions on the street, the grandma waiting for the bus with you on the street corner, the lady that sells you fruit in the market, the corrupt police officer waiting for a bribe; these people probably don't speak English. Yeah, you CAN get by with hand gestures or drawings, but isn't it more fulfilling, not to mention more informative, to be able to carry on a conversation? Maybe your tour guide can speak some English, but isn't it better to get the witty and comprehensive 15 minute explanation of the monument you're looking at in the local language as opposed to the abbreviated, stiff, badly pronounced 5 minute English version? Isn't better to be able to haggle over the price of the handcrafts you're buying instead of just having to accept whatever price they tell you? Isn't it better to have some idea whether someone yelling at you on the street is telling you how beautiful you are or that they're going to rob you? I think it is.

I didn't always feel this way, though. In the past when I travelled in places where I didn't know the language, I took the daily doses of extreme frustration at not being able to communicate as part of the travelling experience. Didn't realize there was an alternative to the linguistic barrier between me and the locals that kept my interaction with anyone other than tourism professional quite superficial. But then I went travelling in places where I knew the language, and the experience was like night and day. And now I'm a convert. You don't have to have Shakespearean prowess in the local language. Just enough of the basic structures and vocabulary to actually carry on something that resembles a real conversation.

I think "There's always someone who speaks English," should be banned from everyone's travel vocab.