Nationalism,… what a “funny” concept.
Categories: ENGLISH, Europe, Languages, cross-cultural, ethnic, "race", multicultural, mixity, society, demography, global trends, Zeitgeist, war
Born in Brussels.
I don’t bloody care about the results of my national football team (ok, maybe except woman tennis), but I don’t mind watching a football match - I actually support the Dutch team (thanks to Overmars, so small, so fast).
I usually play low key when mentioning my origins (”born in Brussels”, that’s it, next?). My nationality is not a big deal when exchanging with “foreigners” (funny concept as well btw…).
I don’t know any Belgian folk songs by heart (and actually any songs), even if I enjoy listening at them (like any other songs from any other country). If it is possible to dance on it, I’ll be the first on the floor.
I don’t know my national anthem by heart (just the main chorus ; “le roi, la loi, la liberté” (”the king, the law, the freedom”) - ready to sing for freedom though). The English and the French ones sound great.
Even if I’m a French native speaker, I am fluent in two other languages (and basics in 5 others), I like to speak them all, alternatively, during the day. English is the new Lingua Franca, it’s a tool, a commodity. Dutch is a part of myself.
I prefer the taste of Czech beer (”Krusovice cerny” is my favorite), Belgian chocolate is fine, but I wouldn’t kill for it.
they are nice people everywhere (in Belgium and abroad). They are *ssh*les everywhere as well.
Oh, yes, I forgot,… Belgium has a government now where nearly all important political parties who competed during these elections, have gained official responsibilities (15 ministries from left to Flemish secessionist far-right sides - Mexican Army, here we are…)… opposition ? Funny Belgian concept… “concertation”, you mean.
Identity like national I.D. - if your personality were limited to what is written on this piece of plastic, I don’t think I would spend a sincere time with you (I might politely listen at you though).
Believe it or not, but this is my profession of faith as a Belgian. Keeping my eyes opened to other ways of thinking, learning from them, the world is big enough… up to you if you want to be considered as a cattle. In my country, we sell (specific) weapons (and bloody good ones) to (selected) third world countries (it is just for business of course), but we don’t use them at home… not legal for civilians to own one… we can make more money in other ways.
In the case of some hurdles in Belgium (split of the country, demonstrations). I’ll check what’s going on - if things get serious (which would sincerely surprise me), I sell everything (easy, I have nothing) and will live somewhere else, abroad (making money and surviving is hard enough) in a more peace minded country - maybe I’ll be entitled to get an Australian nationality ? Cool perspective… Little Belgium between little Armenia and Little Italy in Sidney… but don’t ask me to shoot on my neighbor because he speaks another language, and because we did not manage to communicate together. It is not because buying a gun is less time consuming, it brings a clever and long-lasting solution… and anyway I can’t really shoot.
“English is the new Lingua Franca, it’s a tool, a commodity.”
Don’t know about that, probably Chinese will have this status pretty soon. The US dollar is plummeting, the US/UK/Australia all getting bankrupted in Iraq and in debt due to other reasons, and the USA especially in a state of political paralysis.
Chinese already have very strong purchasing power, and in many countries, Chinese is already becoming the most studied language. I’d say other than Chinese, probably Arabic, German (leading the EU and the country’s science prowess), maybe even Hindi will be critical. Other than this– maybe Japanese and Spanish in the next tier.
In any case, I’d suggest that Belgian schools start replacing obligatory English classes with Chinese ones, or at least make the languages electives but recommend Chinese in particular. English is not where it’s at anymore, and the US/UK economic problems aren’t just temporary, they’re ingrained and result from fundamental blunders in those nations’ economies and the kind of stupid bellicosity and dumb wars that destroyed the British Empire and other empires in the last century.
IOW, the plummeting dollar and the floundering US economy (with the indebted economies of the UK and Australia following suit) are long-term structural problems and only going to get worse, as the US baby-boomer generation retires. Get used to global Chinese, and start preparing for it.
China has always been a big-time power and it’s declaring itself again.
Mazzalla, you have pretty strong opinions :grin::grin: and they are welcome, even if I don’t 100% agree on them.
I do speak some Chinese (managed at one point to remember 500 signs (and be able to write them), to sing 1 karaoke song… Good memory exercice, very nice language, very graphic… I like it. Russian is very nice too (the pronunciation especially), very mathematical, complex - I love it… fantastic culture too.
Each empires had their time - have a look on this article about Eurovision song contest. Maybe, it is just a cycle…
Currently, if you plan an international career, you have no choice but to “master” English.
It’s simple, easy, in many places from every sides of the world, it is considered as an official language ; from the UK, South Africa, India, North America to Oceania. Culture is English driven ; Hollywood movies, soap operas are part of the worldwide collective memory. It controls progress somehow, because widespreading ideas to the most different cultures. (have a look to this “case study”, let me know what you think)
Chinese as a next Lingua Franca ?
Maybe, but it is a complex language, not very practical, difficult to posses - if you don’t understand the Chinese culture, good luck… Furthermore, there are many dialects, pretty different from each other. Mandarin ? Maybe not that widespread… (only in china and a bit around) A bit like Arabic MSA, which is more widespread but only spoken by a “few”.
Hindi ?
it is just spoken on the North of India, in a few provinces. Educated Indians learn English at school.
Spanish ?
why not - easy language as well - booming economy and population. Very appealing culture - language spoken in the America’s and Europe. Growing in the US (bilingual signs in NY have always amazed me)…
China is a great power, yes indeed ; but not the greatest yet. If people cannot identify to a language, they will never adopt it.