Languages connection with the world

Languages are the very lifeline of globalization: without language, there would be no globalization; and vice versa, without globalization, there would be no world languages.

Globalization” is a social process “characterized by the existence of global economic, political, cultural, linguistic, and environmental interconnections and flows that make many of the currently existing borders and boundaries irrelevant.

Globalization originated with trade and marketing and crossed the national boundaries to connect people. Globalization has brought everything together but the English language made Globalization more possible and effective. Due to globalization, the English language emerged as a global force.

Languages are the essential medium in which the ability to communicate across culture develops. Knowledge of one or several languages enables us to perceive new horizons, to think globally, and to increase our understanding of ourselves and of our neighbors. 

Today there are about 6,500 different natural languages. Eleven of them account for the speech of more than half the world’s population. Those eleven are Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, Hindi, French, Bengali, Portuguese, Russian, German, Japanese, Arabic, and English. 

The global language system is very much interconnected, linked by multilingual persons who hold the various linguistic groups together. The hierarchical pattern of these connections closely corresponds to other dimensions of the world system, such as the global economy and the worldwide constellation of states.

Let us further explore the connection in this article.

The economic field

From the economic field, the business area is the one where these changes can be seen

more clearly. It is clear that businesses have always been competitive one not only at the local level

but also at a global scale. The persons who act in this field are dealing every day with a

culturally diverse environment so they must have good communicative skills. There are several

branches of the economy where speaking one or several foreign languages is mandatory: the service industries (hotel, tourism, food); the entertainment industries (films, radio, and sound

production); multinational companies with overseas accounts; and other areas such as medicine, law, business, journalism, etc.

The security field

The series of misfortunate events that shaped our modern society starting with September

11, the bomb attacks from France, etc. have highlighted the need for a language connection. Until

recently different governments of the world considered the technical means a main and reliable

source of national security. However, the events, above mentioned, changed their data and now,

people with a good level of a foreign language are used for gathering information. The experts in

national security understood that, although the technical means are almost infallible, the expertise in a foreign language is a crucial step in the understanding of another country’s language and thus

Cultural understanding

A more obvious reason to study a foreign language is the power that language has to

mediate understanding between people of different cultural backgrounds. Another reason for

studying a foreign language is the opportunity to become more open and willing to learn and

appreciate other cultures. And, the only path to do that is learning a common language.

Diversity

It is a clear fact for everybody that a future job will combine many cultures and languages

and the boards of different companies will have to deal with it. We can see in different European

countries and even in America that the workforce is already a combination of nationalities such

as Chinese, Indians, Asians, Spanish, etc. All these different nationalities are well integrated in

their adoptive countries and their language is a combination between their native language and the one of the adoptive country.

Enhanced career opportunities

In a world without borders, physical or of language, workers will be called upon to

cooperate with colleagues in other countries, crossing time zones, languages, and cultures.