English has become the most popular language in the world because of the clear and obvious utility of having everyone understand the same language at a company like Microsoft, or Google, where people from all around the world work together in teams to make things happen, when not everyone speaks the same native language. It is here that we see english being used as a common communication protocol that allows more people to connect in more ways. English was chosen at Google and Microsoft because it was the most popular language studied by all non-native english speakers.
Understanding this Blog?
Having a communications standard in language just makes clear rational analytical sense. For example, if you read this blog, you must understand english to make sense of what I am writing. The standard language I use in my blog allows other people to potentially understand what I am writing, if I am blessed enough to have them read what I have written. I hope that what I write makes a positive difference for other people. That is why I am talking about the virtues of language standardization.
Obvious or Not?
It almost seems like a foregone conclusion that all people should be able to speak read and write the same language. Imaging what super intelligent Aliens would think if they found out that a human from one part of the Earth cannot understand people in other parts of the Earth, because there are so many different languages that are not mutually intelligible used in the world today!
Machine Translation a Partial Solution
Thankfully things like Google Translate exist that will eventually go on a as a future technology to unlock the communication slowdowns caused by ongoing language fragmentation. Today, the Google search engine can already translate large portions of foreign web pages you might visit, presenting large parts of those pages in a langue that you understand. Sometimes that language on a web site is presented as an object or image that is not easy for the OCR AI translation engine to read, making machine website translations imperfect.
Multi-language Fluent Humans Required
For critical communications the translation has to be accurate and precise, something only specialized people can do if they have a good breadth of knowledge of the languages being translated. My friend Jun can speak, read and write both English and Japanese with good fluency, as an example of such a person. People who speak multiple languages are able to transcend the boundaries imposed by only understanding a single language.
English Safe Airports
Having a common language is important for safety in air traffic control. If the pilot does not speak the same language is the people in the air traffic control towers, then communication become far more difficult, and in this context this breakdown in communication from non standardized languages reduces airport safety for everyone.
Science Standards
In science english is used as one of a few standard main languages so that ideas can be shared and reviewed faster by more people., in more places, more quickly. The standards enables improvements to happen faster, and today scientific progress has never been greater. Computers are revolutionizing all aspects of the global economy, the energy systems on earth, utilities, government, university, businesses of all kinds. Computers allow people to communicate in more ways in more places more often then ever before, and computers allow large corporations to be organized enough to coordinate the function of hundreds of thousands of people! Metric is standardized in the sciences! Math is its own language, and standards in math allow people from all countries to study the same math regardless of what communication language they natively use & understand.
Moving Beyond Misunderstandings
Even when people speak the same language, confusion and misunderstanding as all too common. Language is slow and ambiguous, you can say things one way, while convey a contextually different message; you can say multiple things with a single phrase. This causes all kinds of misunderstandings because people communicate in different ways, and this keeps us all divided. Communication is just as important as thinking, it is the way that our minds connect to each other and ideas that help to advance society, the culture that moves everyone in forward. When people speak the same language they can share ideas more efficiently. The flowing of ideas key to the intellectual advancement in society that gives rise to all innovations and problem solving by groups of people working together for a common goal, speaking the same language so that everyone understand their part in the team.
Enabling Global Communication Efficiency
We have to be able to speak, read, or write the same language if we hope to communicate on a global scale effectively. There are obviously forces in the world, like culture, that perpetuate the use of different non mutually intelligible languages, when it is well understood by everyone that misunderstandings occur when people speak the same language, but the problems become worse if people cannot understand each other. War occurs when one culture expresses violently the condemnation of another culture.
The Battlefield of the Mind
As an American I believe in western ideologies, a millennial, I grew up online, and have been transformed by modern American ethics that I learned from the late Ken Schwarz. I was indoctrinated with the ethics to embrace virtues by schools, the church I grew up in, my parents, my siblings and relatives, my friends. I got all the ideas in my mind from the culture around me, mostly online, and mostly in english! I watched a German technical movie about industrial iron processing, and it was fun to bring back memories of the German language from college when I studied German in a formal context for a few years. Sadly, language is use it or loose it, so the more that time goes on, the more incline I have become to use english, and its everyone.
Inertia of Thought
As we continue doing something, we are more likely keeping doing it. I will refer too this as intellectual moment or the inertia of thought, or the propensity of thoughts to cause other thoughts, that are related to the first thought; things you are thinking about right now that will translate into changes in your life in the future. If you think about what your mind is made of, how it works, and what it does with information taken in by the senses, you will start to understand what I mean about the brains information processing.
Sensory IO Brain
When we all speak the same languages, we can share experiences and understandings with one another. Standards are good for a reason! All of the experiences that anyone ever experiences are taken into the brain, through sensory systems; ears, eyes, nose, skin, most, even sensing temperature or vibration and propiception from balancing feedback in the skeletal system. Think of what it is like to ride a roller coaster, then think about what is happening to your brain when you ride a roller coaster. Now what are your memories of riding a roller coaster made of? What is your thinking made of? What are you? Who are you? Why are you self aware? How does life continue? Why does life exist? What should you care about? What do you really value? What do you really care about?
Math Standards
Imagine if everyone used different math standards so that 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, so that these numbers did not make sense to everyone. I know there are other langue ways to write the numbers. Imagine all the wasteful duplicity in engineering if we had two systems like SAE and metric. Oh, wait, thats right, we have a high level of duplicated so that you can find a 6mm bolt right next to a 11/16 nut in a vehicle of today. That means twice as many tools for all the mechanics that have to be able to work on both standards. Waste, a waste of time, money, effort, just waste. The same kind of inefficiency driven waste is created when everyone speaks different languages. The standards in math allow for greater global communication between people working with math.
I like real world Standards
I like AA / LR6 sized batteries because they create a useful standard. I like all the electrical plugs in America having standards, so that I can plug appliances from one room into electrical outlets in most rooms, the Dryer outlet being the notable exception in most homes, along with the range hookup or water heater connections. Standards make electric power safer. Today we even speak a few different electric grid languages, called voltages and frequencies in grid power terminology. The US grid delivers something like 110-115-120 volts at 60HZ at up to 15amps safely in most US electrical residential power outlets. In Europe 220v is more common, with 50HZ and I am not sure what the breaker amperage is in the most common european outlet circuits, I even suspect that fuses are still widely used as load disconnect safety devices in many countries.
Living in Peace
Sure people can live together in peace even when they do not speak the same languages, but lets be honest, having everyone better able to communicate is just better. To defend the standardization of english, it seems only logical for society to pick one universal language so that everyone can at least have the opportunities to understand everyone else. Today with different languages, we have a lot of confusion. Cultures clashing as America fights ISIS. Christianity vs Islam, it is the battlefield of your mind, to influence you thinking, which influences everything! What we think about as people defines everything about our civilization, and language is deeply interwoven into culture. Our languages limit the ways that we can communicate. English has the greatest depth of words to describe anything, and is the most widely spoken language in the world overall. The good news, English is already becoming a global communication standard. I am just defending the virtues of why it should keep happening!
Language is Culture
Language is the intellectual foundation of culture. People have to be able to communicate to make anything happen! We have to work together in groups, teams, it is through other people that even great people are able to find wealth and success. George Westinghouse is an example of an accessional man who leveraged the talent of people who were loyal to him, and he was loyal to them, an innovators in ways that continue to influence the direction that society heads with development in all facets of life. Exporting the ideology of a dishwasher or toaster, the ideas and products that contain creative ideas, the electric life we live today is full of innovations build on the shoulder of intellectual giants from our past. We share ideas with each other if we can understand each other.
The American Foreign Language Choice Challenge
Americans are faced with thecomplex task of deciding which of the major foreign languages they should learn. I have a German family name, Schwarz, and the developmental culture of my home encouraged me to study German, so I did. I like the way that German has a precise technical sound! I think a lot of German words are cool, and can see how English was derived from German. I believe that American English today is more valuable in all contexts, so I embrace English, and think it prudent for everyone to embrace the english language as a foreign language standard in all countries, so that everyone has a shared language to communicate with!
Sure people can live together in peace even when they do not speak the same languages, but lets be honest, having everyone better able to communicate is just better. To defend the standardization of english, it seems only logical for society to pick one universal language so that everyone can at least have the opportunities to understand everyone else. Today with different languages, we have a lot of confusion. Cultures clashing as America fights ISIS. Christianity vs Islam, it is the battlefield of your mind, to influence you thinking, which influences everything! What we think about as people defines everything about our civilization, and language is deeply interwoven into culture. Our languages limit the ways that we can communicate. English has the greatest depth of words to describe anything, and is the most widely spoken language in the world overall. The good news, English is already becoming a global communication standard. I am just defending the virtues of why it should keep happening!
Language is Culture
Language is the intellectual foundation of culture. People have to be able to communicate to make anything happen! We have to work together in groups, teams, it is through other people that even great people are able to find wealth and success. George Westinghouse is an example of an accessional man who leveraged the talent of people who were loyal to him, and he was loyal to them, an innovators in ways that continue to influence the direction that society heads with development in all facets of life. Exporting the ideology of a dishwasher or toaster, the ideas and products that contain creative ideas, the electric life we live today is full of innovations build on the shoulder of intellectual giants from our past. We share ideas with each other if we can understand each other.
The American Foreign Language Choice Challenge
Americans are faced with thecomplex task of deciding which of the major foreign languages they should learn. I have a German family name, Schwarz, and the developmental culture of my home encouraged me to study German, so I did. I like the way that German has a precise technical sound! I think a lot of German words are cool, and can see how English was derived from German. I believe that American English today is more valuable in all contexts, so I embrace English, and think it prudent for everyone to embrace the english language as a foreign language standard in all countries, so that everyone has a shared language to communicate with!
No comments:
Post a Comment