Babel

Thoughts about the globalizing world

One of my housemates made an interesting observation: whilst it has been something peculiar for our grandparents to see someone of indian or chinese ancestry speaking fluent English without any accent, this has become something normal for our generation (the now 20- to 30-year-olds). The times are nearing an end in which one could infer a person's mother tongue based on the colour of their skin.

One of my lecturers in Mathematics immigrated to Australia from China und his English reflects this transition. Compare that with the accent of our two chinese housemates (both of our age) which is still detectable but to a much lesser extent than that of my professor. Whilst staying in Singapore, I was given the chance to meet some kids of the next chinese generation (the now 8- to 12-year-olds) who will grow up bi- or even trilingual and will speak English fluently as well as Mandarin without any trace of an accent. Tomorrows adults will not only be products but rather shapers of globalization and internationalization in the 21st century.

Not that this is an entirely new thought. After conquering Persia, Alexander the Great knowingly encouraged his greek soldiers to marry women of the then new provinces of his kingdom, knowing that tomorrow's elite would have to understand more than one civilization to govern his giant realm. Furthermore, he was on the verge of fusing together elements of Greek, Egyptian and Persian culture. Well, Alexander died too young to see his great plans bear fruit, although we know from history where his actions subsequently led: the ascendancy of Hellenism and a second Golden Age in Egypt under the reign of the Ptolemies.

Keeping this in mind, let's think ahead. When transportation and communication bring humans closer and closer to one another we will see the emergence of a social class of true cosmopolitans who will thrive in several civilizations at a time due to their ancestry and/or educational background. Together, the six inhabitants of our house speak (besides English, our common language) French, German, Japanese, Mandarin, Portugese, Singahlese, Spanish and Tamil (not to mention Latin and Acient Greek). I wonder how many (and which) languages our successors in 30 years will speak.

Remarks

See also Thomas L. Friedman, The World is Flat. A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2005.