UNIT 2

1	English is spoken by approximately two billion people around the world, and this number is growing very quickly.  Many people are not happy about this.  They regret the need to learn English.  According to these people, learning English is bad enough, but what is worse is the hybridization of English and their native language.  By a language hybrid, I mean a combination of two different languages.
2	The most famous hybrid is probably Spanglish ―― a combination of Spanish and English commonly used in Hispanic communities in the United States.  Spanglish is rapidly moving from a peculiar cultural phenomenon to a serious language.  In 2004, the first academic conference on Spanglish was held at Amherst College in Massachusetts.  People who attended heard talks on the Spanglish language, Spanglish media, Spanglish culture, and Spanglish arts.  The conference was organized by Professor Ilan Stavans, who is writing the first Spanglish-English dictionary.  When asked if he considered Spanglish the result of cultural imperialism, he said, “I’d describe it more as cultural irrigation than cultural imperialism.  The U.S. is a laboratory of languages which are fertilizing each other.  Language has its own ways and Spanglish is a movement which is happening and happening globally.  It’s too free to be pinned down and it’s impossible to control its usage.”
3	Meanwhile, in Europe, traditionalists are trying to hold back the flood of English.  Both Spain and France have academies that were created hundreds of years ago to protect the purity of the Spanish and French languages.  In Spain, they are losing the battle.  The French, always careful about outside cultural influences, are having greater success.
4	In Germany, where English or Denglish (Deutsch+English) is often used in advertisements, there is a movement to go back to the language of Goethe.  Not long ago, Lufthansa, a German airline company, changed its slogan from “There’s No Better Way to Fly” in English, to the German “Alles für diesen Moment,” or “Everything for This Moment.”  Similarly, German McDonald’s changed its slogan from “Every time a good time” to “Ich liebe es,” which translates to “I love it.” Unfortunately, for German traditionalists, there has also been some movement in the other direction.  A German Burger King recently changed its slogan to the English “Feel the Fire.”
5	All over the world there are people who are worried about losing their native languages and others who feel that languages have always mixed together and that this trend is no different.  At any rate, what authority does any nation have to control the changes in its language and to guard against words from other languages?

