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Talks on the French newspaper crisis lead to a promise of major government support – adding to the 10% of the turnover of the French press that's already from the government – and an interesting idea – buy every 18 year old a newspaper subscription.
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French is no longer the "lingua franca" for international business… but some speculate it's not losing to English so much as it is to "globish", a simplified English spoken as people's second or third language as a trade language
I live in London and if anyone says to me “everyone speaks English†my answer is “Listen and look around youâ€. If people in London do not speak English then the whole question of a global language is completely open.
The promulgation of English as the world’s “lingua franca†is impractical and linguistically undemocratic. I say this as a native English speaker!
Impractical because communication should be for all and not only for an educational or political elite. That is how English is used internationally at the moment.
Undemocratic because minority languages are under attack worldwide due to the encroachment of majority ethnic languages. Even Mandarin Chinese is attempting to dominate as well. The long-term solution must be found and a non-national language, which places all ethnic languages on an equal footing is essential.
An interesting video can be seen at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8837438938991452670
A glimpse of Esperanto can be seen at http://www.lernu.net
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