Learning a second language, especially the English language, became a norm at schools, besides an essential element for modern-day jobs. Despite that fact, there is a concern that such trend will lead to the extinction of local languages and cultures. The following disquisition delves into both outlooks, subsequently explores why I don’t think such destiny is necessarily inevitable.
The acquisition of English language skills became very crucial in recent times, as English language became an international language in a small world, as well as an official language of communication around the globe. It also became the language of exchanging knowledge between nations, without it, no country can keep up with the rest of the developed world, and determined to fail behind technologically and scientifically, for the reason of its isolation. In economic terms, learning English strengthens economy by providing a vast market for employment in a lot of industries such as tourism, which generates per se, jobs, directly and indirectly, in a lot of industries such as services, local and traditional handicrafts, for that reason, tourism became a major source of income for many developing countries, for example Turkey. It is noteworthy to mention that learning a second language has its effects on cognitive reserve too. For example, a recent scientific research have showed that being bilingual lowers the risk of dementia by five years than monolingual.
On the other hand, learning another language would obviously have a negative impact on the local culture and traditions, as the new language brings its culture with it, which could lead to the extinction of the local language. For example, historically speaking, the native languages of African communities and the continent of North American were replaced by English, once its introduction by Anglo-Saxon schools, for instance the whistling languages Sylbo and Lao. It is also true that in the past few decades, English was accompanied by the increasing popularity of the US culture, for example the American films, music, fashion, industries, and technologies. Governments can play a major role in preserving local culture by enactment of legislations to protect, preserve local language as well as culture. For example, governments France and Turkey, passed laws that prohibit shop signs with a language other than the local language, while some governments offered funding to encourage local literature.
To conclude, monolingual holds its drawbacks for a country’s future, and whoever adopts only a certain point of view, offers a false dichotomy, as we can do both, learning the English language, in addition to preserving the local languages.