The Privileged Language

My first trip overseas to a non-English speaking country was fifteen years ago. I arrived at the Geneva airport for a trip into the Swiss Alps. Now I knew a little about Geneva including that it was an international center for business and politics, and that it sits near both Germany and France. On the airport signs I expected to find a mix of German and French. I was living in Seattle at the time and the Seattle airport had multiple languages on most signs, so I figured this would be true elsewhere. Upon landing and walking through the airport, I was astonished to find that the primary language on almost every sign was English! So maybe this was more of an international city than I had expected.

 

I've since traveled to 6 continents and 20 countries. Amazingly almost every airport I've been to has English on the signs. This includes Peru, India, Nepal, Tanzania, Costa Rica. So Geneva was the center of international commerce, but I truly didn't expect to see English in India, or Nepal, or Tanzania.

 

The same goes for almost every airplane I've been on! The announcements are first spoken in the native language, and then spoken in English as well. I remember on Ethiopian airlines traveling within Africa, English was used for the first set of announcements, then Ethiopian!

 

Alright, so airports are centers where many people traverse through.

 

Now my trips are often into remote areas - the Kilimanjaro area, the inner reaches of Peru, far north Vietnam, the Cambodian templates, the remote trails of the Himalayas. But I've also been to the mountains of France and Switzerland, Chile, and more. So there is a full contrast of areas with minimal modern conveniences with little or no electricity, and areas that are completely modern. Still - most of these places have English on signs! My most recent trip was on the Manaslu Circuit around Mt. Manaslu in Nepal. Every trail marker was in English! Every little village I came to had signs in English! Every menu for the little cafes was in English! In Tanzania, around Mt. Kilimanjaro, the road signs are in English!

 

No matter where I go, I continue to be absolutely amazed at the prevalence of the English language. This includes the signs - AND it includes the number of people who speak some English.

 

English in the primary language in only a handful of countries - mostly English colonies at one point or another. The United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand. That means about 5-7% of the world population has English as a primary language. And still another 25-30% of the world can speak English. English isn't an old language, modern English is only several hundred years old, and still it's one of the newer languages spoken.

 

There's no doubt the financial and political influence of the U.S. and English speaking countries is immense, and still I'm amazed.

 

Living in the U.S. and being an American truly is a privilege. I hope those of us who speak English never forgot or misuse that privilege.