Speaking English
Location: Singapore
Local Time: Monday, May 2, 2006 - 6:32pm
About seven months ago I landed in Singapore where I spent a day before flying on to Delhi. From there north to Nepal, from there I hopped over to Thailand, then south to Malaysia, back to Thailand, back to Malaysia, back to Thailand, now back to Singapore. The airplane makes the world small.
So far, I have easily gotten by speaking only English, everywhere. Back home, it somehow seems implicitly obvious, people should speak English, everywhere. Shouldn't they? Why wouldn't they?
Well, because there are more languages in the world than I can imagine. One fellow in Sarawak in Malaysia told me there are over 30 different tribes, with different languages, in that area alone.
Flying from Malaysia to Thailand then to Singapore in 3 days made me think about it a little more. On the flight from Malaysia, the airline announcements were in Malay and English. From Bangkok to Singapore, the airline announcements were in Thai and English. In Singapore, the signs are in English and Chinese.
They use to say, the sun never sets on the British empire, and probably that is at least part of the reason English is so dominate. I don't know.
What I know is, I'm glad I grew up in an English speaking country, because English would have been difficult to learn as a second language.
Local Time: Monday, May 2, 2006 - 6:32pm
About seven months ago I landed in Singapore where I spent a day before flying on to Delhi. From there north to Nepal, from there I hopped over to Thailand, then south to Malaysia, back to Thailand, back to Malaysia, back to Thailand, now back to Singapore. The airplane makes the world small.
So far, I have easily gotten by speaking only English, everywhere. Back home, it somehow seems implicitly obvious, people should speak English, everywhere. Shouldn't they? Why wouldn't they?
Well, because there are more languages in the world than I can imagine. One fellow in Sarawak in Malaysia told me there are over 30 different tribes, with different languages, in that area alone.
Flying from Malaysia to Thailand then to Singapore in 3 days made me think about it a little more. On the flight from Malaysia, the airline announcements were in Malay and English. From Bangkok to Singapore, the airline announcements were in Thai and English. In Singapore, the signs are in English and Chinese.
They use to say, the sun never sets on the British empire, and probably that is at least part of the reason English is so dominate. I don't know.
What I know is, I'm glad I grew up in an English speaking country, because English would have been difficult to learn as a second language.
posted by Jaye | 4:06 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home