Markus Sundar Aaboen 23.04.

2021 Writing Part

Can the English Language Unite a Divided People?

By Markus

Imagine a world where everyone could communicate with each other and we all had the same
opportunities, well the future of English might help that happen to both you and me. The
English language has been evolving for centuries and have become more and more popular
and may eventually become a group of closely related languages. The current development of
English can also be traced back to Latin as written in the article What will the English
language be like in 100 years? “But the Vulgar Latin used in speech continued to change,
forming new dialects, which in time gave rise to the modern Romance languages: French,
Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian and Italian.” (Horobin, 2015) Perhaps in the future languages
like Russian, Dutch, Filipino and Japanese will all become different closely related languages
with a lot of influence from English. Although the real question is if it is even all that bad, a
lot of the world now is divided and have a lot of feuds and conflicts, but I think this can be
fixed with a shared language and that it could bring the people in this world closer together.

Sharing a language with the whole world would do great things for international trade and
politics but what would it do to our nationalism? There is no denying that the English
language is the most spoken language in the world, and that many more countries have started
their quest on learning their new generations this new language. In the article The Future of
English? published by The British Council it says, “Is it not the main language of
international commerce and trade in a world where these sectors seem increasingly to drive
the cultural and political”. (Graddol, 1997) The problems start showing up when you touch on
the subject of nationality where there is reason to worry about the countries language and if it
will be overtaken by English. Personally, I see no threat as there is much more to one’s
nationality then their language, and the opportunities that will open with the language change
could change the world and form closer bonds between nations and build a society with a
united people.

With a united people and a shared language pursuing your dream should be easier than ever.
Jobs like online entertainer, musician and world class athletes would thrive in the absence of a
language barrier, while jobs like the military, politicians and online shops would find a larger
value in close cooperation with more countries. Personally, my dream would be to travel

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Markus Sundar Aaboen 23.04.2021 Writing Part

around the world and perform on all types of stages, my dream would also benefit in a lack of
language barrier where I could widen my horizon and play in several different countries.
There will of course also be jobs that does not gain any benefit from this but they most likely
will not see any downsides from it either. But is it worth it to close the gaps between our
nations and making everybody’s dreams a lot closer to reality if we risk our national language
at the same time?

More and more children grow up dreaming about becoming an online streamer, social media
influencer or youtuber and the English language makes this whole dream much easier than
expected. I wish for my children to have the opportunity to become whatever they want and
learning English from an early stage of life will always be seen as an advantage. Young
people online have become more successful than a lot of full-grown adults with a steady
income, and the job is supposed to be easy, and fun combining work and play as written in the
research paper Streamers: the new wave of digital entrepreneurship? Extant corpus and
research agenda “Streaming as “amateur” media production merges elements of work and
play.” (Törhönen, Giertz, Weiger, & Hamari, 2021) This can be found in online twitch
streamers and youtubers like TommyInnit, Ranboo, Technoblade and MrBeast who makes
millions of dollars and uses it on themselves, their friends and charity. Through this many
people get a lot of free entertainment while the creators thrive in wealth and fame, but would
millions of people be watching these teens and young adults playing games and doing
challenges if it weren’t for the fact that so many people all over the world already share
English as a common language?

If everyone in the world could communicate together with no language barriers a lot of the
conflict in our current society could be fixed and a closer bond would be formed between all
the people on this earth. I am personally all for English becoming an even bigger part of the
world, it will affect both me, my current and future family in positive ways that can make life
easier. English can affect my future kid’s options, provide constant entertainment, and make
the world a nicer place than it is now, but all that is in the future, so I guess we’ll have to wait
and see.

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Bibliography
Graddol, D. (1997). The Future of English? The British Council, p. 2. Retrieved April 23, 2021, from
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/pub_learning-elt-future.pdf

Horobin, S. (2015, November 10). What will the English language be like in 100 years? Retrieved
April 23, 2021, from The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/what-will-the-english-
language-be-like-in-100-years-50284

Törhönen, M., Giertz, J., Weiger, W., & Hamari, J. (2021). Streamers: the new wave of digital
entrepreneurship? Extant corpus and research agenda. Retrieved April 23, 2021, from
SienceDirect: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1567422320301046?via
%3Dihub