“In the Future, will there be a new International Language?”
Imagine a world where the people from each country only spoke their native tongue and the international language. But that international language wasn’t a language from any particular country. Yes, imagine with me a future in which the international language didn’t belong to or originate from any country in the world – but it was instead a created language. A language that was very easy for everyone to learn. So easy, that everyone could learn to speak it within a 6-month period, or even sooner…
Looking at how things are in the world today – the political problems, wars, disagreements, strife between countries, and etc. – I can’t help but think that this very well could be a possibility. In the next few paragraphs, I’m going to give you 2 reasons why I believe that this could one day become a reality and what I think could be a challenge to today’s way of communicating.
Reason 1: Constructed/Invented Languages
Yes yes, all of you Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, and Avatar fans you know from watching shows and movies like these that the characters in them speak their own language. And for those of you who don’t know the languages they speak are actual languages, with vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure, just like real-life languages. In other words, the characters in these shows and movies actually speak a real language that doesn’t originate from any real country. Hmmm… so you’re telling me that people have actually sat down and thought up a vocabulary, sentence structure, and grammar, and created a language? Yes. And each of these languages have enough vocabulary in them that if learned, people could actually communicate with one another through them in the real world.
Reason 2: Auxiliary Languages
If you’re familiar with the topic of auxiliary or invented languages – I’m sure you’ve heard of the language, Esperanto. This language was invented in 1887 by a Polish doctor named L. L. Zamenhof, who wanted to create peace between the 4 different cultural groups that he lived among as a child who were always fighting because of a language barrier problem. So, one day he decided that he would create a language that would be easy enough for all of them to learn and speak therefore eliminating the problems that were occurring and causing division between them. Keep in mind that back then, they obviously didn’t have technology and websites like Google Translate that we have today. So things were a bit tougher, to say the least.
Fast-forward to today, over 130 years later, and you will find that throughout many countries in the world, there are people who still speak this invented language – an estimated amount of around 2 million people. It is the oldest auxiliary language to still be around to this day and is considered to be one of the easiest languages to learn.
What will the International Language of the Future be?
Technology is advancing very rapidly these days. And unlike hundreds of years ago, or even 50, it’s a whole lot easier for people to learn languages today. But, will this be a necessity in the future?
Will the children of tomorrow keep things the way that they are today? Think back 50 years – would you say that we run things today the same way that we ran it back then? “Well, technology, politics, and people are much more different than they were 50 years ago,” you might say. And you’re right. Things have changed, drastically. So it only makes sense for this extreme cycle of change to continue on, right? With this in mind, I’d like you to think about a few things:
- What will be the language of the future?
- Will verbal communication still be a thing or will a new way of communicating be invented?
- Will politicians ever speak the same language?
And finally, the last question I want to leave you with and really want you to think about –
“What are the chances that the children of the future would choose a created language as the new International Language?”