Should we adopt another language?

[Big Shed]

The curse of speaking English - The Drum (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

[BobL]

The curse of speaking English - The Drum (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

I forget the date but some time this century the US will become primarily a spanish speaking country (I think California already has more students in school speaking spanish than english) we'll see if they change. Somehow I doubt it

[Master Splinter]

So by following the logic in that article:

You'll go through about one government a year if you speak Italian;
You'll avoid binge drinking entirely if you speak Russian, because you are never quite sober;
You'll have cheating on your taxes as a way of life if you speak Greek;
Your 'job' will be writing scam letters if you speak Niger-Congo...if you can get a job, that is;
You'll want to conquer the world if you sprechen sie Deutsch;

While I think there probably is something in the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, in the case of something like drinking there are other, greater factors.

To me, generally the only reason to drink alcohol is to experience the general disassociative state known as 'being drunk'; I certainly wouldn't drink for the taste. To get to any sort of drunk state typically takes me 10-odd standard drinks, so yea, to get the mental state I am after I have to binge drink - anything less won't do the job.

A quick examination of worldwide alcohol consumption points to another commonality - the countries that (apparently) binge most also seem to come from countries where beer is the most consumed alcoholic beverage. ( http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/p...ruprofiles.pdf page 7)

So yeah, it's the beer drinkers with the street pizza problem.

[Big Shed]

You'll want to conquer the world if you sprechen sie Deutsch;

Hmm, didn't see that mentioned in the article

But English speaking countries seem to have done quite well in that area over the last few centuries, ie British and American empires?

As for Italy, do their governments last as long a a year?

[Bushmiller]

The curse of speaking English - The Drum (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

I think we are talking decadence or at least early onset. The language is irrelevant.

It has happened before to other civilisations, although they did not have the "luxuries" referred to in the article. Most of the major civilisations have self-destructed eventually . No one is immune and social decline is probably inevitable.



Regards
Paul

[jimbur]

I forget the date but some time this century the US will become primarily a spanish speaking country (I think California already has more students in school speaking spanish than english) we'll see if they change. Somehow I doubt it

Do they speak English Bob? I'm thinking of George W here.