What do you think of a universal language?

In the past, with the British empire or with the US as a global power, it was thought that English could one day predominate over all other languages and result in their eventual disappearance. Now with China becoming a global power, could Chinese Mandarin become a universal language in the future? Would a universal language improve our world?

Pros:

• It would facilitate communication between different cultures.

• It would allow the removal of barriers which would facilitate international trade, which would flourish and therefore allow economic growth.

Cons:

• The most obvious disadvantage is that it poses a threat to minority languages and can cause a loss of cultural diversity.

• Language schools would close and many people would lose their jobs. 

• In the long run it would affect tourism as everyone would have similar cultures and speak the same language. This would economically devastate many countries that rely on tourism as a source of income.

So, what do you think, would you like to live in a world with only one language?

Vocab: 

• Disappearance: an act or the fact of someone or something going missing.

• Improve: make or become better.

• Flourish: grow or develop in a healthy or vigorous way, especially as the result of a particularly congenial environment.

• Threat: a statement of an intention to inflict pain, injury, damage, or other hostile action on someone in retribution for something done or not done.

• Devastate: destroy or ruin.

• Rely: depend on with full trust or confidence.