What is the language of the future?

I think it should be English language.

English would remain the world language. I foresee the Chinese learning Chinese the same way the Spanish, French and others have as well.

English would remain the world language. I foresee the Chinese learning English the same way the Spanish and French have.

As Muslim Actually, Arabic Is The Best Language Suitabel To Learn Because They Holly Quran Written in Arabic That's Why IT'S Important To Learn Arabic.

If You Learn Arabic You Can Understand Clearly The Meaning Of Holly Quran And The Hadith Of The Prophet (ppoh) Also is Arabic All About Islam Was Written in Arabic

Some Of Muslims Are Madly Love To Learn English And Realy That's Unlucky Because They Prefering English inTo Arabic

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Like Rwanda, its difficult for a number of countries that dont speak English that are surrounded by those who do to trade. Mozambique is one that comes to mind. Swahili would be an alternative but East African education system is mainly English and Tanzania for all of its advancements still lags behind Kenya, Uganda and Zambia so much so that majority of familly who have means have resorted to send teenage children to Uganda and Kenya where they can get what is considered better education in English.

English is definitely the de facto language of the future. Its importance in trade, technology arts and science cannot be gainsaid. All over the world countries with a different language are gradually adopting English as a second language. It is only in Cameroon that the the Francophone majority looks low on English. But whether one likes it or not English is indispensable and will dominate the world.
Although Chinese is spoken by more than a billion people, English remains their preferred language of trade. To me, English is, and remains the main language to learn before any other.

undoubtedly English is the language of the future. But i sincerely believe we should make efforts to learn some other international language un addition to English. it is a pathetic situation that in Ghana our immediate neighbour is Togo yet one could easily count the number of Ghanaians who could speak French. this does not help in terms of trade. being limited to one international language could limit you in certain international appointments

@ Kade: There are just over 6 billion people in the world and only around 400 million speak English as a first language. I struggle to see how the over 1 billion population of China who can read and write in their own language learning English with pace at which the Chinese economy is growing. That just won’t happen in my opinion. The language of trade in the 19th and 20th Century was English but the language of trade in the 21st Century is Information Technology. I work in the UK for a multinational European company and I am Nigerian, I speak Fluent English, French, little German, some Spanish and 4 Nigerian Languages (Ibibio, Hausa, Yoruba & Igbo). Information Technology has cut the language barrier just like air travel cut the time barrier.

Hey folks,
As a proud Ethiopian, I want my language, AMHARIC, to remain as my language and I will accept English only as a second language for the purpose of conducting international business. Why are you people even accepting the dominance of one language over another? Look at the Germans; if you want to live in Germany or do business with them, you have to learn their language. The same is true with Spanish language. Please get rid of this inferior mentality and boost what is yours instead. Did you all forget what the colonizers did when they first came to Africa? Assimilation and integration, a systematic way of stripping off your own language and culture and replacing it with theirs.

I hope Rwanda's have their own language. The student have to learn that firts and after that i hope English will be the next language for them to learn because many countries speak English now, even the Chines and the Arabs do. Why Chinese or Arabic?

This is realy avery intresting topic and awake up call to every one.Which way should we go?

According to me,Enlish should and must be learnt by every one if you are to survive in this world.

Imagine every where you go in any part of this world,atleast you wont find any person who doest know how to speak English,but for the benefit of us the Africans,then we must quickly learn the second language as well,in this case Kiswahili which has aconnection in any part of an African language spoken,the so called "Africas Lingua franca".

This is more so with us Ugandans who are now under the umbrella of the East African Community of which Kiswaahili seems to be at the forefront of every place that you go to which enviseges free movement of labour,goods and services,capital and the right of establishment in the East African Community.

This activities can be expenditiously achieved when we use acommon language which promotes an African identity.

[Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator] English is indeed an important language. However, globalization has opened many channels of communication and created numerous opportunities for cultural, economic, and social exchanges. This can only be successfully achieved when we make an effort to learn the language of the people we will be dealing with.
Just by following recent political, economic and cultural events in the world, Arabic and Chinese are the two most important languages to learn nowadays.

We better stick to our English, else we may plunge our continent into conflict. Why I say so is that a country where there is more than one local language, which one should be selected to form the regional language? In an attempt to pick one may trigger ethnic violence. So, we stick to our English language in transacting our businesses!

Every country in this world that has managed to translate academic books to their language have made advances in all sorts of ways. These countries also learn other languages as optional second languages. We need to use our own respective languages if we are to have IDENTITY and SELF RESPECT.
This is not about competing with others for the sake of being number 1.
African governments should invest in finding ways to translate science books if they want their country to grow and stop brain drain.

Since the Great Britain ruled about a quarter of the global and it is the most widely spoken language and it seems to be the official language of the internet. English will continue to dominate, but I see some phases of other languages sneaking into it, like vuvuzela, Yahoo, etc. Since languages are evolving, I see I combination of English, Chinese, for the future “Englinese”.

Let's face it, Swahili can not be the language of the future. English has come to stay. Imagine asking a Briton or an American or a French to learn Swahili! Let's not kid ourselves.

My brother Jobpotin from Nigeria. Do you mean plunging your country into conflict? We all know that many African countries speak their colonizers language. Therefore, English is not the medium of communication for the whole continent.

As regards the merits of Chinese as an international language. Bear in mind that Chinese is actually a family of around 13 languages, most of which are mutually unintelligible. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_language

It's amazing to see that Rwanda has turned so many chapters of its tumultuous history within such a short period of time,and I think Rwandans and other Eastern Africans ought to speak Swahili and Amharic along with English. E. Africans ministers of Education and Culture ought to encourage and ensure that our languages are taught as compulsory subjects at tertiary level as because, these languages are at the heart of our cultures and lossing them means that we'll loss our cultures too. Please continue to teach Swahili as a compulsory subject as it is such an Artistic Language!!

An african language should be the language of the future.
I'm being patriotic now.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Firstly; Chinese is not one oral language (China has a total of 293 different spoken languages)... but it only has one 'written' language based upon 'Chinese' characters (however even that's universal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_China

Therefore the world couldn't all 'learn Chinese' as there is no such thing, even in China .... as for the coming economic power of China ushering in a reduction in English use .. China has an average GDP per capita of approx $6,778 (97th in the world) .... the US has a figure of $45,934. A very very long way to go until the average Chinese person has the spending power of the average US citizen.

Secondly, English would already be the 'official' diplomatic language of the EU if not for the French blocking the move by an Eastern European president who pointed out that all the heads of state spoke it.

But even so, over 90% of European schoolchildren learn English at some stage of their compulsory education, and this figure is rising according to a recent study. Even yesterday, Spain suggested to the EU the creation of a standard monolingual Community patent in English, translatable into another of the remaining 22 official languages, as an alternative to the proposal by France of a new trilingual (English, French and German) system, which is currently under discussion by the European Commission .....

The writings on the wall for the French (who are still obsessed by the idea that French should be the worlds 'diplomatic' language, like it was under Louis XlVth'), and it is only English as a second language that we are discussing ..... but its just a matter of time before it takes over despite the resistance in some quarters.

I am with you X1Z1!! We should not allow our identity to be stolen again. It happened once during the Colonial time but not anymore. Our language is rooted in our culture,in our customs,in our way of life and it is who we are as Africans.

I think english should be because, it is the medium of exchange for all languages as it is with the mighty US DOLLARS. Can't you logic in this? The rest of the languages can be learned for business necessity.

As for me as an African I believe we ought to hold onto our languages because they our heritage. I would rather see my Yoruba language spoken across Yorubaland than Chinese or English. The Yoruba language is far too rich for any Yoruba with a sane mind to swap for English or Chinese for that matter...No offence to the Chinese.

I recently returned from a month in Cameroon, which is officially bilingual French/English. Although a greater percentage of the population still claim French as their second language, the younger people in the country are flocking to learn or improve their English. English long ago trumped French as the preferred language of diplomacy, commerce, and technology worldwide. India and China are the rapidly rising stars in Africa, and English is the language they choose to work in. Sorry, France, your time has come and gone.

For all those correctly pointing out that there are many dialects of Chinese, unqualified, "Chinese" would be assumed to mean Mandarin, aka "Guo Yu" (Country Language) or "PutongHua" (Common speak). It's the mother-tongue dialect (or dialect group) of the greatest percentage of the Chinese population, and understood by virtually all (ok, well, maybe 99% -- I'm guessing) of the populations of mainland China and Taiwan, and a fair number of overseas Chinese as well.
That being said, spoken Mandarin is a fairly easy language to learn -- very simple grammar compared to English, for example. But what about the written language? If we're all going to learn Chinese and haven't started learning Chinese characters at a very early age, we've got quite a big task in front of us, unless maybe we can decide to use a Romanized version (i.e. in the Latin Alphabet, like PinYin).

ENGLISH is the best option anywhere,.

I strongly disagree with the idea of shifting from one working language to an other because shifting cost is very high. First of all ,We have to give priority to our own local mother tongue .secondly ,we have to learn international languages (like English ,French and the rest when appropriate) .It is obvious that English is widely used both for trade and office work . The problem of Rwanda is also manifested in Djibouti because Dj is the only horn of Africa country who officially use French as a working language but make a huge trade relation with English speaking country Ethiopia,Eriteria and Sudan .

what ever number of people speak any language or they learn, i dont think any language will dare to take the place of english lnaguage. English is the language this e-world works best with. Knowing anylanguage wont take english's position as a compulsary one

[Personal details removed by Moderator]For the Africans, the mother tongue which is one's native language should be the first and foremost language of importance. It is your native language that defines you most. It defines your origin and your culture. Africa cannot afford to do away with its native languages and cultures. Do not forget that English and French became international languages in Africa by virtue of forced colonization. If Germany had won the first world war, most Africans would probably be speaking German.

Africa Union should endeavor to encourage the development of African languages. After the African mother tongue, it is good to learn English and at least one other international language like French. Being armed with 3 languages, you can find your way in a world that has become more complex.

English is the most important langague for all forms of advancement almost all research findings(papers) are written in English. However a second or third language is a plus especially for diplomacy and trade.

English and Yoruba.

The English language will remain a powerful tool of communication for years, and at this point in the history of the world I do not see which language will take over in the future. The fact is that even Chinese students massively invade the United Kingdom to learn in different universities, which provide English with the leverage to stay ahead of the game.

I think from majority of comments posted so far that, we all understand we are giving OUR INDIVIDUAL OPINIONS about what the future of the global business language would be. Its more like of an opinion than a statement of fact as we cant exactly predict the future.
I came to that conclusion on these posts, and i believe alot of you will agree with me, thats its possible because we all wrote in English.
If actually this was a business deal with ongoing negotiations, the deal would have been sealed.
In simple words , what i mean is that we are all able to post here because we are communicating in the ENGLISH language, which in its self is a languages that derives its words from so many other languges like french and latin and as such is easy to communicate across many borders( offcourse, with gesticulations and sign languages) to non english speaking people.
English is not my mother tongue but its my countries official language and i have travellled to many countries on different continents from Europe to Asia and the Middle east and Americas and have successfully communicated with the locals socially, economically and otherwise without even learning the local language but only communicationing in hand-aided languages. It is also relatively easier to learn than chinese.
Infact English is and will always remain the choice language for doing business.

It is a matter of common sense, because there is not language spoken most than ENNGLISH on the planet, so it is ENGLISH.

Please people, English will remain the global langauge. Yes indeed you can learn other languages like Chinese, Swahili name it. Even the chinses are learning English. Its a unversal language
But please do not miss a step on English.

It is a good issue to be frank English is the best language because many people through out the world speak it and also many books both acadamics and non acadamics are written by it.But i also prefer for all african to learn Amharic(language from Ethiopia)as second language.I am saying this not because i am an Ethiopian but it is the only language designed by black people which use its own alphabets and numbers.like ሀ ለ ሀ መ ሰ ረ ሰ ሸ ---------------It is great asset for africa!!!!!!!!!!!!!

British people should learn from Africa how to deal with other languages than English. African experience confirms the coexistence of African and European language while British people stop learning foreign idioms at school. And the British press (f. i. Burchfield in the 'Independent' about French)touts the exclusiveness of English as if we all were better people by communicating in this idiom. After all it is a pretty attempt to make English the only official language in Africa, in Europe and everywhere. Would we be more wiser or more civilized if we all used English instead of French, Kisuaheli, Lingala German or Spanish etc.? -
Besides, Rwanda is a problematic example, because an anglophone élite came to power in that country where students were predominantly taught in French. We become aware of a policy that explicitly excludes teachers, professors, researchers educated in French by introducing English speaking personnel from East Africa and Britain. A policy advocated by the British Council and other advisers. Fortunately these efforts to push English are isolated and will encounter resistance - in Rwanda and elsewhere.

English would be the world language since every body is trying to learn it.

Africa doesent need another language to internatianaly communicate or trade, we been trading since the dawn of civilization untill slavery intervined. English is the language of the world today and thats what it should be.
Does it have to be us to learn chines in oreder to trade with china ?.. .no mr sleepy minister from rwanda wake up , those who want to trade with us must learn english of some other european colonial language we dont have time to slave our selves any more learning another funny lingo like chines cos we want to trade. its them who want to trade and therefor must learn ours.
For arabic , that oppresive slave traders lingo..!!!, the minister must be so dumb to even mention it. Arabic should be banned off black africa and if possible arabs sent off back to where they came from, the arabian peninsular...

It is clear that in the course of time the people of the world will need to adopt a common language if the world will become united and peaceful. There are a long list of benefits that roll out of the world adopting a common tongue. One certainly will be to preserve the current diversity of languages. Today, languages are disappearing at an alarming rate and the 'biodiversity' of human cultures is being diminished. Having a common global language will permit each culture/country to focus on preserving the mother tongue and while empowering itself with the adoption of a global tongue -- hence preserving languages on one hand while promoting a more unified language base for communication between nations and cultures. It seems that the chances are greater in this way that the diversity of languages will be preserved.

Ultimately, there are probably many satisfactory languages that could serve as the global language. After all, what is needed of a language? A great Persian prophet in the 19th Century said in response to this question: "That which is desired of a language is that it convey the intent of the speaker . . ."

When it comes to world solutions, take the path of least resistance. Approximately 1.8 billion people speak English fluently as either a first or second language. Chinese is spoken by 1.3 billion people but almost primarily as a first language only in China or by chinese people. English is the international language of communications, science, information technology, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy. I am not saying that English is a superior language or that people should drop their native language for it, just that it is dominant in the most important forms of communication and is the easiest to adapt without switching all the other forms of communication to another language.

i think there will be controversy and hopefully with the growing nationalism all languages will be revisted. thus the formed product is un predictable

ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

I am of the veiw that all languages are important and as much as it is important to learn other languages for trade, this should not be done with the aim of making one language seem superior. What happens when other countries emerge as world powers, will we then change what language people use to trade??? Besides, things are working fine as they are. That's what interpreters are paid for.