Topic 124

social impact of the domination of English as the main web language by Tanay

The domination of English as the main language on the internet posses a “threat” towards many in this world as well as helps the social balance.

For starters, many people today cannot afford an education in a decent English teaching school, and therefore are restricted to the language of their country. It is estimated that out of the six and a half billion people that are living today, only one billion can speak the English language and only half of those people speak it fluently enough to receive an English speaking job.

The social impact is a serious issue. The fact that most companies such as “Google and Yahoo,” are generally based on more results when searched under the English language causes outrage amongst many around the world.

But, on the contrary, the English language is also beneficial to an equal amount of people. This fact goes back in history to the point that the English language has been in existence for a long while. The British who conquered and colonized several areas for the world had imposed the English language on many. After WWII, the Allied powers had generally imposed their language as well as their restriction on the countries they ruled. Therefore, today the several people that can speak the English language are trying even harder to educate those who cannot.

People around the world in countries ranging from Japan all the way to Bulgaria, have offered courses both in school and free outside educational programs to help others learn English.

So in the end, though English might be a restricting and unavailable language around the world, the web allows those who want to learn it better to go ahead and learn it. Also, those who are not offered it can learn it from those who are educated in it.

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social impact of the domination of English as the main web language by Sujit


One of the problem with English being the main web language is that more than half the worlds populations doesn’t know English. Even if they know English they are not fluent enough or don’t have enough vocabulary to understand things. The thing is that is probably going to be a cause of an outrage is the fact that most people who don’t speak English are those who haven’t been educated in my opinion or it could also be that they don’t study English because they don’t like English.

The people who gain from this are those who can read and write English. The people who can’t read English is going to have a hard time understanding what says on a page. The people who can read English can read most of the sites because most of the sites are English.
The advantage of having English as the main language is that a little less than half the world population can read and right English. Because English is a common language and also at the same time an easy language it should be made the main language of the page. However, because English is the main language there are problems. Since most of the sites are English people who don’t know English get angry really easily. How can they not? Most of the sites are in English. This causes serious problems.

One of the solutions for this is that you make an equal number of sites for each language. This might be impossible if you include minor languages. If you exclude the minor language this solution is good seeing that there is an equal number of sites for each language. People will most likely be satisfied with this because now there is more sites that are in their language than before.

There is a big impact on the main language that is used. Because the sites are mostly English more than half the world’s population that doesn’t read English wont be able search the net very efficiently, because they can read. Because of this the number of people using the internet might decrease and the people who can’t read English will most likely find information from books.

The impact on the world is that people will start fighting over what should be the main language of the internet. I would say that English is good. But others might say some other language is good. It all depends on what you know and understand. That is why it is best if there is more than one major language for the internet. It keeps everyone silent and no one will argue about it.

The people who are responsible for this are the people who make the sites. Because most people who make the sites write English most of the sites are English. And the people held accountable are the people who allow the site to be. There are most likely able to read English so it is no problem for them. There are not many people who make sites using other languages. That’s why English is the main language.

Something that can be done is give incentive for people who speak other languages to make sites. If they can make more sites that are of their language their wouldn’t be much conflict. The consequences of this decision is that English will no longer be the only one major language in the web. That will not cause any uproar. Instead it will be quite fair for the people around the world because now they can use the web more efficiently.