A student at the Chinese Language Center in Taiwan, Mario from Italy, once scolded me for talking to him in English. He had told me before that he is living in Verona and working in the tourism, selling opera tickets. A lot of germanspeaking tourist purchase opera tickets, therefore he learned German, which he speaks quite fluently, even without strong accent.
Now, what he was disappointed about is, that even though he greets and talks to the tourists in German, they just use English to answer him or ask him questions. Why won't they speak German with him even though he obviously speaks and understands German, and why don't even I speak German with him?
His reasoning was, that English is a foreign language to both of us, while German is a foreign language only to one (Mario) and being a mothertongue for me. Instead of both of us using a foreign language, it would just be nice and convenient if at least one could use their mothertongue. After our conversation, I thought about his idea and found it quite reasonable.
Well, most people learn English in school, in many countries it's even an official language or being used in schools and university classes. However, the bigger part of the world population has only a basic command of English. Still, when travelling in other countries, at least in bigger cities and in touristical areas the chance is big that English is understood.
In the European Union, with now 27 member states and 23 official languages, its common to use English, of course, for international communication. But it would be a shame if English was the only language in use for international matters.
The fact that English is a powerful language in terms of political and economic matters, especially in regard to the USA, influences our choice of language learning and language politics. If Russia was the most powerful nation on earth, I'm absolutely sure that all Austrian school children would learn Russian starting from first grade.
Nontheless, there is not a single language more worth than another. Even the definition of "language" and "dialect" is merely a political matter. Is Mandarin Chinese a language or a dialect? How about Cantonese, Taiwanese Minnan, Shanghai dialect, Hakka? The one who has power and influence can make the definition. But, a mothertongue still is a mothertongue, no matter how other people define it.
Isn't the reason for learning a foreign language to make intercultural communication easier and more convenient and for showing respect to other people and their culture (and not only to have economical or political advantages, which still are the most important reason for learning another language)? So, why not speak your mothertongue or the other persons Mothertongue if it's convenient.
Mario just let me know that, he likes to speak German and that he respects me and my Mothertongue, which i really appreciate.
See a crazy world where English is the official language of the EU ^ ^
The official language is now English. There is no other language.
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