Monday, June 13, 2011

Why English?

(Note: Delivered 13 June 2011, this is a talk about the importance of the English language and what makes it important. Talk presentation can be found here.)



A few weeks back, I have been replying my friends with the word “kiitos”. As expected, nobody understood it until I translated it. “Kiitos” is the Finnish word for “thank you”.

Last Friday, we were asked the question, “Why is the English language important in the business world?” Apparently, we have answered the question with the aforementioned anecdote: for us to understand. Moreover, English is important because of internationalism. Internationalism was first coined in 1995 in Time’s Cycle and Military Strategy:

“Once again the opposite poles of isolationism and Wilsonian internationalism appeared as alternatives that split the liberal and conservative camps.”

It means a political, economic, and cultural cooperation among nations. We have to take note of the word “cooperation”.