english has become the main language of

How to Become a Writer or Author A college degree in English, communications, or journalism is generally required for a full-time position as a writer or author. Experience gained through internships or any writing that improves skill, such as blogging, is beneficial. Pay The median annual wage for writers and authors was $69,510 in May 2021. They are composed of the surnames and the given names. The main sources of surnames come from the following cases: first, in matriarchal clan society, people took their mothers' given name as the family name, such as 姬 (Ji), 姚 (Yao) and 姜 (Jiang); second, in the distant past, the worshipped living creatures were taken as the family names, like 牛 (Niu), 马 (Ma) and 羊 (Yang); third The evolution of spoken English began from the fifth century, with waves of attack and eventual occupation by the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians. They spoke the same West Germanic tongue but with different dialects. Their intermingling created a new Germanic language; now referred to as Anglo-Saxon, or Old English. people will be learning English. English is the main language of books, newspapers, airports and air-traffic cont-rol, international business and academic conferences, science technology, diplomacy, sport, international competi-tions, pop music and advertising. Fin de siŁcle The position of English as a world language may seem to The data for this study was collected in a two-month period. During this time, an English language learner was selected to carry out different stages to determine what he needed to become a successful English language learner. This study was executed in two phases: the first one was called the discovery stage and the second one entitled action Vay Tiền Cấp Tốc Online Cmnd. Valeria Ramírez-Castañeda, a UC Berkeley graduate student from Colombia. While English facilitates discussion of science across borders, she argues, its dominance excludes from the field many people from non-English speaking countries — in particular, the global south. She is shown here on Bahía Málaga in Colombia’s Valle del Cauca. Photo courtesy of Valeria Ramírez-Castañeda English has become the de facto language of science International conferences are held in English, the world’s top scientific journals are in English and academics in non-English speaking countries get promoted based on their publications in English language journals. Even scientific jargon is in English — most non-English speakers use English terms and don’t bother inventing equivalent words in their native languages. Yet, for much of the world — in particular, the global south, where English is not a common second language — English limits entry into the the world of science and limits public access to scientific results, even when they pertain to a person’s own country. Valeria Ramírez-Castañeda, a graduate student in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, encountered this firsthand when she began writing her master’s thesis at the University of Los Andes in Bogota, Colombia, her native country. While she was one of the lucky ones — growing up in Bogota, her mother had the foresight to insist she take Saturday English classes — she found it impossible to write in English. To her, Spanish felt natural, not English. “When I was writing the thesis, a lot of people told me, Just write it in English.’ And I couldn’t. It was too difficult to write it in English,” she said. “I was like, No, I have already enough pressure to finish this on time, and it is already difficult to write science — so, I am going to write it in Spanish.’” But she also wanted to submit it to a scientific journal, which requires that she translate her thesis — about how snakes adapt to eating poisonous frogs — into English. “Since then, I haven’t published that paper. I am still working on that,” she admitted. “I felt that English was kind of a handicap for me just to advance, to progress in research.” Her introduction to the “language hegemony in scientific publishing,” as she calls it, led her to ask other Colombian doctoral students about the impact this has had on their careers. The results of her survey, published last month in the journal PLOS ONE, document the negative consequences of English dominance in science. She found that more than 90% of articles published by Colombian researchers are in English, and that this has created financial burdens. More than 40% of those she surveyed reported that one of their papers had been rejected because of English grammar, forcing them to pay for a native English speaker to review the manuscript or ask a favor of an English-speaking friend. Translation and editing services charge between one-quarter and one-half of a typical doctoral student’s monthly salary in Colombia, she found. Among of the study’s findings were that the Colombian scientists surveyed had higher anxiety when presenting their research in English, and that one-third avoided giving oral presentations at meetings because of language issues. Click on the image to see a summary of other survey results. UC Berkeley image courtesy of Valeria Ramírez-Castañeda Fully one-third of the 49 respondents, recruited through Twitter with the hashtag CienciaCriolla, used between Colombian researchers, reported that they had elected to not attend a scientific conference or meeting because of the requirement that oral presentations be in English. “When I published this on bioRxiv and tweeted, a lot of people started writing to me with very emotional things like, I left science because of English,’ I cannot graduate with a master’s thesis because of English,’ I thought about studying abroad, but then I had the interview and I froze because of English,’ and I couldn’t do it.’ Super difficult things,” said Ramírez-Castañeda. “People are leaving science because of English. It is not something that is isolated.” She found, too, that colleagues with high English proficiency were more likely to have backgrounds higher on the socioeconomic ladder. In Colombia, as in the socioeconomic status is correlated with race. “Now that we in the are speaking about the Black community, in many places, including Colombia, race means socioeconomic differences, poverty,” she said. “We don’t see a lot of Black scientists from Colombia, not only because being from a political minority and being a scientist is difficult, but also because of English. At the end, it is another layer to the difficulty, and we are not talking about it. That is the thing that worries me the most, that it is something that is super-quiet and silent, as if if didn’t exist.” Even for citizens, English can be a barrier Poor English skills are even an issue for those raised in the said José Pablo Vázquez-Medina, an assistant professor of integrative biology who came to UC Berkeley three years ago. José Pablo Vázquez-Medina with his lab colleagues. He studies the physiology of sea mammals, in particular how they are able to dive for long periods of time without suffering oxygen deprivation. He says that some Latinx students have problems writing English, which hinders their participation in science. UC Berkeley photo courtesy of José Pablo Vázquez-Medina “I have friends who are Latinos, but born and raised in the They send in a paper, and they are asked to run it by a native speaker,” he said. “With students who have come from disadvantaged backgrounds, you can see that in how they write. I see it as another hurdle.” He ascribes this to poor schools that fail to teach English to students from non-English speaking families. “That comes back to segregation. Where you live is where you go to school, and if you live in a rich neighborhood, you go to a school with resources; if you live in a poor neighborhood, you go to a school with less resources,” he said. “Without fixing that problem, I don’t see us making a lot of impact.” Growing up in San Luis Potosi in Mexico, Vázquez-Medina had access to some English education. His parents were teachers. But he still has flashbacks about the writing suggestions of mentors and friends, most of them offered graciously, he said. “I remember my very first paper. I wrote it in Spanish, and I translated it into English. It was horrible,” said Vázquez-Medina, who obtained his undergraduate degree from the Autonomous University of Baja California Sur in La Paz. Luckily, a coauthor on the paper made helpful comments. “It is definitely a barrier when you want to move up and go to grad school. Even if you go to grad school in Mexico, you have to publish papers in English.” Vázquez-Medina benefitted from working with a mentor who had studied in Canada and the and provided English tips. This mentor also sparked his interest in the physiology of marine mammals, which led him to a program at UC Merced, where he studied the diving and fasting physiology of elephant seals and was supported by the UC MEXUS program. “I always thought, Why don’t more people apply to this program? This is a great opportunity,’” he said. “But I felt that English was probably one of the main reasons why people didn’t feel comfortable applying for scholarships to study abroad.” Puertorriqueña Betsabé Castro Escobar, a doctoral student in integrative biology, says that she is more expressive in her native Spanish. Photo courtesy of Betsabé Castro Escobar Betsabé Castro Escobar, a doctoral candidate in integrative biology, saw how the hurdle of English fluency affected the lives of her friends, family and even her future husband. She grew up in Puerto Rico, which, as an unincorporated territory, mandates 12 years of English in K-12 education. All other instruction is in Spanish, and it’s the language of preference for more than 85% of Puerto Ricans, both at home and in their daily activities. While some people have the privilege and access to a good education and exposure to English, she said, as a society, many Puerto Ricans still struggle with poor class curriculums in many public schools, as well as lack of exposure to opportunities to speak English, lack of interest in learning it and even resistance to learning and becoming fluent in English. Spanish, though a colonial language like English, is preferred in Puerto Rico and is, in fact, a majority language worldwide one of the top 5 languages spoken. “I see people leave their academic fields because they don’t feel like they belong, many struggling with very clear language exclusion barriers. One thing about belonging is not just being part of a community, but also, how do we communicate? And one of those factors is language. There are clear language hurdles, and some people just don’t make it through because they have been excluded from the start,” said Castro Escobar, who is studying the ethnobotany of the calabash tree in the Caribbean. “Sadly, this is a funnel, and not everyone is going to make it through, due to language and communication obstacles. Unfortunately, this is how the system has been set up in order to participate in the globalized world; against others that don’t speak the majority’ language, basically.” Language hegemony “It is very much an issue,” agreed UC Berkeley professor of linguistics Lev Michael, who studies and seeks to revitalize indigenous languages in Perú. Linguist Lev Michael interviewing two women – Donalia Icahuate, left center, and Alejandrina Chanchari, right center – who speak the endangered Muniche language in Munichis, Peru, in 2009. UC Berkeley photo courtesy of Lev Michael “If you are Dutch, the fact that the language of science is English really is not a big hurdle, since, in my experience, many Dutch people speak better English than many English speakers,” he said, jokingly. “But in Perú, for example, many people where I work — even in some universities — don’t have great access to English education. It even plays out to the level where some people at that level have a hard time reading important works in English.” Michael admits to encountering a language hurdle when translating his English works — recently, a dictionary of the Iquito language — into Spanish and Portuguese. In his field, multilingualism is common, and academic meetings about South American indigenous languages are typically trilingual, he said. Speakers can deliver talks in Spanish, Portuguese or English, and most people in the audience understand. A small journal he edits, Cadernos de Etnolingüística, also is trilingual. But that is not typical in other areas of science. Few journals even publish abstracts in other languages, let alone full papers in translation. English hasn’t always been the language of science and scholarship, of course. Latin was the gatekeeper until 200 years ago, Michael pointed out, while German, French and Russian — and, recently, Chinese — have given English a run for the money. Aside from the issue of fairness, forcing people to communicate in a language other than their native tongue affects how clearly and effectively they interact with others. For Augusto Berrocal, who is from Mexico City and recently earned his from UC Berkeley in molecular and cell biology, English is a barrier to networking with colleagues at conferences, because his mind slows down when speaking English and, frankly, it can be exhausting. Augusto Berrocal, who is from Mexico, finds it easier to discuss and debate in Spanish because his mind works faster in his native language. He studies the genetics of development in fruit fly larva, seen on screen. UC Berkeley photo courtesy of Augusto Berrocal “It is my opinion that language is the main burden,” said Berrocal, who investigates the genetics of development in fruit flies. “I feel that my mind runs faster in my native tongue, which is Spanish. In a debate, for example, my conversations are more fluent in my native language. I think that has an impact at meetings or when discussing and getting ideas.” Castro Escobar says she gets more out of meetings where she can converse with colleagues in Spanish, and her field of ethnobotany has been gaining a critical mass of Spanish speakers. Spanish-speaking students and postdocs at UC Berkeley also are a growing community, a network where students and faculty members can discuss their work more naturally, or just let down their hair. “Throughout the years, there has been a growing number of us Latinx people on campus,” Castro Escobar said. “In my home department now, there are both grad students and professors I can talk to in Spanish. I find it refreshing to escape and speak my own language. I am more expressive, my ideas and connections are much faster, and my energy comes through more. I have more expressions I can use in Spanish. Sorry, I am biased, but Spanish is a beautiful language.” One of those professors is her adviser, Paul Fine, who actively recruits Latin American students to join his lab and converses with them in both Spanish and Portuguese. He studies tree diversity in the Amazon rainforest and has had students from Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Perú, Mexico and Costa Rica, not to mention Puerto Rico. Castro Escobar said that when she finishes her dissertation, she hopes — if her committee approves — to present her thesis in Spanglish that is, both in English and Spanish. “It will certainly be an interesting exercise for our department,” she said. “My slides would be in English — the idea is not to lose everyone in this language code-switching, but to actually show other people that their voice matters, too.” Solutions As Michael noted, scholarship in the past was conducted in Latin, a language that no one spoke natively. That put everyone in the same boat, assuming you were among the elite who could learn Latin. English is different, he said, having achieved ascendency because the rise of science after World War II coincided with the hegemony of two English-speaking world powers, Britain and the Valeria Ramírez-Castañeda shares this message with friends to encourage translation of research findings into Spanish. Image courtesy of Valeria Ramírez-Castañeda “When you are engaged in some type of project, like science, where you have participants from all sorts of different groups speaking all sorts of different languages, there is a tension between adopting a lingua franca which facilitates intergroup communication and the fact that that very same move creates inequities, because that language is the native language of some people and not of others,” he said. Ramírez-Castañeda noted that most of those whom she surveyed preferred English as the common language of science for its ease of communicating internationally. But she argues that scientists, universities and journals should acknowledge and address the costs to non-English speakers, in terms of time, finances, productivity and anxiety. Science could, for example, encourage more multilingualism, she said, including publishing abstracts or entire articles in multiple languages. She chose to publish her survey in PLOS ONE because the journal allowed her to co-publish the complete article in Spanish. “We need to encourage diversity, and that needs to take into account language and taking more effort to do multilingual science,” she said. “All the actors have to be involved journals, universities, governments, institutions. We need to stress more affordable or free translating and editing services at journals. Scientists can volunteer to edit papers, not just for English, but both ways. Simultaneous translation at conferences and meetings. Editing and translating services at universities and journals. Promoting annual editions in other languages.” She and many others look with hope to Google Translate or other platforms, which in the future could make Star Trek’s sci-fi “universal translator” a reality, obviating the language problem. At the moment, however, Google Translate is still “awful” for translating the technical terms and prose that permeate science, Michael said. “We, as scientists, have to do the work,” Ramírez-Castañeda said. “That means translating papers with the tools that we have, so that students in these countries and local communities can read them. We don’t need to put more effort on these communities, they already have to deal with a lot of things to be a scientist. We just have to make them feel it is easy to be a scientist, not more difficult.” RELATED INFORMATION Disadvantages in preparing and publishing scientific papers caused by the dominance of the English language in science The case of Colombian researchers in biological sciences PLOS ONE Reprint R1205H Like it or not, English is the global language of business. Today billion people speak English at a useful level—that’s one in four of us. Multinational companies such as Airbus, Daimler-Chrysler, SAP, Nokia, Alcatel-Lucent, and Microsoft in Beijing have mandated English as the corporate language. And any company with a global presence or global aspirations would be wise to do the same, says HBS professor Tsedal Neeley, to ensure good communication and collaboration with customers, suppliers, business partners, and other stakeholders. But while moving toward a single language at work is necessary and inevitable, Neeley’s research shows that implementing such a policy is fraught with complications. English-only policies can create job insecurity and dissatisfaction and generate strife between native and nonnative English speakers in cross-national teams. Companies can anticipate and plan for inevitable challenges and resistance when adopting an English-only policy. Using Japanese internet services firm Rakuten as a case example, this article outlines guidelines for proper implementation. Tweet Post Share Annotate Save Get PDF Buy Copies Print Ready or not, English is now the global language of business. More and more multinational companies are mandating English as the common corporate language—Airbus, Daimler-Chrysler, Fast Retailing, Nokia, Renault, Samsung, SAP, Technicolor, and Microsoft in Beijing, to name a few—in an attempt to facilitate communication and performance across geographically diverse functions and business endeavors. Adopting a common mode of speech isn’t just a good idea; it’s a must, even for an American company with operations overseas, for instance, or a French company focused on domestic customers. Imagine that a group of salespeople from a company’s Paris headquarters get together for a meeting. Why would you care whether they all could speak English? Now consider that the same group goes on a sales call to a company also based in Paris, not realizing that the potential customer would be bringing in employees from other locations who didn’t speak French. This happened at one company I worked with. Sitting together in Paris, employees of those two French companies couldn’t close a deal because the people in the room couldn’t communicate. It was a shocking wake-up call, and the company soon adopted an English corporate language strategy. Similar concerns drove Hiroshi Mikitani, the CEO of Rakuten—Japan’s largest online marketplace—to mandate in March 2010 that English would be the company’s official language of business. The company’s goal was to become the number one internet services company in the world, and Mikitani believed that the new policy—which would affect some 7,100 Japanese employees—was vital to achieving that end, especially as expansion plans were concentrated outside Japan. He also felt responsible for contributing to an expanded worldview for his country, a conservative island nation. The multibillion-dollar company—a cross between and eBay—was on a growth spree It had acquired in France, and FreeCause in the in the UK, Tradoria in Germany, Kobo eBooks in Canada, and established joint ventures with major companies in China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, and Brazil. Serious about the language change, Mikitani announced the plan to employees not in Japanese but in English. Overnight, the Japanese language cafeteria menus were replaced, as were elevator directories. And he stated that employees would have to demonstrate competence on an international English scoring system within two years—or risk demotion or even dismissal. The media instantly picked up the story, and corporate Japan reacted with fascination and disdain. Honda’s CEO, Takanobu Ito, publicly asserted, “It’s stupid for a Japanese company to only use English in Japan when the workforce is mainly Japanese.” But Mikitani was confident that it was the right move, and the policy is bearing fruit. The English mandate has allowed Mikitani to create a remarkably diverse and powerful organization. Today, three out of six senior executives in his engineering organization aren’t Japanese; they don’t even speak Japanese. The company continues to aggressively seek the best talent from around the globe. Half of Rakuten’s Japanese employees now can adequately engage in internal communication in English, and 25% communicate in English with partners and coworkers in foreign subsidiaries on a regular basis. Adopting a global language policy is not easy, and companies invariably stumble along the way. It’s radical, and it’s almost certain to meet with staunch resistance from employees. Many may feel at a disadvantage if their English isn’t as good as others’, team dynamics and performance can suffer, and national pride can get in the way. But to survive and thrive in a global economy, companies must overcome language barriers—and English will almost always be the common ground, at least for now. The fastest-spreading language in human history, English is spoken at a useful level by some billion people worldwide—that’s one in every four of us. There are close to 385 million native speakers in countries like the and Australia, about a billion fluent speakers in formerly colonized nations such as India and Nigeria, and millions of people around the world who’ve studied it as a second language. An estimated 565 million people use it on the internet. The benefits of “Englishnization,” as Mikitani calls it, are significant; however, relatively few companies have systematically implemented an English-language policy with sustained results. Through my research and work over the past decade with companies, I’ve developed an adoption framework to guide companies in their language efforts. There’s still a lot to learn, but success stories do exist. Adopters will find significant advantages. Why English Only? There’s no question that unrestricted multilingualism is inefficient and can prevent important interactions from taking place and get in the way of achieving key goals. The need to tightly coordinate tasks and work with customers and partners worldwide has accelerated the move toward English as the official language of business no matter where companies are headquartered. Three primary reasons are driving the move toward English as a corporate standard. Competitive pressure. If you want to buy or sell, you have to be able to communicate with a diverse range of customers, suppliers, and other business partners. If you’re lucky, they’ll share your native language—but you can’t count on it. Companies that fail to devise a language strategy are essentially limiting their growth opportunities to the markets where their language is spoken, clearly putting themselves at a disadvantage to competitors that have adopted English-only policies. Globalization of tasks and resources. Language differences can cause a bottleneck—a Tower of Babel, as it were—when geographically dispersed employees have to work together to meet corporate goals. An employee from Belgium may need input from an enterprise in Beirut or Mexico. Without common ground, communication will suffer. Better language comprehension gives employees more firsthand information, which is vital to good decision making. Swiss food giant Nestlé saw great efficiency improvements in purchasing and hiring thanks to its enforcement of English as a company standard. M&A integration across national boundaries. Negotiations regarding a merger or acquisition are complicated enough when everybody speaks the same language. But when they don’t, nuances are easily lost, even in simple e-mail exchanges. Also, cross-cultural integration is notoriously tricky; that’s why when Germany’s Hoechst and France’s Rhône-Poulenc merged in 1998 to create Aventis, the fifth largest worldwide pharmaceutical company, the new firm chose English as its operating language over French or German to avoid playing favorites. A branding element can also come into play. In the 1990s, a relatively unknown, midsize Italian appliance maker, Merloni, adopted English to further its international image, which gave it an edge when acquiring Russian and British companies. The fastest-spreading language in human history, English is spoken at a useful level by some billion people worldwide—that’s one in every four of us. Obstacles to Successful English-Language Policies To be sure, one-language policies can have repercussions that decrease efficiency. Evidence from my research at Rakuten—along with a study I conducted with Pamela Hinds of Stanford University and Catherine Cramton of George Mason University at a company I’ll call GlobalTech and a study I conducted at a firm I’ll call FrenchCo—reveals costs that global English-language rules can create. Proper rollout mitigates the risks, but even well-considered plans can encounter pitfalls. Here are some of the most common. Change always comes as a shock. No amount of warning and preparation can entirely prevent the psychological blow to employees when proposed change becomes reality. When Marie all names in this article are disguised, with the exception of Mikitani and Ito first learned of FrenchCo’s English-only policy, she was excited. She had been communicating in English with non-French partners for some time, and she saw the proposed policy as a positive sign that the company was becoming more international. That is, until she attended a routine meeting that was normally held in French. “I didn’t realize that the very first meeting after the rule came out was really going to be in English. It was a shock,” Marie says. She recalls walking into the meeting with a lot of energy—until she noticed the translator headsets. “They’re humiliating,” she says. “I felt like an observer rather than a participant at my own company.” Given the size and growth of the Chinese economy, why move to an English-only policy? Isn’t it possible that Mandarin could overtake English as the global language of business? It’s possible, but unlikely. There are two reasons for this. First, English has a giant head start. China can’t replicate Britain’s colonial history. The British Empire began embedding the English language in many parts of the world as early as the 16th century. Philanthropic work by American and British organizations further spread English, long before corporations began to adopt it at the workplace. Second, for much of the world, Mandarin is extremely difficult to learn. It’s easier to pick up “broken English” than “broken Mandarin.” Knowing Mandarin—or any language spoken by huge numbers of people—is an advantage, clearly. But for now, Mandarin is not a realistic option for a one-language policy. Compliance is spotty. An English mandate created a different problem for a service representative at GlobalTech. Based in Germany, the technology firm had subsidiaries worldwide. Hans, a service representative, received a frantic call from his boss when a key customer’s multimillion-dollar financial services operation ground to a halt as a result of a software glitch. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were at stake for both the customer and GlobalTech. Hans quickly placed a call to the technical department in India, but the software team was unable to jump on the problem because all communications about it were in German—despite the English-only policy instituted two years earlier requiring that all internal communications meetings, e-mails, documents, and phone calls be carried out in English. As Hans waited for documents to be translated, the crisis continued to escalate. Two years into the implementation, adoption was dragging. Self-confidence erodes. When nonnative speakers are forced to communicate in English, they can feel that their worth to the company has been diminished, regardless of their fluency level. “The most difficult thing is to have to admit that one’s value as an English speaker overshadows one’s real value,” a FrenchCo employee says. “For the past 30 years the company did not ask us to develop our foreign-language skills or offer us the opportunity to do so,” he points out. “Now, it is difficult to accept the fact that we are disqualified.” Employees facing one-language policies often worry that the best jobs will be offered only to those with strong English skills, regardless of content expertise. When my colleagues and I interviewed 164 employees at GlobalTech two years after the company’s English-only policy had been implemented, we found that nearly 70% of employees continued to experience frustration with it. At FrenchCo, 56% of medium-fluency English speakers and 42% of low-fluency speakers reported worrying about job advancement because of their relatively limited English skills. Such feelings are common when companies merely announce the new policy and offer language classes rather than implement the shift in a systematic way. It’s worth noting that employees often underestimate their own abilities or overestimate the challenge of developing sufficient fluency. See the sidebar “Gauging Fluency.” Progressing from beginner level to advanced—which greatly improves an employee’s ability to communicate—involves mastering around 3,500 words. That’s a far less daunting task than adding the 10,000 words necessary to move from advanced to native speaker, for which the payoff may be lower. Job security falters. Even though achieving sufficient fluency is possible for most, the reality is that with adoption of an English-only policy, employees’ job requirements change—sometimes overnight. That can be a bitter pill to swallow, especially among top performers. Rakuten’s Mikitani didn’t mince words with his employees He was clear that he would demote people who didn’t develop their English proficiency. Employees resist. It’s not unusual to hear nonnative speakers revert to their own language at the expense of their English-speaking colleagues, often because it’s faster and easier to conduct meetings in their mother tongue. Others may take more aggressive measures to avoid speaking English, such as holding meetings at inopportune times. Employees in Asia might schedule a global meeting that falls during the middle of the night in England, for instance. In doing so, nonnative speakers shift their anxiety and loss of power to native speakers. Many FrenchCo employees said that when they felt that their relatively poor language skills could become conspicuous and have career-related consequences, they simply stopped contributing to common discourse. “They’re afraid to make mistakes,” an HR manager at the firm explains, “so they will just not speak at all.” In other cases, documents that are supposed to be composed in English may be written in the mother tongue—as experienced by Hans at GlobalTech—or not written at all. “It’s too hard to write in English, so I don’t do it!” one GlobalTech employee notes. “And then there’s no documentation at all.” Performance suffers. The bottom line takes a hit when employees stop participating in group settings. Once participation ebbs, processes fall apart. Companies miss out on new ideas that might have been generated in meetings. People don’t report costly errors or offer observations about mistakes or questionable decisions. One of the engineers at GlobalTech’s Indian office explained that when meetings reverted into German his ability to contribute was cut off. He lost important information—particularly in side exchanges—despite receiving meeting notes afterward. Often those quick asides contained important contextual information, background analyses, or hypotheses about the root cause of a particular problem. He neither participated in the meetings nor learned from the problem-solving discussions. An Adoption Framework Converting the primary language of a business is no small task. In my work I’ve developed a framework for assessing readiness and guidelines for adopting the shift. Adoption depends on two key factors employee buy-in and belief in capacity. Buy-in is the degree to which employees believe that a single language will produce benefits for them or the organization. Belief in their own capacity is the extent to which they are confident that they can gain enough fluency to pass muster. Even when language mandates are implemented with care and forethought, negative emotional and organizational dynamics can still arise. But their power to derail careers and company work can be significantly mitigated by adequately preparing people and systems for the change. Here are steps that companies can take to manage English-only policies. Involve all employees. Before a company introduces a global English policy, leaders should make a persuasive case for why it matters to employees and the organization. Employees must be assured that they will be supported in building their language skills. Companywide cultural-awareness training will help nonnative speakers feel heard and valued. Leaders should rally workers behind using English to accomplish goals, rather than learn it to meet proficiency standards. Managers are referees and enforcers. Managers must take responsibility for ensuring compliance, and they’ll need training in how to productively address sensitive issues arising from the radical change. Groups should set norms prescribing how members will interact, and managers should monitor behavior accordingly. For instance, managers should correct employees who switch into their mother tongue. Native speakers must level the playing field. Native speakers can learn to speak more slowly and simplify their vocabularies. They should refrain from dominating conversations and encourage nonnative speakers to contribute. Native speakers may need coaching on how to bring along less proficient colleagues who are working at a disadvantage. Nonnative speakers must comply. Nonnative speakers have a responsibility to comply with the global English policy and to refrain from reverting to their mother tongue, even in informal meetings or communications. More-aggressive actions that exclude or ostracize native speakers, such as scheduling meetings at inopportune times, should be strongly discouraged. The two dimensions combine to produce four categories of response to the change, as shown in the matrix “Four Types of Employee Response.” Ideally, employees would fall in what I call the “inspired” category—those who are excited about the move and confident that they can make the shift. They’re optimistic and likely to embrace the challenge. But undoubtedly, some employees will feel “oppressed.” Those people don’t think the change is a good idea, and they don’t think they’ll cut it. The reality is that without buy-in, employees won’t bother to brush up their language; without belief, they’ll lose hope. I’ve identified some guidelines managers can follow to help people along. Rakuten’s Mikitani has successfully implemented a version of this framework. Leaders and managers can help employees move from one box to another more easily than you might expect. There are fairly simple strategies that aid the shift, typically involving some combination of a strong psychological boost and practical training. To shift employees from “frustrated” to “inspired,” for instance, managers must offer constant encouragement and an array of language-development opportunities. To shift employees from “indifferent” to “inspired,” managers must work on improving buy-in—once these employees feel invested in the change, their skills will follow. Improving belief in capacity. Managers can use four strategies to help people boost their belief in their ability to develop language proficiency. Offer opportunities to gain experience with language. Whether through education, employment, or living abroad, experience tends to give people the confidence they need to succeed in this task. You can’t change past experience, but you can provide opportunities, such as overseas language training and job rotations, that open new doors and allow employees to stretch their skills. Rakuten has sent senior executives to English-speaking countries like the UK and the for full language immersion training. Employees have also been offered weeks-long language-training programs in the Philippines. Although not easily scalable to 7,100 Japanese employees, the programs successfully produced individuals with functional English skills. Rakuten also plans to send more than 1,000 engineers to technology conferences outside Japan. Foster positive attitudes. Attitudes are contagious People’s faith in their own capabilities grows when they see others around them—peers, managers, friends—having positive experiences with the radical change. The reverse is also true, unfortunately. Managers can model good risk-taking behaviors by showing that they too are trying new things, making mistakes, and learning from those mistakes. Mikitani focused his personal attention on middle managers because he knew that collectively they could influence thousands of employees. He encouraged them to constantly improve their own language skills and even offered to teach them English himself if need be. Nobody took him up on the offer. He also encouraged managers to support their subordinates in their efforts to develop their language proficiency. Use verbal persuasion. Encouragement and positive reinforcement from managers and executives—simple statements like “You can do it” or “I believe in you”—make all the difference. To mitigate turnover threats at Rakuten, managers identified talent that the company wanted to retain and tailored special programs for them, all the while cheering them on. Also, Mikitani repeatedly assured his entire workforce that he would do everything in his power to help every employee meet his or her English-proficiency goals. He made it clear that he believes that with effort everyone can adequately learn the language of business and that he did not want to see anyone leave the company because of the English-only policy. Encourage good study habits. Companies need to contract with language vendors who specialize in helping employees at various levels of proficiency. The vendors need to be intimately familiar with the company context so that they can guide employees’ learning, from how best to allocate their time in improving skills to strategies for composing e-mails in English. Rakuten considers language development to be part of every job and grants people time during the workday to devote to it. Every morning, employees can be seen flipping through their study books in the company’s cafeteria or navigating their e-learning portals. Improving employee buy-in. Shifts in buy-in call for different measures. But they don’t operate in isolation Buy-in and belief go together. Strategies that can help people feel more confident include Messaging, messaging, and more messaging. Continual communication from the CEO, executives, and managers is critical. Leaders should stress the importance of globalization in achieving the company’s mission and strategy and demonstrate how language supports that. At Rakuten, Mikitani signaled the importance of the English-language policy to his entire organization relentlessly. For instance, each week some 120 managers would submit their business reports, and he would reply to each of them pushing them to develop their language skills. I surveyed employees before and after Rakuten implemented the adoption framework. Results indicated a dramatic increase in buy-in after Mikitani showed his employees that he was “obsessed and committed to Englishnization,” as he put it. The vast majority of the employees surveyed said that the policy was a “necessary” move. Encouragement from managers and executives—simple statements like “You can do it” or “I believe in you”—make all the difference. Internal marketing. Because a language transformation is a multiyear process whose complexity far exceeds most other change efforts, it is crucial to maintain employee buy-in over time. At Rakuten, the now-English intranet regularly features employee success stories with emphasis on best practices for increasing language competence. Companywide meetings are also held monthly to discuss the English-language policy. Branding. Managers should encourage people to self-identify as global rather than local employees. It’s difficult to develop a global identity with limited exposure to an international environment, of course. Rakuten tackled this challenge by instituting an enterprisewide social network to promote cross-national interactions. Employees now interact and engage with colleagues worldwide through the company’s social networking a universal English policy is not the end of leadership challenges posed by global communication. Using English as a business language can damage employee morale, create unhealthy divides between native and nonnative speakers, and decrease the overall productivity of team members. Leaders must avoid and soften these potential pitfalls by building an environment in which employees can embrace a global English policy with relative ease. In this way, companies can improve communication and collaboration. When I asked Mikitani what advice he’d give other CEOs when it comes to enforcing a one-language mandate, he was emphatic about discipline. CEOs need to be role models If they don’t stick to the program, nobody else will. Mikitani even holds one-on-one performance reviews with his top Japanese executives in English. “If you forgive a little,” he says, “you’ll give up everything.” Many global employees fear that an English-only policy will strip them of their cultural heritage. I propose an alternative point of view. The more people you can communicate with, the better positioned you are to spread your culture and your message. If people can’t understand what you’re saying, they can’t engage with your company or your brand. Mikitani doesn’t fear resistance. He believes, as I do, that you can counteract it—and ultimately bring about significant transformation in employees’ beliefs and buy-in. A global language change takes perseverance and time, but if you want to surpass your rivals, it’s no longer a matter of choice. A version of this article appeared in the May 2012 issue of Harvard Business Review. The English language in education today is all-pervasive. “Hear more English, speak more English and become more successful” has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Some say it’s already a universal language, ahead of other mother tongues such as Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Spanish or French. In reality, of course, this has been centuries in the making. Colonial conquest and global trade routes won the hearts and minds of foreign education systems. These days, the power of English or the versions of English spoken in different countries has become accepted wisdom, used to justify the globalisation of education at the cost of existing systems in non-English-speaking countries. The British Council exemplifies this, with its global presence and approving references to the “English effect” on educational and employment prospects. English as a passport to success In non-English countries the packaging of English and its promise of success takes many forms. Instead of being integrated into or added to national teaching curricula, English language learning institutes, language courses and international education standards can dominate whole systems. Among the most visible examples are Cambridge Assessment International Education and the International Baccalaureate which is truly international and, to be fair, also offered in French and Spanish. Read more Beyond the black hole of global university rankings rediscovering the true value of knowledge and ideas Schools in non-English-speaking countries attract globally ambitious parents and their children with a mix of national and international curricula, such as the courses offered by the Singapore Intercultural School across South-East Asia. Language and the class divide The love of all things English begins at a young age in non-English-speaking countries, promoted by pop culture, Hollywood movies, fast-food brands, sports events and TV shows. Later, with English skills and international education qualifications from high school, the path is laid to prestigious international universities in the English-speaking world and employment opportunities at home and abroad. But those opportunities aren’t distributed equally across socioeconomic groups. Global education in English is largely reserved for middle-class students. This is creating a divide between those inside the global English proficiency ecosystem and those relegated to parts of the education system where such opportunities don’t exist. For the latter there is only the national education curriculum and the lesson that social mobility is a largely unattainable goal. Schoolgirls in Sulawesi, Indonesia is the language divide also a class divide? Shutterstock The Indonesian experience Indonesia presents a good case study. With a population of 268 million, access to English language curricula has mostly been limited to urban areas and middle-class parents who can afford to pay for private schools. At the turn of this century, all Indonesian districts were mandated to have at least one public school offering a globally recognised curriculum in English to an international standard. But in 2013 this was deemed unconstitutional because equal educational opportunity should exist across all public schools. Read more Lessons taught in English are reshaping the global classroom Nevertheless, today there are 219 private schools offering at least some part of the curriculum through Cambridge International, and 38 that identify as Muslim private schools. Western international curricula remain influential in setting the standard for what constitutes quality education. In Muslim schools that have adopted globally recognised curricula in English, there is a tendency to over-focus on academic performance. Consequently, the important Muslim value of تَرْبِيَة Tarbiya is downplayed. Encompassing the flourishing of the whole child and the realisation of their potential, Tarbiya is a central pillar in Muslim education. Viewed like this, schooling that concentrates solely on academic performance fails in terms of both culture and faith. Learning is about more than academic performance Academic performance measured by knowledge and skill is, of course, still important and a source of personal fulfilment. But without that cultural balance and the nurturing of positive character traits, we argue it lacks deeper meaning. Read more The top ranking education systems in the world aren't there by accident. Here's how Australia can climb up A regulation issued by the Indonesian minister of education in 2018 underlined this. It listed a set of values and virtues that school education should foster faith, honesty, tolerance, discipline, hard work, creativity, independence, democracy, curiosity, nationalism, patriotism, appreciation, communication, peace, a love of reading, environmental awareness, social awareness and responsibility. These have been simplified to five basic elements of character education religion, nationalism, Gotong Royong collective voluntary work, independence and integrity. These are not necessarily measurable by conventional, Western, English-speaking and empirical means. Is it time, then, to reconsider the internationalising of education and not just in South-East Asia? Has it gone too far, at least in its English form? Isn’t it time to look closely at other forms of education in societies where English is not the mother tongue? These education systems are based on different values and they understand success in different ways. It’s unfortunate so many schools view an English-speaking model as the gold standard and overlook their own local or regional wisdoms. We need to remember that encouraging young people to join a privileged English-speaking élite educated in foreign universities is only one of many possible educational options. The benefit of a universal language English hasn’t always been the main language of science. Egyptian philosophers and stargazers told stories in hieroglyphs. Aristotle and Plato wrote books in Greek, which were then translated into Arabic by their followers. Then came the Romans – Pliny the Elder and Galen – writing in Latin. As the centuries passed, language evolved people were speaking and writing in Latin less often generally, favoring their native languages, like Italian and French. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Galileo published prolifically in Italian, translating his work into Latin to take it to a wider audience. According to Dr. Michael Gordin, Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Princeton University, it was never a given that English would dominate science. He said in a radio interview “If you look around the world in 1900, and someone told you, Guess what the universal language of science will be in the year 2000?’ You would first of all laugh at them because it was obvious that no one language would be the language of science, but a mixture of French, German and English would be the right answer.” In his 2015 book Scientific Babel, in which Dr. Gordin explores the history of language and science, he says German was the dominant language in 1900. “So the story of the 20th century is not so much the rise of English as the serial collapse of German as the up-and-coming language of scientific communication,” he explained. So it wasn’t until the 20th century – and World War I in particular – that English really started to dominate; the strong US influence on science had a big part to play in this rise, according to Dr. Gordin. The benefit of a universal language Before English became dominant, scientific publications were roughly equally split between French, German and English. This posed something of a problem if scientists weren’t multilingual, they would miss out on others’ discoveries. With a universal language, researchers know what to expect, and how to find information. They know what language to publish in and how to search for other people’s articles that support their own work. Beyond published research, a universal language also helps make sure everyone has access to information in presentations, guidelines, and standards. But it also gives millions of researchers a challenge if they’re not native English speakers, they need to learn a new language alongside their scientific studies. English speaking countries no longer dominate science Brazil, Russia, India, and China are fastest growing in terms of the number of research publications they produce, according to Elsevier’s book World of Research. For thousands of researchers in these countries, writing in English is difficult. With tough acceptance criteria, journal editors and reviewers look at submissions critically, so the language needs to be good. This is a stumbling block for some, but with professional translation and editing support, researchers from anywhere in the world can have an equal chance of getting published in English. Will the language of science be the same in 100 years? We don’t know that yet. China is outpacing the world in its published research output and, just like the rise in US science did a century ago, this could have a big impact on how we communicate about science. If you are learning English right now, chances are it’s probably something to do with getting your degree, advancing in your career, or maybe for personal reasons like having an English-speaking partner. Nowadays it seems like everyone is learning English, and it is becoming the world’s most widely spoken language. It is used in business and trade all over the world, and in places like Europe, it is spoken widely outside of business. But why? What makes English the magic catch-all language that everyone wants to speak fluently? How did it become so important and widespread? The answer lies not just in the history of the language, but politics, culture and technology! Here are 5 Reasons Why English Has Become Today’s Global Language 1 The British Empire. The first, and most obvious reason that English became widespread in the first place is because of the British Empire. Before colonizing around a quarter of the planet !, Britons were the only ones speaking English, and the language was confined to the British Isles. But once they started doing trade with places like Asia and Africa, colonizing and settling around the globe, the language naturally spread. However, it was mainly used in administration and business dealings—locals were still speaking their native languages for the most part. But when it came to getting an education, that was done in English. So English then became an elitist language of sorts, spoken by those who were educated in literature, philosophy and poetry, much like French was back when it was the most widely spoken language. So how did English take over French as the most spoken language? Well there’s more to the story than the Brits. 2 Post-war USA. The world after the first two world wars was a vulnerable and changing one. American businesses were booming and started doing trade all over the world, much like Great Britain had done in the previous century. This bolstered the use of English as the language of global trade. But at the same time, American culture was being exported heavily through music and film. The advent of jazz, rock n’ roll and other popular music from both the USA and UK infiltrated the culture of people everywhere, making English more than just the language of business, but the language of entertainment for the masses. Hollywood was also booming with popular films exported worldwide, and then in the 1960’s the counter-culture movement arrived with social change and the hippie movement sweeping across the USA and Europe. Which brings us to the next point 3 The coolness factor. English is used across the world to signify a certain lifestyle or culture linked to American-style success or entertainment, or sometimes to signify a certain British quality. Advertisers use it all over the world in multi-national markets to sell their products in this way. But, it is also the most common language used in the film and music industry. Big-budget movies and everyone’s favorite classic films are mostly produced in English. In music, if a band wants to become popular or famous, they will produce their work in English as well. Maybe it’s because English will reach a wider audience, or maybe because English is taken more seriously as an element of good pop music. And then there are sports—American-invented sports today like BMX and skateboarding, and even basketball, have an entire vocabulary in English, and many of the best athletes in those fields are English-speaking—even if they have been recruited from abroad! 4 Technology. At the same time that the USA was becoming the world’s business superpower, the internet was also invented in the USA. This created an entire lexicon for computers and technology that was invented in English. Computer keyboards are suited for writing languages using the Latin alphabet, and the hardware for all our smart technology uses English words that have become commonly used around the world, as there was no other alternative in place when the technology spread like fire to the corners of the Earth. The world of science is also dominated by English for much the same reason historically, universities publishing important research were doing so in English, and as a scientist today, any serious publication must be done in English. With science and technology playing such a big role in our lives today, English won’t be going anywhere soon. 5 The snowball effect. Now that English is so widespread across the internet, on the radio, in schools and in the business world, it is hard to escape. It is well known that in order to get a good job in today’s global market, speaking English is becoming a requirement more often than not. That’s why students and more adults than ever are taking private lessons, taking language immersion holidays and studying English to become as fluent as they can. It is not a guarantee of success, but it certainly does help! Some people cite other reasons for the popularity of the English language, such as that it is “easy to learn” or that is evolves with our changing times. Some people long for the days when every country spoke their own language, and English was an eccentricity for language experts. But one thing is fairly certain English will continue to grow as the world’s dominant language. But for how long? ***** Are you learning English for work or pleasure? Have you noticed an increase in the use of English in your country? We love to hear your comments! *much of the information in this article originally appeared here, in the ESL Languages Blog.

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