Accreditation Short TESOL

english as a global languageEngland or great britain has a long history of colonisation. In 1585 they started their colonisation of the New World, in 1788 they landed in Australia and in 1840 they also became involved in New Zealand. In 1795 they occupied Cape Town and from there they moved to the former Rhodesia and other countries in Southern Africa. From 1858 they took control of India and “by 1900 the British Empire was in a class by itself, embracing nearly one-fourth of the Earth’s territory and some 400 million people.” (Daniels, 2006:231). Although the British Empire is now history, they played a decisive role in many countries in the world. Implications for the english Language If one looks at this information, it could be expected that the conqueror would not have left the colonised country untouched. english is spoken by most people in north america, Australia and New Zealand. Even in South Africa it is the Lingua Franca, although it is only one of eleven official languages. The indian Constitution is written in english although most Indians are not native english speakers. It is nearly impossible to be a successful tourist guide in any country in the world without the ability to communicate in english. Road signs and announcements in airports in many countries of the world are also given in english. At many international conferences all the proceedings are in english and interpreters are not always available. According to Wikipedia, Mandarin has approximately 845 million native speakers, while english has only 328 million and spanish 329 million. If you however add up all the people in the world who can speak english, even as a second or third language, then there are approximately 1,8 billion english speakers. This is more than one in every four people on our planet. It is not strange that nearly every important book in the world is translated into english. The Other Side of the Coin Unfortunately all that glitters is not gold. The dominance of english and the english culture has often suppressed the cultures of colonised countries. Some translators are very sensitive about this. When books from former colonized countries are translated into english, an effort is often made to make these translations accessible to western readers. Although this is sometimes done with good intentions, it does not always give a true reflection of the culture of the colonised country. It is then done from a position of power and a wrong perception of the Third World is created (Munday 2001:133). The irish language was defeated in the battle between english and irish, while translation was the instrument that was used. The mighty english language trampled upon the irish language and the educational system as well as political power were used to achieve this (Munday 2001:137). K.H. Ryou refers to the invisibility of the translator and she says that when literary translation captures the mind of the target language reader by seamless assimilation in that culture, then the source text with its cultural heritage has been subjected to capitalism, readability and marketability. (Ryou 2006: 99). In this process the stronger culture is made to believe that they are better while the emergent culture eventually believes that it must adapt and submit to the will of the more powerful culture. (Ryou 2006: 107). Conclusion If you can read, write and speak english, it is very convenient, because you can get information on the internet, you can read books on any possible topic and you can follow the world news on television. You can go to Arabian countries or countries in the Far East and even get an english newspaper. Unfortunately everything you read and hear has probably passed through a Western filter. The culture of Third World countries is often ignored or even humiliated because the reporter does not have an understanding of the “foreign culture”. The interpretation of the reporter or translator is seen as a reflection of reality while the “foreigner” doesn’t get the opportunity to tell his/her side of the story. Sources Daniels, Patricia S. 2006. Almanac of World History / National Geographic, Washington D. C. Munday, J. 2001. Introducing translation studies: Theories and applications. London: Routledge. Ryou K.H. 2005. Aiming at the Target. Problems of Assimilation and Identity in Literary Translation, in: House J., Ruano M.R.M. & Baumgarten N. (Red). 2005. Translation and the Construction of Identity. Seoul: IATIS.