To be honest, I'm not surprised by the
fact that English teenagers are refusing to learn foreign languages. I think
that they are very much aware that English is today's lingua franca, which
makes them convinced that they can communicate with people all over the world
using their own native language and still be understood. Even I
chose to learn English because of its universality – the truth is that all of
my foreign friends (Swedish, Turkish, Spanish, and German) know English and
this is the language that made us able to communicate and develop our relationships.
However, if someone’s 1st
language isn’t English, one is somehow condemned to learn foreign languages –
how else could we communicate with the rest of the world? I can’t imagine
knowing Polish only – I feel really sorry for my friends who don’t know any
foreign languages – I have no idea how they function in the internet, which is
DOMINATED by English. In my opinion, they miss a lot. Let’s take for example
shopping – eBay is the best internet market place I’ve ever seen and although
it has its Polish version, it’s still poor and doesn’t translate key words
while searching, which makes access to international transactions nearly impossible for those who don't know other languages.
