Why can't we all just have a universal language?

Posts0Likes0Joined6/10/2018LocationLagos / NG
Native
English
Other French

Ever heard of the story of 'the tower of babel' from the Bible? Where everyone communicated in one language and then the Lord saw they made such progress and decided to create confusion by making them speak different languages. 

Just imagine how easy it would have been if we all spoke one language. IMO, it would have impressed upon us the mentality of us being brothers and sisters. I think the world would have been just a little better.

Kevwe A.

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#1
Posts0Likes0Joined6/10/2018LocationLagos / NG
Native
English
Other French

What i mean is here is if just one language existed.

Kevwe A.

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#2
Posts0Likes0Joined15/9/2018LocationSkopje / MK
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Macedonian
Other English, Serbian

Something like Esperanto? :D


Honestly I think English is the closest we'll get to one big universal language, as it seems that everyone using the internet knows it, so in the future it may become a language spoken by almost everyone..


btw I absolutely love the "tower of Babel" story

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#3
Posts0Likes0Joined5/6/2018LocationLapu-lapu / PH
Native
Cebuano, Tagalog
Other English

Yes, I'm familiar with that story and I love that story. It would be amazing if we have a universal language. Who knows someday, and it's English is the closest to be the one.

Charlyn Amoin

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#4
Posts1630Likes1092Joined18/3/2018LocationBellingham / US
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English
Learning German
Other Chinese - Mandarin, French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Tagalog, Thai

I like the cultural diversity that having different languages seems to safeguard. But I also agree with dragonsky - English is probably as close as we ever have been (in recorded history) and ever will be.

In Thailand now. Next up Tanzania and Philippines.

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#5
Posts0Likes0Joined6/10/2018LocationIrpin / UA
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Russian, Ukrainian
Other Dutch, English, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish

Yes, English is lingua franca nowadays. Do you think Esperanto was not successful because English is so widely spread? 


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#6
Posts1630Likes1092Joined18/3/2018LocationBellingham / US
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English
Learning German
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Vladyslava wrote:
Do you think Esperanto was not successful because English is so widely spread?

Esperanto was invented in 1887, when French was the lingua franca. English started to become popular in diplomacy in 1919, then took over as lingua franca during WW2. So Esperanto had 32 years to surpass French but failed. Maybe it was because English was so strong, or maybe it was because Esperanto was so unpopular; hard to tell. 

In Thailand now. Next up Tanzania and Philippines.

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#7
Posts0Likes0Joined6/10/2018LocationIrpin / UA
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Russian, Ukrainian
Other Dutch, English, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish

I didn't know that Esperanto was invented as early as in the end of 19th century. I guess it was an extremely progressive idea for those times! 


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