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A standardized language
15 years ago
before anyone reads the title and jumps to the bottom to comment about how i'm some sort of racist or chauvinist or some bullshit please read what i'm going to say.
I read a lot of sci-fi books and there is one thing that most of them have in common. if there is an alien race, or a bunch of them they all know a common language so that they are able to communicate with all the other alien species. Normaly its a trade language or some sort.
I got to thinking that we should really try to do something similar, i mean hell there are some 42806 languages in the world. (assuming this isn't lying) I think a fair amount of our problems could be solved by having some sort of common language that everyone is required to learn in school in addition to their own native tongue.
Would also help to increase the free exchange of ideas between people of different cultures and languages and areas. i mean hell if some doctor in India has done some sort of ground breaking research, but is only published in an Indian journal you really only have two options, learn the language or get a translation. if there was a common language, these breakthroughs can be shared with the entire community in a language that everyone knows and can understand.
I am of course not saying what language that should be whether English or Spanish, or Hutu, or even if it should be an already existing language. when it comes down to it i think a mess of someones smarter then I should get together and form a language that we all can learn and use.
Thoughts, comments, complaints, suggestions?
I read a lot of sci-fi books and there is one thing that most of them have in common. if there is an alien race, or a bunch of them they all know a common language so that they are able to communicate with all the other alien species. Normaly its a trade language or some sort.
I got to thinking that we should really try to do something similar, i mean hell there are some 42806 languages in the world. (assuming this isn't lying) I think a fair amount of our problems could be solved by having some sort of common language that everyone is required to learn in school in addition to their own native tongue.
Would also help to increase the free exchange of ideas between people of different cultures and languages and areas. i mean hell if some doctor in India has done some sort of ground breaking research, but is only published in an Indian journal you really only have two options, learn the language or get a translation. if there was a common language, these breakthroughs can be shared with the entire community in a language that everyone knows and can understand.
I am of course not saying what language that should be whether English or Spanish, or Hutu, or even if it should be an already existing language. when it comes down to it i think a mess of someones smarter then I should get together and form a language that we all can learn and use.
Thoughts, comments, complaints, suggestions?
On a related note, I love how in books, comics and other media involving various races (alien or otherwise), they all seem to understand each other...and in the movies, all these alien races seem to speak perfect English. Funny, really...
no matter what you do, some bastard with a stick up his ass will say "hay, you can't make it [language], thats not fair" or something to that effect...even if you just MAKE a new one, they'll get pissed off that you are taking more influence from another language besides his...
MAYBE IF I DIDN'T SUCK AT IT, I WOULD.
secondly you missed the point of that comment
You can communicate common ideas and science with math. Though I'm not too sure how you'd accomplish something like diplomacy... >__>
Interestingly though, while I was eat my breakfast this morning, I found an article discussing the rise and dominance of English, and how English is just the language used to communicate now -even though more people in the world speak Chinese.
or describe WHY a rainbow is soo pretty, in Math
explain that sinking sensational you get in your stomach when you realize you just locked your keys, and your coffee in your car... In Math
MATH is not a language.
Second of all, sure it is. You can communicate plenty with math. Math is a universal language because it is the same no matter where you go. The rules are always the same, and the answers always come out the same.
And while I personally cannot explain in math why a rainbow is so beautiful, it doesn't mean it can't be done. Math can be used to explain anything... you just have to interpret it differently. Math has to be used by itself, not through another language like english. The numbers and the values are the "words".
Just because you can't use math to bitch like you would in English, doesn't mean it's not a language.
Yes, Math it's SELF is universal, but it doesn't convey concepts. it just adds up and does sums.
we can trace language back to it's most basic concepts, i.e. ones and zeros, and you can BUILD an understanding of a language from there... but Math it's self cannot establish communication and free exchange of ideas.
it is only a stepping stone to a higher understanding, one that is verbalized