q&a

Question:

What prevented multilingualism from spreading when it boasts so many advantages?

Answer:

First: educational situation. For those who’re not so willing to study, they tend to invest their spare times on playing video games or attending parties instead of multilingual study. For those who’re willing, pressures of graduating and advancing study deprived them of time and energy of starting a second language. Unless you choose a second language as a major, it can only be treated as hobbies, thus contradicting with major courses and leaves it little time.

Second: the idea of making everything useful. Despite some examples that multilingualism leads to promotion, it’s a matter of fact in China that only the minority of jobs involves communicating with foreigners, thus reducing the actual demand for multilingualism. To make matters worse, people tend to see learning as an “investment” and expects rewards which leads to unwillingness to devote time on learning something without clear use and rewards. As a result, learning languages are frequently considered “useless” and decreased the motivation of gaining access to second language.

Third: the dominating status of English in present world. It enables us to communicate without barrier all around the world and significantly narrows the language gap. The establishment of a “universal language” which “circulates” all around the world dramatically downsized the space for languages other than English and curtailed the need for a second language.