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Originally Posted by mike_bike_kite
The last country to attempt this? I believe we pretty much stopped after WWII while America seems to be currently in full swing. The aim though is no longer to plant flags but to ensure commercial or political gain. Even where there aren't wars you'll find army bases in foreign countries ensuring interests are upheld.
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The USA are not attempting to force said nations to speak their language and even if it were that language would be english and thus the point stands.
If it makes you feel better though I will re-phrase to "since english speaking countries were the last to attempt to conquer the world and force the conquered to speak their language......etc etc"
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Originally Posted by mike_bike_kite
Anyway, surely there are more people speaking Chinese than English. Wouldn't the international spread of hip English speaking TV be more likely to convert young folks to English than any past, or current, warmongering.
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Good point. However, the majority of those speakers all live in the one country, that being China. Whereas english speakers are spread over the entire world to a much greater degree than Chinese speakers. Further to that, many countries have adopted english as their official language because they used to be a colony of England. Far fewer countries have done the same with Chinese.
As for tv being likely to convert young folks to english, that is doubtful. Most tv shows are simply dubbed or subtitled. What makes young people want to learn english is the fact that english is the defacto international language of choice and hence their employment, political, economic and even cultural prospects are enhanced by learning it. That and also the fact that many countries, particularly asian ones, have english as a compulsory second language component of their primary school curriculum.
All that is not really my point though. I was merely pointing out why english has become the defacto international language.
Cheers,
PKFFW