Riley and Sarah

We’ve been very surprised by the significant number of people from non-English speaking countries who know at least a little English. In contrast, I would venture to say that fewer people in English speaking countries are even a little familiar with another language. With Canada being my most familiar context, I would say we have enough trouble learning both of our official languages, let alone any others.

So why are so many people familiar with the English language? While there are many factors in play, the one that has stood out to me during our time in Europe has been North American popular culture.

Globalization has been a good friend to our pop culture. English content is available around the world through the internet, music, movies, television, and adverts. Not only is it easily accessible, as the label indicates, it’s “popular” – and not just in North America. We haven’t had to look far to find the English language while in Europe. But can this sort of exposure really help people learn a language?

I think it can.

Almost every store we’ve walked into was playing music in English. Who would have thought I’d be listening to Katie Perry in Italy?

As we rode the Metro in Rome I watched two teenage boys looking over guitar chords with song lyrics in English. They were trying to learn how to pronounce the words so they could sing the song. Their pronunciation was actually quite good; although I’m pretty sure they didn’t have a clue as to what the words meant.

Movies and television shows produced in English are often aired in non-English speaking countries and simply have subtitles added in the countries official language.

Now I know none of these examples can be put on the same level as taking a language class, but I do think this line of reasoning holds some merit. If I’d been exposed to another language in a similar manner over the course of many years I would like to think I would be somewhat familiar by now with that language.

I’ve heard it said that English has become the universal language. After what I’ve witnessed in France, Italy, and Greece, I can’t help but wonder what role North American pop culture has played in promoting the English language to such a dominant position world wide.