Well other than the natural evolution of languages, what do you plan to tell the people who are a minority, yet value their own culture/language that they have to speak english/chinese/etc now? I think the majority of people don't really want to "learn" other cultures, just preserve their own. This is especially predominant here (Quebec) where we have laws protecting the french language and whatnot. (Whether or not this is good lets not get into)
While I agree with you that it would be more efficient to have everyone speak the same language on the surface, maybe by taking away this variety and crucial aspect of a culture, the resulting blandness could cause a decrease in productivity. Taking a theory from the business world, Hackman and Oldham believe that skill variety is key aspect to providing employees with high job satisfaction. The same could be applied to languages and instead of job satisfaction, simply overall well being.
There is much more to motivation and productivity than simple numbers. Also by taking away language from culture, you're ripping out one of the fundamental aspects preserving the overall health of the culture in question, and eventually it wouldn't surprise me to see that culture fade away completely.
One could argue the other side of the coin and say that if we end up speaking less languages, we'll lose that much more of our intellectual prowess. Speaking different languages is definitely a good brain excerciser and provides the speaker with a different perspective on the world, events, etc, than other languages. Providing of course, that the speaker is (for example), thinking in french rather than translating word per word from his native tongue.
Different languages isn't something i'd like to see vanish either, they're definitely a rich part of our cultures. With translators like the above, once perfected, will allow us to communicate perfectly with each other and permit us to keep a significant portion of our cultures intact. Living in Quebec, god knows I've heard a lot about that!
I'm not making any excuses for my affluent lifestyle, I'm trying to put a stop to the overuse of statistics and common phrases that are just plain wrong.
This half the world statistic drives me mad, when? When did half the world never make a phone call? Read this, http://www.shirky.com/writings/half_the_world.html
"My car goes from 0 to 60" has to be one of my favorite quotes from that article, and it proves just as much as your statement of "half the world has never made a phonecall". Other than weakly attempt to illustrate the digital divide as they call it.
I actually attend this school, although studying in management. I'd be curious to see what deptartment is using testing out turnitin. Although now that they lost in court, I doubt they'll continue since any student will be able to refuse.
I'm a videotron customer living on the south shore of montreal (Quebec, Canada). Currently I pay 39.99$ (for the first 5 months) for 4mbit down, 768kbps up. The regular price is 69.99$
However, they do offer 3mbit down and 384kbps up for 29.99 a month. And just in case anyone was still wondering, my prices are in canadian funds.
I'm one of the lucky ones!
I don't see why they don't target the businesses employing spammers, they're easy to find and most of them (unlike the spammers) are in the US. Make it illegal to use spam, and noone will employ spammers.
This feels so obvious its probably already been mentioned mind you, or shot down.
It's pretty simple, if people can continue using programs like kazaa for free, why would pay for same thing?
Marketing 101, less for more doesn't work.
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Sounds like one hell of a razor, I'll wait for other people to test it before bringing it anywhere near my face though.
While I agree with you that it would be more efficient to have everyone speak the same language on the surface, maybe by taking away this variety and crucial aspect of a culture, the resulting blandness could cause a decrease in productivity. Taking a theory from the business world, Hackman and Oldham believe that skill variety is key aspect to providing employees with high job satisfaction. The same could be applied to languages and instead of job satisfaction, simply overall well being.
There is much more to motivation and productivity than simple numbers. Also by taking away language from culture, you're ripping out one of the fundamental aspects preserving the overall health of the culture in question, and eventually it wouldn't surprise me to see that culture fade away completely.
One could argue the other side of the coin and say that if we end up speaking less languages, we'll lose that much more of our intellectual prowess. Speaking different languages is definitely a good brain excerciser and provides the speaker with a different perspective on the world, events, etc, than other languages. Providing of course, that the speaker is (for example), thinking in french rather than translating word per word from his native tongue.
Different languages isn't something i'd like to see vanish either, they're definitely a rich part of our cultures. With translators like the above, once perfected, will allow us to communicate perfectly with each other and permit us to keep a significant portion of our cultures intact. Living in Quebec, god knows I've heard a lot about that!
I'm not making any excuses for my affluent lifestyle, I'm trying to put a stop to the overuse of statistics and common phrases that are just plain wrong.
This half the world statistic drives me mad, when? When did half the world never make a phone call? Read this, http://www.shirky.com/writings/half_the_world.html
"My car goes from 0 to 60" has to be one of my favorite quotes from that article, and it proves just as much as your statement of "half the world has never made a phonecall". Other than weakly attempt to illustrate the digital divide as they call it.
I actually attend this school, although studying in management. I'd be curious to see what deptartment is using testing out turnitin. Although now that they lost in court, I doubt they'll continue since any student will be able to refuse.
I'm a videotron customer living on the south shore of montreal (Quebec, Canada). Currently I pay 39.99$ (for the first 5 months) for 4mbit down, 768kbps up. The regular price is 69.99$ However, they do offer 3mbit down and 384kbps up for 29.99 a month. And just in case anyone was still wondering, my prices are in canadian funds. I'm one of the lucky ones!
I don't see why they don't target the businesses employing spammers, they're easy to find and most of them (unlike the spammers) are in the US. Make it illegal to use spam, and noone will employ spammers. This feels so obvious its probably already been mentioned mind you, or shot down.
It's pretty simple, if people can continue using programs like kazaa for free, why would pay for same thing? Marketing 101, less for more doesn't work.