English in today’s Europe

Recently I have had some opportunities to catch up on with my first love, reading. The daily 4 hours round trip commute to work leaves me ample time to indulge in my favourite passtime (or timepass en anglais à l’indienne !!!!). Just the other day I came upon a bimonthly magazine called « manière de voir » or way of seeing (rough translation). It caught my attention while browsing through the racks of a railway kiosk, a special issue on “battles of languages ”; just the food for thought I needed. Most of the articles are written by linguists, professors or consultants. What I found extremely interesting is the French way of looking at the evolution of English in Europe and the resulting battle of supremacy between the French and English language in several European institutions. The article on rapid growth of English usage in the French industrial and commercial fields does not leave us indifferent. There’s even a page dedicated to eminent French personalities who are devout English speakers!! The articles are extremely varied and touch all corners of the world. I was happy to know that I fall under the category of those speakers who speak three among the thirteen (13 because otherwise French would be left out of the list; it comes in a poor 12^th) most popular native languages in the world: namely English (322 millions), Hindi (182 millions) and Bengali (189 millions). I am aware of the fact that Indians do not fall under 322 millions L1 or native English speakers, but some times we do take certain liberties!
Going through the magazine I came across 2 links which are worth a look for all those who earn their living owing to linguistic skills.
The first link:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-elt-future.pdf
A detailed study on the future of English language along with some forecasts. It starts with a historical perspective and moves on to analyse the recent geo-political trends coupled with their economic fallout from a linguistic viewpoint.
The second link:
http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/source/TruchotFR.pdf
An academic report in French on the evolution and role of English in today’s Europe. It has rather an institutional outlook compared to the previous article. Nonetheless it is quite informative and conclusive.
Happy reading!!