influential languages according to engco model

Guest   Thu May 01, 2008 9:33 am GMT
1 english 100
2 german 42
3 french 33
4 japanese 32
5 spanish 31
6 chinese 22
7 arabic 8
8 portuguese 5
9 malay 4
10 russian 3
11 hindi/urdu .4
12 bengali .09

[global influence of various languages according to engco model. An index score of 100 represents english in 1995]

see:

http://www.britishcouncil.org/de/learning-elt-future.pdf [pg 59]



I think this is seriously wrong. How can Russian possibly be behind Malay and Portuguese?
PARISIEN   Thu May 01, 2008 10:08 am GMT
This ranking makes sense if it reflects the actual importance of languages in international trade.
Guest   Thu May 01, 2008 10:23 am GMT
There is more international trade in Malay than in Russian?
Skippy   Thu May 01, 2008 3:20 pm GMT
Well, Malaysia (and Indonesia, Singapore, etc.) have more warm water ports...
PARISIEN   Thu May 01, 2008 5:32 pm GMT
<< There is more international trade in Malay than in Russian? >>
-- 350 to 400 million people use Malay (including Indonesian) as native or second language. It's the vehicular tongue of South-East Asia. There are in the area thriving economies that import lots of equipment goods.

And remember (something VERY IMPORTANT):
- in international exchange, English is of universal use for trading raw materials, basic foodstuffs and industrial commodities (hence the poor ranking of Arabic and Russian, that are of little to no use to export oil and gas),
- when it comes to hi-tech investment goods the seller has to speak the language of the customer,
- on the other hand part of the customer's staff is often trained in the language of the machinery maker.

In view of the German (and German Swiss + Austrian) predominance in advanced industrial equipment, the ranking of German isn't surprising.

This predominance bases also on the fact that in most German exporting companies there are salesmen and techs who can speak Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Russian, French, Chinese, Polish, etc. possibly including Malay and Hindi.
As a result Germany is nr one exporter in the world.

Japanese companies focus on English only on the international scene. The consequence is that their technological exports are mainly successful in the Anglosphere. I have been striken many times by the fact that in American and British industrial plants there are lots of Japanese machine tools and production lines you almost never see on the European continent.
Earle   Fri May 02, 2008 4:48 am GMT
Just a quibble, but "striken" (really should be "stricken") is what happened to you if you just had a heart attack. If you find a fact remarkable, then you're "struck" by it...
kawaii   Sat May 03, 2008 4:55 am GMT
The book is written in 2000. Things has changed much since 2000.
Guest   Sat May 03, 2008 5:10 am GMT
<Things has changed much since 2000.>

Yes, I think Swedish will be now on this list.
JLK   Sat May 03, 2008 10:55 am GMT
Flemish is now at the top of the list.