OCR Text |
Show THE SPREAD OF ENGLISH. A few figures will show how absurd it is for any nation that aims at progress nowadays to discourage the study of English. In 1S01 "English was spoken by 20.520,000 persons. Spanish spoken by 26,190,000. At present English is spoken by more than 130,000,000. Spnaish is spoken by less than 50,000,000. Within the next century English will show a greater increase than in the last, says the Louisville Courier-Journal. The Orient is studying English more than any other tongue, and the acquirement acquire-ment of languages is easy to Orientals. "Within a century a very large proportion of the Japanese, if not all of them, will speak English. Chinese of various sections whose dialects arc not the same are talking to one another in English that is no longer tho "pidgin" English of the coast cities. India is learning English rapidly English for business and French as an accomplishment constitutes the formula among the inhabitantsof civilized countries coun-tries who are ambitious to educate themselves. Spanish is a widely spoken language, but it is not gaining ground. The agitation against the teaching of English in the Philippines is readily accounted for. The Filipinos look upon it as an effort to "Americanize" them and pave the way for their assimilation. But the Cubans are a free people. What, as the small boy put it, is "eating "eat-ing them?' Why should they cut off their noses to spite their faces? |