I’d like more flexibility in what I can do with this blog than I have here at wordpress.com, so I’m moving over to a new blog today. As of today there’s nothing much worth looking at over there, but that’s where I’ll be posting from now on. Hope to see everyone there!

If English is the MS Windows of world languages and (say) French — or maybe Spanish? — is the Mac OS X, is there a Linux?

I have no idea where this is going, but it occurs to me that perhaps it’s time to move beyond the buyer-seller paradigm in business and instead consider a model where all parties including the ”customer” are partners in a shared venture….

The Economist has an editorial on the economic and social consequences of the rise of English in Europe, noting “signs of a backlash” in cosmopolitan Brussels and elsewhere.

Perhaps Brussels should accept its fate as an international city, and switch to English, like some European Singapore (although with waffles, frites and dirty streets)? 

The piece notes the financial benefits to Britain of lower spending on language education and income from teaching English to others. It also points out how English crowds out the languages of neighboring countries, or even other linguistic communities within a given country, that may actually be more important for local and regional business in any particular place.