(Fwd) Re: Linguistic imperialism

[Jorge Soberon Mainero]

Just a point of clarification. The UN has not two but six official
languages: Arabian, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

About "imperialism" and language, remember that Latin was the language of
the Roman Empire, French of the French Empire, Mandarin  of the Chinese
EMpire, etc. I myself speak the language of the Spanish Empire, rather
than that of the (now defunct) Aztec Empire. I find extremely convenient
to be able to communicate with nationals of so many countries using a
single language (English) and thus am not particularly concerned about
its status as imperial or not.