The Power of English

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An observation:

Over the course of our trip we encountered people speaking many different languages: French, German, Italian, Spanish, Czech, and Hungarian. The one common denominator for everyone was English - that's the only way Italians could communicate in Prague, for example. It was interesting to hear two parties from different cultures using our language (foreign to both of them) to interact with one another.

We encountered the same thing in Thailand and Malaysia where European tourists conversed with the locals in English.

I've always felt somewhat inferior because I am not fluent in any other language (even after 5 years of French and 1 of Spanish in school). It is so common for Europeans to speak 2 or 3 languages quite well. I think Americans are spoiled because our schools do not require the same level of competence. On the flip side, it is somewhat flattering that it is my native tongue that is spoken throughout the world as a second language to so many people.

Post-Communist Prague:

We encountered far fewer English speakers in Prague than in Western Europe. I theorized this is because English was not widely taught here prior to 1989, the end of the Communist era. Our tour guide confimed this is indeed the case. Much more young people speak English than those of older generations. In fact, in her family, her grandparents spoke German due to the Nazi occupation and her parents spoke Russian due to the Soviet occupation! Amazing.

The graffiti pictures were taken at the John Lenon Wall in Little Quarter. There are constantly new layers of paint with images, peaceful slogans, political slogans (mostly anti-Bush!) and general "Kilroy was here" type scrawling. I really enjoyed seeing the graffiti in various languages and how something the was in "the commons" could retain a common theme. Lenon, Jesus and Jah were right - God is Love.

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