What's the Biggest World Concern? The Dominance of the English Language? The Decline of Roquefort Cheese? Who's In Charge of Stopping Armageddon? Elon Musk's Population Growth Concerns? episode artwork

EPISODE · Dec 16, 2021 · 53 MIN

What's the Biggest World Concern? The Dominance of the English Language? The Decline of Roquefort Cheese? Who's In Charge of Stopping Armageddon? Elon Musk's Population Growth Concerns?

from The Best Paragraph I've Read... · host Zac & Don

The Best Paragraph I've Read: Some states have eliminated language requirements for high school students: In Oklahoma and Texas they can opt instead for computer coding, while in California they can choose visual and performing arts classes or technical education. One in five Americans speaks a language other than English at home, yet we have abandoned building our foreign language skills and ceded the advantages of being a multilingual country. The idea that this is not a problem because “everyone speaks English” is far from the truth. Only a quarter of the world’s population is minimally competent in English, and even those who claim to have conversational skills often don’t operate at a very high level of proficiency. Monolingual English-speakers can’t effectively communicate with three-quarters of the world. That means they can’t tap into knowledge created in those languages or take advantage of business opportunities. This paragraph comes from an essay written in the Wall Street Journal.  The essay is titled: "The Downside of English's Dominance."  The essay is written by Rosemary Salomone.  You can read the article here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-downside-of-englishs-dominance-11637989261 Zac and Don discuss this article and three others while pondering the theme of: "What is the biggest concern for the world?"  The other three articles considered are: The Decline of Roquefort Cheese https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/how-much-longer-roquefort-reign-king-cheese-180978999/ Whose Job Is It to Prevent Armageddon? https://www.politico.com/news/2021/11/20/global-planetary-defense-earth-asteroids-523072 Elon Musk thinks Declining Population is the Biggest Problem for Human Civilization https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/07/elon-musk-civilization-will-crumble-if-we-dont-have-more-children.html

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What's the Biggest World Concern? The Dominance of the English Language? The Decline of Roquefort Cheese? Who's In Charge of Stopping Armageddon? Elon Musk's Population Growth Concerns?

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