On the Uselessness of learning Foreign Languages

victor ginsburgh

English is the dominant language of the Internet, business, and world trade. Do we need another? This column applies an economist’s rationale to the question. “I don’t speak English. Kurdish I speak, and Turkish, and gypsy language. But I don’t speak barbarian languages.” “Barbarian languages?” “English! German! Ya! French! All the barbarian”. —Yasar Kemal, a [...]