Tower of Babel

The story goes, that mankind got too uppity and as punishment, God made people speak different tongues so they couldn't communicate. Not that people need to speak different tongues to misunderstand each other. It's hard enough communicating in the same language, never mind a different one.

Anyway, it appears that a lot of people these days have taken an interest in learning more than one language. An English friend of mine who speaks fluent Japanese for instance, is thinking of learning Mandarin and Spanish. Mandarin because of China, a huge emerging market; and Spanish because of the growth in Latin America, where many people speak Spanish. As he observed, even in North American towns bordering South America and L.A., a good majority of people speak Spanish. I've met non-Chinese who can speak fluent Mandarin and a Latvian friend just commented that he overheard an African (black) guy speak fluent Russian. There are definite signs that more people are becoming interested in learning the languages of emerging markets. I suppose the only reason why not as many people are looking to learn an Indian language is because there are ever so many and India is quite fragmented.