Dominance of language ?
Internet is a wonder tool which has revolutionised the landscape on sharing information storage, transfer and communication in the last decade and a half. A lot of other things have changed as well and some of them for good- like payment of telephone bills, electricity bills, booking of air and train tickets and bank transactions which can be done at a touch of a button. Standing in a queue for long after travelling from one's place of work or residence was a energy sapping and time consuming exercise especially if one is trying to book tickets for holiday season or during holiday season.
Everybody who matter has an email address and this has resulted in the near death of snail mail amongst contacts in major cities and big towns who have everyday access to internet. It has been long time since people have written letters as it is internet, mobile verbal telephony or sms is the medium of communication these days.
Internet revolution has made English the prime language around the world with 90 % of the websites being in English. In the centuries gone by English spread its wings around the world by physical conquest of various territories by British Empire. Twentieth century, especially the later half, saw the shrinking influence of British rule around the world with many countries declaring Independence from the control of the Crown of United Kingdom. But spread of internet has ensured that the spread of english would be at a rate much faster than achieved by the physical conquest of various areas around the globe by British Empire in the centuries gone by. So much so that China is working at a furious pace to teach substantial chunk of their youth English so that they can gain a substantial pie of outsourcing boom which has been eluding China due to their poor English skills. It is a kind of internet colonialism which is going on now with the spread of wired and web enabled environment in developed and developing parts of the world.
This brings to the topic of the English football team taking part in the World Cup football tournament at South Africa. The team was touted as a world beater with people like Wayne Rooney who was expected to storm the World Cup. Finally nothing of that sort happened. Germans thrashed them comprehensively in the knock out stage which the English team reached after scraping through the league stage behind USA. In fact the whole team moved ponderously through out the match against the young fast paced dynamic German team.
This has been the case of all English teams for several World Cups now. The hype about the capability of English World Cup team which precedes each World Cup has never been matched by its performance. The Super Star of English football in the recent times, David Beckam has also not done anything spectacular in the World Cups and his performance has been pedestrian compared to Ronaldo ( Brazil ), Ronaldinho, Zidanine Zidane, Theory Henry and other stars.
The English League is supposed to be a tough one and there are a lot of foreign players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka in various clubs there. This could be reason why the football enthusiasts there get a feeling that English team would play very well in the World Cup.
A noticeable thing about football ( unlike tennis ) is that but for English players and a few players from some other countries, the super stars are not fluent in English. The Brazilian, Argentine and Italian big guns talk only in their native tongue and need the services of a translator if the questions are thrown at them in English.
Is it the dominance of English in internet and media in general ( thanks to the towering presence of USA world over due to its economic and military might ) which makes sports enthusiasts feel that English football team is a world beater but the performance on the ground indicates that it is only an average team ? I feel there seems to be substance to this.
Everybody who matter has an email address and this has resulted in the near death of snail mail amongst contacts in major cities and big towns who have everyday access to internet. It has been long time since people have written letters as it is internet, mobile verbal telephony or sms is the medium of communication these days.
Internet revolution has made English the prime language around the world with 90 % of the websites being in English. In the centuries gone by English spread its wings around the world by physical conquest of various territories by British Empire. Twentieth century, especially the later half, saw the shrinking influence of British rule around the world with many countries declaring Independence from the control of the Crown of United Kingdom. But spread of internet has ensured that the spread of english would be at a rate much faster than achieved by the physical conquest of various areas around the globe by British Empire in the centuries gone by. So much so that China is working at a furious pace to teach substantial chunk of their youth English so that they can gain a substantial pie of outsourcing boom which has been eluding China due to their poor English skills. It is a kind of internet colonialism which is going on now with the spread of wired and web enabled environment in developed and developing parts of the world.
This brings to the topic of the English football team taking part in the World Cup football tournament at South Africa. The team was touted as a world beater with people like Wayne Rooney who was expected to storm the World Cup. Finally nothing of that sort happened. Germans thrashed them comprehensively in the knock out stage which the English team reached after scraping through the league stage behind USA. In fact the whole team moved ponderously through out the match against the young fast paced dynamic German team.
This has been the case of all English teams for several World Cups now. The hype about the capability of English World Cup team which precedes each World Cup has never been matched by its performance. The Super Star of English football in the recent times, David Beckam has also not done anything spectacular in the World Cups and his performance has been pedestrian compared to Ronaldo ( Brazil ), Ronaldinho, Zidanine Zidane, Theory Henry and other stars.
The English League is supposed to be a tough one and there are a lot of foreign players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka in various clubs there. This could be reason why the football enthusiasts there get a feeling that English team would play very well in the World Cup.
A noticeable thing about football ( unlike tennis ) is that but for English players and a few players from some other countries, the super stars are not fluent in English. The Brazilian, Argentine and Italian big guns talk only in their native tongue and need the services of a translator if the questions are thrown at them in English.
Is it the dominance of English in internet and media in general ( thanks to the towering presence of USA world over due to its economic and military might ) which makes sports enthusiasts feel that English football team is a world beater but the performance on the ground indicates that it is only an average team ? I feel there seems to be substance to this.
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