Me DO Speakdy English

[nin_ninja]

I watched The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo last night (great movie btw) and during some parts of the movie they either wrote or spoke a couple words in English instead of Swedish. I've noticed this with other foreign films too, especially European ones. Is it because of English's prominence, or because English can express certain things easier than other languages?

Thoughts?

EDIT: Not about English use in general, but that they intersperse a completely Swedish film with a couple of sentences of English.

 

[Vie]

English is the Lingua Franca of today's world.

If your from a non-English speaking country, the most likely second language you know is English.

Therefore if a Chinese businessman wishes to do business with a French businessman, there's a good chance they will use English.

Its a language the audience is more likely to understand.

 

[Drakmeire]

I have notice gratuitous english used in several animes I've watched. I wonder if it's really a language that is understood as well as the writers think it is. since some attacks in gurren lagann are said in english and pretty much every curse in Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt are in english (while I guess that's not %100 true but they do get away with dropping many english F-bombs)

 

[Lavi]

English, successfully infiltrating all other languages.

 

[GeorgW]

As a Swede, I can say that English is extremely prominent in our culture. I think about 99% of all Swedes know at least 2 languages, probably more, and most of that is English. Why they felt the need to use it, I don't know as I haven't seen the movie (though I've heard good things, I just want to read the books first) but I would assume, if there are no other reasons, like English characters, they use it because it's more expressive than Swedish.
I like English much more than Swedish and welcome its conquering of our language.

 

[Simonccx]

I'd go with the lingua franca argument. Lets be fair after the British Empire we did force our langauge down most peoples throats. Add to that the rise of Hollywood and the major business centres of London and New York its pretty clear that English is the most widely used langauge, because of that its got to be able to express a huge variety of meanings, It isnt necerssarily the sexiest or most beautiful langauge but it is the most literary language and as such it works fantastically in modern film and media.

 

[BlueberryMUNCH]

I go to Austria a lot to spend time with my family over there, and I notice more and more young kids using English words instead of German ones; the same going for things on television too.

Guess 'English-isation' is happening throughout Europe, heck, maybe even throughout the world.
It's sad in a way, but it makes things a whole lot easier.

 

[Hashime]

I think it is partially because English has a crap load of words, and the geographical distribution of it.
This reminds me of my summer job though: (story time)
I worked at a lab that hired mainly new immigrants (or Indians, bosses were Indian, I only got the job because my dad works there, and he was working there before any of the current bosses, it is really complicated)
as new immigrants are cheaper to hire (I should note we are talking about educated people, masters at least). There were two men, a Chinese man we called Leo, whose english was horrendous, and an Indian man we called Dee, who also barely spoke English. Leo did not know Hindi, and Dee did not know Chinese, so they communicated in English. Imagine listening to terrible english and trying to make it out as a native speaker, now imagine listening to terrible english as someone who barely grasps the language.

I on occasion translated from chinglish to english so Dee could fumble through it, and from hindlish to english for Leo. Though most of their communication was done through highlighting wikipedia pages.

It was quite funny really.
(end story time)

 

[Bre2nan]

Seems like it's a combination of both, but more because of the prominence of the English language. So far, the predominant global superpowers of the last nearly 300 years (Great Britain then the United States) have both been English-speaking nations. If those two nations had been, for example, France and Canada, or Portugal and Brazil, we'd all likely be speaking French or Portuguese rather than English.

 

[Dags90]

I like English much more than Swedish and welcome its conquering of our language.

But Swedish is so funny sounding (in a good way)! Honestly, I can't hear Swedish now and not think of Caramelldansen. Along with Dutch, I think Swedish is one of the most amusing languages to English speakers.

Also, I think everybody appreciates a good "Fuck!" every now and then, no matter what language they speak. I mean, what else would you say when you stub your toe?

 

[GeorgW]

I like English much more than Swedish and welcome its conquering of our language.

But Swedish is so funny sounding (in a good way)! Honestly, I can't hear Swedish now and not think of Caramelldansen. Along with Dutch, I think Swedish is one of the most amusing languages to English speakers.

Also, I think everybody appreciates a good "Fuck!" every now and then, no matter what language they speak. I mean, what else would you say when you stub your toe?

I agree, and watching a Swede trying to speak English is simply facepalmific!
And while i can laugh at my country's ridiculous language, and culture for that matter, Swedish is still gramatically moronic. It's incredibly hard to learn Swedish for a foreigner, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that the grammar sometimes doesn't follow any logic.