What is English?

Archive Africa Asia Europe Middle East South America United States		This class project began in 1997 when a group of students were studying the history of English for about a month. The What is English? survey was designed to get a wide ranging, world wide response. Now, in the year 2000, we publish some of the results of this Internet poll.   United States   Age: 49 Sex: female Level of education: Graduate Degree Location (City/State): Bay area, California Date: 1996. Submitted the following answer: English is the means to my most passionate pastime -- reading. Writing is not far behind. English has been my means to learn about other people all over the world, and to put words to dreams, hopes, ideas, places. English is fun, too: I get a kick out of crossword puzzles and enjoy puzzling through words and obscure or unusual meanings, especially from the other languages I learned. ------------------------------ Age: 35 Sex: male Level of education: College Degree Location (City/State): Chicago, Illinois. Date: 1996. Submitted the following answer: English is a way to link everything together. It is a glue for understanding, like all languages are. But, English as English. It is a conquerers language. It can be the language of compassion. It often is a way to fuse cultures together. Or. tear worlds apart. Sadly. I do not speak another language. I wish I did. I do speak several dialects of English rather well. But, I do not think that counts. English speakers tend to be "lingua"-centric. I am an English speaker and I do not speak another language because I feel that I do not really have to. If I had to, I guess I would. It is more of a luxury to learn a "foreign" language. I hate that word "foreign" for that very reason. It separates, as English itself does, instead of pulling people together.   ------------------------------------------   Age: 16 Sex: male Level of education: High School Location (City/State): Albany CA Date: 1996. Submitted the following answer: A difficult language to learn.
		A class made up of two seniors and eleven juniors and teacher Brian Thomas compiled an archive of the survey. Marin Academy is an independent high school in San Rafael, California.