What should be the language of Comintern 2.0 or international revolutionary socialists in general?
Ideally the language should be from a high-context culture, not a low-context culture. That rules out German, English and French.
My vote goes to Spanish, Korean or Mandarin.
• Cuba and Venezuela exist as vanguard socialist states • among the easiest languages to learn • many third-world Latin American populations with revolutionary potential
• DPRK exists as a vanguard socialist state • very high-context culture
• gives you ability to establish contact with the underground neo-Maoist movement in China • very high-context culture • expected to overtake English in total speakers (1.107 billion vs 1.121 billion) • China has no extradition treaty with USA
A prominent anthropological theory and observations introduced by Edward Hall in which populations that communicate and think in a language developed in a low-context culture dialectically influences them to be more individualist (as opposed to collectivist) and solitary (as opposed to relational).
Esperanto, of course. They taught it in schools in Yugoslavia. Esperanto is the anti-imperialist, working class, universal language. Literally designed so that proletarians from around the world can communicate.
Sebastian Rivera
Hebrew
Cameron Sullivan
English, it’s the fe facto lengua franca. More people speak it than any other language. More socialist works are translated into it than any other language. Most of it’s vocab is loanwords from other languages. Any other answer (besides esperanto) is larp.
Lincoln Ross
Who speaks Esperanto?
Evan Hall
Latin
Benjamin Rodriguez
Fucking kek, maybe down the road but it's not practical soon user
English, for the sake of convenience. It's pretty much taught everywhere where Spanish, Korean, or Mandarin is spoken.
James Morgan
English obviously. Fuck off.
People are free to speak whatever broken version of the language they wish though.
Aiden Sanchez
We've sure got a lot of 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧English🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧 supremacists in here
Landon Torres
Apart from Mandarin (which doesn't count since all the speakers are in China or are diaspora) English is the most spoken and most dispersed language in the world. Its easily the most practical choice.
Daniel Morales
(me)
I'm not even a native speaker. English has already gained supremacy through capitalism. The best thing is to move forward with it, not to artificially revert the evolution.
Jace Lee
Suomi, perkele
Gavin Gonzalez
Scots.
Nathaniel Peterson
Kunnen jullie niet gewoon Nederlands leren?
Oliver Stewart
Sanskrit
Colton Rodriguez
if the zionists could get a whole country to speak an ancient, long dead scripture language, we could get everyone to speak an autistic conlang. Theres really no difference just because one used to be actually spoken thousands of years ago.
Anyways, some future socialist bloc should not enforce one language on all its members. People should speak whatever their native language they please, ie whatever their native language was before.
It should however promote one single standard second language as a lingua franca. If this is an actual political entity, I dont think english would be any more convenient than any other language just because its more widely taught right now. You could literally pick any language you please because you'll be teaching it in the school systems from 1st grade, it could be fucking klingon. In that case, maybe itd actually be good to go in on some heavy autism like lojban just to see if itd actually make a difference.
But, if we're talking about 'international revolutionary socialists in general' without any states, just parties, obviously english, because its the most widespread right now.
Lucas Ortiz
oops
Kayden Parker
English is fine. Computer translation makes all of this irrelevant anyway.
Jordan Phillips
This.
Dit.
Matthew Harris
Occitan. It's like Latin, but proletarian/peasant.
Why would you pick something that requires so many people to learn a new language?
Landon Brooks
Esperanto It's already the language of a larping anarchist academic near you
Christian Peterson
Okay, here's an idea: We use English but it's with a very strong working-class British accent. You can't get more proletarian than that, right?
Justin Thompson
This could work.
Levi Richardson
geordie m8
Hudson Baker
all schools already teach it, why not use it? adding a barrier of entry is bad praxis
Matthew Howard
!Xóõ, of course, all other languages are revisionist.
Owen Green
We're already all speaking english here, why would you want to force another language?
Brody Walker
Fucking kek, most of the people here are burgers.
Kayden Bennett
Nah, brummie
Adam Morales
I vote for Spanish, and against Mandarin. because good fucking luck making westeners get a handle on what is quite possibly the most obtuse writing system on the planet.
Hrmpf. I say let's use Esperanto instead of Spanish because it's less likely OP speaks Esperanto.
Luis Barnes
Yeah, if you don't care about losing nuance and you don't plan to ever organize IRL.
Justin Long
English - most widespread language nowadays - very easy to learn Spanish - one of the most spoken languages - rich socialist traditions (Revolutionary Catalonia, Cuba) - easy to learn Mandarin - The most spoken language, continues to grow - hard to learn
also
fuck off tbh
Cooper Hall
can we compromise at english and spanish? many organisaitons operate multiple primary languages
Daniel Harris
maybe for you it is…
Jason Lopez
English if you dont want to shoot yourself in the foot. Language effects organizational ability which is important in conflict. This is why some cultures always get their assess handed to them in war, their languages are not well suited for war. Ideally one would know many languages, of course, but it seems English is the best non synthetic language for fighting, its how britain became so powerful.
I am growing quite fond of mandarin however, watching revolutionary operas.
Kevin Cox
It seems to me though that on the basis of the wikipedia page (that in the more low context languages the message stands alone, while in high context the message is accompanied with more context) that a low context language would be better as a lingua franca for a comintern to publish materials in.
Carson Young
If the high-low context distinction were sensible, then it would make sense to do it as you say. But it isn't, so it doesn't matter.
In Japanese, the subject of a sentence is often omitted, so instead of he does x people just say does x. And what's worse, there isn't even a distinction do/does, there just is a generic present tense, whether the subject is I, you, they etc. So, Japanese can be legitimately said to be a high-context language. Spanish occasionally drops the subject, but it distinguishes verbs, so the word have in I have/you have/they have is different, whether you mention I/you/they or not. Spanish is absolutely not a more ambiguous language than English. One could even make the case that Spanish is more precise than English because it distinguishes singular and plural you and it splits in two the bundle of the many possible meanings of to be by having two words for that.
Even after fixing the bugged categorization, we don't have a decent reason to pick this or that language according to that, since the categorization is only about an average. Specific instances of using a language, like in a technical manual, are another matter. Whatever language you envy for being more precise about some specific thing, I'm sure you can come up with a style-guide rule to make your "inferior" language just as precise in that aspect.
Juan Jackson
Even if you could remove all the anglo of Zig Forums, people here would still post in english.
Carter Collins
The language should be whatever is most widely spoken by the working class. For now, things aren't so integrated that there needs to be one. Just go for the dominant language wherever you're organizing, that's most widely spoken. Making everybody learn any language will automatically put people who don't speak that language at a disadvantage.
If you're working in Latin America, you should put everything in Spanish. If you're in North America or most of Europe, use English. If you're in Eastern Europe or Central Asia, use Russian. If you're in most of East Asia, Mandarin will probably be most useful. If you're in a part of Africa where a colonial language is widely spoken by different ethnic groups to speak to one another, use that language whether it be English, French, or whatever. If you're in an area where a local language like Swahili is widely spoken, use that.
Trying to impose a language on a local community is pretty bourgeois.
Sebastian Morris
Maybe they should have English as the official language for the entire International and then have official languages for regional branches.
Cameron Watson
Because five more people speak that than Portuguese. Most common mother tongue in Europe surely is German? Guess how I know you are a yank.
Evan Hall
I disagree. If you're in North America you should also put everything in Spanish, because Latines make up America's true working class and have more revolutionary potential. If you put everything in English, you're just wasting energy on the labor arristocracy and the petty bourgeoisie.
Noah Parker
Nearly every country in Latin America speaks Spanish other than Brazil.
The vast majority of Europeans speak English. Most do not speak German, regardless of its historical importance.
Guess how I know you're literally retarded?
THIS is actually a really good point, and it's worth thinking about. I still wouldn't shift completely away from English, but you're absolutely right that for labor issues in the US, it's very important to be able to communicate in Spanish in much of the country.
Liam Thompson
Are you saying North Americans proles aren't working class?
Oliver Rivera
How about we rule out autism in stead, and pick the language already most known as a first or second language, English.
They have a high standard of living that is paid for with the superexploitation of illegal immigrants, third-world workers, and prison labor. They use the superprofits generated by superexploitation to inflate their incomes, to own property and capital at high rates, and to increase their purchasing power. This is NOT universally true for all workers in North America, but it is a tendency that can not be ignored.
Samuel Johnson
I'm the guy you guys are responding to - while I do recognize that immigrants from Latin America experience particularly dire working conditions, it's also important to consider the English-speaking working class. I think both languages are important. That said, I know in American labor organizations, speaking Spanish is a pretty critical skill.
Gabriel Wilson
Half the people in South America live in Brazil. Sorry to burst your bubble, but the majority doesn't know more English than, Ooga booga where me can poop. I can assure you that in France and Spain the vast majority of adults are not able to have a meaningful conversation about politics and economics in English. It's better in Germany, but even there people who are managers of international companies and who have good English skills listed on their CV often need translators. Historical importance, WTF. German is the language with most native speakers in the EU. The only reason it doesn't show up as the language with most native + non-native speakers in the EU is that the standard for what is considered as understanding a language is not much higher than counting to three. For proper communication, that standard is too low.
Easton Turner
Why should there be a single language? Can't there just be several, and have translators?
Leo Stewart
Yes first graders can learn any language, however for most adult learning a new language is pretty hard. So having English as the lengua franca because it involves the least amount of adults having to learn a new language.
Half of burger hispanics speak English better than Spanish. The number is only rising.
Just speak whatever language you do and don't LARP?
Aaron Wood
Anyone who says anything other than a constructed language which does not waste years of life learning is a fucking normalfag who wants muh aesthetic language
Grayson Morales
English is already the master language of the world and it's pretty much locked in.
Matthew Sullivan
Very few non-East Asians learn Mandarin as a second language, so it's a pretty bad choice. Not only that, but people with it as their native language are still learning to write Chinese characters by the end of secondary school. It's nowhere near being easy to learn. 2/3 of English speakers are second language speakers.
Robert Martinez
Only because America is the hegemon. In a multipolar world, English dominance would fade.
Benjamin Russell
Thats completely irrelevant in the case of an actual socialist state. The problem disappears after one generation and you can use whatever is most convenient when absolutely necessary in the meantime.
In the case of a party or something, obviously, but I said that anyways.
the only thing that makes any real, useful language easier or harder is how similar it is to your native language, though. other than the writing system, which can be changed easily. so this just means 'something like esperanto, but based on whatever langauge family is most common'
Mason Hill
So, Esperanto.
Brandon Richardson
Not if this theoretical socialist block is in the far east, or MENA, or south asia.
Dominic Lee
More than 75% of the population speaks Arabic, around 3% speaks Hebrew and the remaining people speak Persian. Persian and Arabic are about as close as English and Hindi, so you're fucked.
Like the above but with more languages.
There's no "common language family" here.
Kayden Gonzalez
What exactly did you think I was saying in that post?
Leo Cruz
Why not make a combination between Spanish-Korean-Chinese?
It could be the worst sounding language on Earth.
The 4th Reich would speak Italian-German-Japanese.
Liam Ortiz
Fuck, italo-german-japanese sounds cool though.
how about russian-chinese-korean? that sounds like itd sound cool.
Aiden Walker
English, Mandarin, and Spanish would be the most efficient because they're so widely spoken across the world.
Dominic Flores
You are so goddamn dumb. Believably so, though. The obvious answer, for all the actual idiots here, is that they will speak the languages they wish to. Interpreters are good for this. The idea of internationalism isn't to destroy everything to be replaced, especially with languages basically no one speaks! You are just so totally disassociated from reality it is hard to even insult you. I mean hot DAMN is it a dumb idea to make everyone speak a new langauge so they can join the Commie-Club. I mean, shit, what a dumbass all these revolutionaries must have been! Lenin? More like Dumb-in am I right my fellow rades? Its just SO easy to build mass action, we can just get literally billions of people to learn a new language. Mao? More like Mao-ron! Fucking roasted guys, when can we get this high-test shit translated to Esperanto?
Lincoln Taylor
Or Interlingua. That one has vocab optimized for passive understanding by Euros.