Cyprus-Forum.com

[turkcyp]

Does anyone object ENglish being official langugage in a United Cyprus next to Turkish and Greek.

I mean there are a lot of people who does not speak th eother langugae and many of the initial contacts will be done. Furthermore I think it would be beneficial as aa hole that it would force teh Cypriost to learn an extra langauge which I assuem nobody doubts the benefits.

[erolz]

As a TC that only speaks english I am all for it

[efe]

iam not a cypriot but i'ld be against it. almost nobody's native language is english on the island, except maybe british settlers. but if british want to settle on the island, they should learn greek/turkish/both.

[magikthrill]

iam not a cypriot but i'ld be against it. almost nobody's native language is english on the island, except maybe british settlers. but if british want to settle on the island, they should learn greek/turkish/both.

ditto

[turkcyp]

iam not a cypriot but i'ld be against it. almost nobody's native language is english on the island, except maybe british settlers. but if british want to settle on the island, they should learn greek/turkish/both.

And do you think these are enough reasons for objecting English becoming third official language. As I see it the benefits of having English as official language far outweighs its costs, which are actually nothing more than sentimental objections guided by the nationalistic tendencies.

Benefits:
- A big majority of Greeks do not speak Turkish, and a big majority of Turks do not speak Greek. There has to be communicating environment between the two sides and this will inevitably be English initially.
- It reduces the conflict arising from miscommunication due to excessive translations.
- It makes legal contract much more understandable.
- It forces the Cypriots to learn a third language other than Greek and Turkish.

Costs:
- I can not think of any, other than hiring extra translators but the chances are very high that the same translator that does Greek to Turkish translations knowing English is VERY high.

[insan]

turkcyp, I think you would be one of the few TCs who make lots of money from the simultaneous translation business.

btw, I voted yes.

[brother]

I voted yes and think we should all learn all three languages, got to grips with two turkish and english and now albeit very slowly trying to learn greek.

[cannedmoose]

I can't see why anyone would object to this. The purpose is not to ease the lives of British residents in Cyprus, the number of people who speak adequate English on the island already is enough to make Cyprus an effective 'home from home'. No, the rationale behind having English as a third official language is precisely the reasons cited by Turkcyp. India (amongst other former colonies) is a case in point. English was retained as a universal medium of communication, to facilitate dialogue between the various ethnic and linguistic communities in the country and to act as a single medium for the conduct of legal matters. Recently, India has experienced the spin-off advantage of people's knowledge of English through the growth of call-centre and IT-support industries for the English-speaking countries, thus promoting economic development in these areas.

I'm not saying that I want Cyprus to become the call-centre of the East Med (god forbid!), but India's case is an example that having a different language for common communication doesn't make you less of an Indian, in fact it makes you more Indian since you are able to talk to your fellow citizens easily and discuss complex issues. I think for Cyprus to have a formal system such as this would be mutually beneficial and would even further make Cypriots as a whole a desirable commodity in Europe.

P.S. As someone who's trying to learn both simultaneously (Greek and Turkish), I appreciate how much not being able to communicate with all sides matters now and (fingers crossed) will matter when the island is finally united.

[efe]

ya, i guess my reasons are mostly nationalistic. i just cant stand it for some reason. : ) i dunno why

if english becomes an official language, you can say bye bye to both turkish and greek being spoken on the island in 50-60 yrs. if you accept this, then you may vote yes.

[cannedmoose]

ya, i guess my reasons are mostly nationalistic. i just cant stand it for some reason. : ) i dunno why

if english becomes an official language, you can say bye bye to both turkish and greek being spoken on the island in 50-60 yrs. if you accept this, then you may vote yes.

Efe, I don't think that's true. In practice it would mean people being able to switch between the languages at will. If you are in a situation where a TC is amongst other TCs, it is highly unlikely that a conversation would take place in English, ditto with GCs. However, where a mixed group was present, it would make communication more likely and more rewarding to use the common medium. In India, there has been no dilution of the use of hindi, urdu, punjabi etc. etc. as a result of English being the language of law. On a second note, if used in Parliament it would also prevent the huge translation costs cited earlier in this thread and exampled by the European Parliament where translation expenses are huge.

I can appreciate the patriotic argument, if someone told me that my country was adopting an alien language, it might bother me a little, but there are pragmatic advantages in doing so, so that should outweigh the negatives.