Pilgrimage to Holy Mountain 29

29

The World Language:

Tourist pilgrims came and went daily at St Anne’s and there was always someone new to talk to.

Often in the evenings a group of a dozen or so men from all over the world would meet around a big table in one of the empty upstairs rooms to talk and enjoy each other’s company. It was especially interesting for me since the conversations were mostly in English and I was often the only “native speaker” of the language present–though, as you can tell from my writing, I am myself only a “colonial”, an American user of the English language.

Long ago when I was a high school student in Albuquerque, New Mexico, one of my teachers postulated that the English language might become the new “world language”, but that only time would tell.

It does seem now that English is at least a most useful “second language” and perhaps the world’s “language of choice”.

Tomasito

…