If you understand this universal language, you can translate all the beautiful treasure, beautiful literature, all the things that you want to say about your country, you can write it in English, and all the whole world will know about it. For example, if English is official, all the world will know about it.
I wish that in the whole world, we speak only one language, it’s more convenient. One language, but also with native languages. I wrote a letter to the EU Parliament president. I praised the EU for all their achievements and all their generosity, and all their beautiful policies, which helps to make Europe a better place, and better welfare for all the citizens, for many citizens. The EU, they are good. They are doing their best for humanity, and they really take care of what they can. So I praised them for that. Because they helped many under-developed countries. And then I said, “In my humble opinion, it would have been much better if, at least, all the EU member nations learned one language, apart from their native language.” I didn’t say abandon all the native languages. It’s not that, it’s not. No. Because the EU has many languages, the Europeans have many languages, and even then, they can accomplish a lot. Can you imagine if all the member nations speak just one language? It’s easy to understand each other, and quicker to make decisions. But the EU opinion is that they want diversity, unity in diversity, which is very beautiful, and they respect all the cultures and languages which is beautiful. I’ve never heard anything more beautiful than that, but we could preserve our culture and learn one extra language. We need it anyway.
I see them speak English all the time in the meeting of the parliament or elsewhere. So why not just choose one language? I said, “Choose it by vote.” I wrote in my letter: “We can vote openly to choose one language.” Asking all the people who vote for it, so that the EU will not sound like it’s discriminating... like they prefer English and look down upon Polish, or look down upon French. We can vote. We can list all the languages and see what the population votes for which language the most voted, then we will choose that language as an official language for the EU. And the rest is the same. And by that, we still can communicate with each other easier. When you learn English from childhood, you speak like English. It’s easier. And then you can communicate with any of all the other nations, and still can learn the beauty of that nation through understanding already of each other. It’s easier that way, in my humble opinion.
Because, let’s face it, the most intelligent person cannot learn all the languages in his lifetime. However much he respects all cultures and languages, however much he loves to be able to speak all languages. It’s not very possible. You’re busy with many other things. Your brain has a limited capacity. Above all, your time. Life is short. So that’s why I encourage all of you to study English, even though it’s not voted as an official language in the EU or any other union, but it’s easier, and it’s, more or less, very universal. So, we don’t vote, we just learn English! How about that? I vote. One vote only.
It would be easier if I speak English with the Peruvians. You see, immediately we can understand each other, and then we can begin a friendship from there. And then, even if I don’t understand Peruvian, she can tell me all the beauties of her country in English, and I can tell her all the beauties of my country in my language, in English. And then from there we go, begin the friendship with the same language and then I can study more Peruvian language or she can study more Aulacese (Vietnamese) language, if she chooses so, if she has time. She might choose to learn Polish instead. I would not be offended. And she might choose to learn French to know the French culture. I would not feel insulted, because I also understand her in English. I don’t see any problem in speaking one universal language and learning another native language by choice. Learn it from childhood already in the school, double languages, every country, the official language and their native language. I don’t see the harm in that. Do you? (No.)
And then if you understand this universal language, you can translate all the beautiful treasure, beautiful literature, all the things that you want to say about your country, you can write it in English, and all the whole world will know about it. For example, if English is official, all the world will know about it. Everybody wants to know about Peru. They will read it and say, “Wow! Peru is great!” “Peru is really, really ancient and really cultured, really good spiritual people.” “I like Peruvians. I’ll go to Peru. I’ll study more about Peruvians.” “I married a Peruvian; I’ll stay there,” for example. Then we have a choice, you see? And if he doesn’t feel like Peruvian culture appeals to him, he will turn to French and read all about France, in English. And he will think, “Oh, it sounds better.” And then if he likes it he goes to France, marries, and has French children. For example. Or then if he still doesn’t like it, he will turn to Spain, and read all about Spanish literature, culture, history. And then he likes it or not, and he goes to Malaga and stays in the center, being a monk or whatever. It’s OK? Understand, everybody?
So I see it’s more beneficial if we have one official language. And I said that... In the letter, I said that Esperanto was a very good idea, even though not all people approved it. Then we don’t need to learn more languages, we have already too many languages. So we just make an open vote, all the EU members, all the EU people vote for what language, the easiest for them, convenient. It doesn’t matter if you speak English as an official language or not; you’re all EU already, aren’t we there for unity? So, it doesn’t matter what language is chosen. We’re all EU, we are not English, we are not Polish, we are not any more. We should say we are EU. Then it doesn’t matter which language is chosen. It’s among us, right? And we just choose one by the most voted and announce it to everybody. And then we learn that, I think, in my humble opinion.
You see the EU concept is almost like us, We also respect diverse culture. So we have Peruvians here to prove it and we have Mexicans, and we have all kinds of people here: Germans, English, Polish, (Colombian.) Colombian even, oh dear, so far away. And we have Puerto Rican, we have Portuguese. We have all kinds here. But it would be nice if we understand each other in the first instant. Then we can share with each other whatever we want. Without having to wait for one more year until I can talk to you. “Wait, wait there!” “I will learn Portuguese in one year and I’ll come back.” “You wait for me. OK?” “I’ll marry you but wait one year!” Actually, language is not all that necessary; love is the most necessary. But the thing is, if we could express love and opinions and our beauty through a universal language, there would be more peace, more harmony, and more love among mankind.
So I advise you, even you are French, you are German, you are Spanish; you let your kid learn English, privately, if they don’t have it in school, learn English, OK? My father was a French educated person, but he told me, “Learn English.” I love French. When I was young we were French influenced at that time in my era, and I love French. It really sounds very nice, I said, “I want to learn French.” And I spoke. I learned some French and my father said, “Your French is like those remote islanders somewhere.” He said to me, “You should learn English.” He said, “You will have more use of it in the future.” He predicted that, can you imagine? A man who never traveled outside of Âu Lạc (Vietnam), who learned French since he was young, French educated, advised me to learn English. He doesn’t speak it. He doesn’t know English. But he knows a lot. My father’s very wise. I can see it now!
Everywhere, in every country, at least some people speak English. Just my taxi driver now, he understands my English, we speak in English. First, I spoke a few, couple of words in broken Spanish, but then he spoke English. And I said, “Ah, thank you, very nice!” And then I am able to tell him how I like Malaga; it’s beautiful, the sea is so nice, the architecture is so beautiful. I think I like it very much. And he understood that I like his country and he loves it, we’re both very happy! And he communicated with me in English also, he said he also likes London, he would like to go there, which place he should visit and all that, so we get on perfectly well! You see how important it is! Just a few words and the guy was so happy. He almost drove me here for free. But I gave him his fare and a lot of tips. Because he’s a good guy. He’s so young, he speaks very good English, but he humbly drives a taxi, he’s happy about it. He said, “As long as I earn my good money, I don’t care what work.” He’s so young. He’s finished college, I don’t know what, but he speaks very good English, so young, looks intelligent and clean. And I just offered from behind, I offered him a chewing gum. Because I wanted to take one for myself, I didn’t have a chance to clean my teeth. I worried that I smell bad for you. So I took a chewing gum in the box, and I offered him one and he said, “No! No!” And he looked and said, “Ah, OK, chewing gum, OK.” He worried if I gave him cigarette. “It’s good you don’t smoke, good boy! Good boy!” He said “Never!” I said, “I also never!” I said, “I also never smoke, it’s no good.” So we were happy, very happy because of English.
Most people who study in the school, they know some English. Even just a simple conversation, people feel they’re connected. The inner connection takes a longer time! See how long it takes between me and you. So for Pete’s sake, do make an outer connection first. Even if we speak English together as English persons, we still sometimes could misunderstand. Can you imagine how we understand each other if we speak so many different languages? And every language expresses differently! For example, if I just ask you, “Where am I?” “Where are we?” I don’t mean I’m not in Malaga, I don’t mean I’m lost here. I mean what have we been talking about up to now? So how long does it take you to learn all these hidden nuances of English, if you don’t learn it from childhood? Or any language, I mean, just English for instance. Even English is very simple already; it takes long years to understand all these nuances. So, how would we be able to understand each other if we wait until we are big and then start to learn another language? It’s possible, but you cannot learn all! So it would be better if all the countries get together and vote for one language. Not just the EU, but then the EU will start it from here and everybody joins in, just learn one language.
