CODE IN TOKYO

English Isn't the Eternal Main Character — The Common Language Changes With the Times

Lately I keep seeing the question: “Is English really going to be necessary from here on?”

Well, I get the feeling.

When I was young, English was treated as almost a “must-have skill.” Especially in IT.

Technical information was in English. Error messages were in English. Overseas documentation was in English. Whatever you looked up, it ended in English.

“I can’t read English” translated directly into an information gap.

So everyone was desperate. TOEIC, conversation lessons, studying abroad — English, English, English.

But looking at it calmly now, the times have changed quite a bit.

Honestly, these days it’s faster to just throw the English at an AI.

Beyond translation, it handles:

The old “training” of reading English with a dictionary in hand has largely disappeared. And before long, AI will surely do simultaneous interpretation, not just translation.

But what I want to say isn’t the simple “AI exists, so English is unnecessary.”

It’s something more fundamental.

Is “English = the world’s common language” really a permanent premise?

The Lingua Franca Has Changed Before

Look at history, and it turns out not to be.

For a long time, for example, the common language of diplomacy and scholarship was French. Treaties, high society, refinement — all in French.

The traces remain everywhere even today. The reason the meters and kilograms we use — those units of measurement — are French in origin is that France was the one “deciding the world standard” back then.

In other words, the common language gets swapped out fairly easily, according to the balance of power of the era. English is the main character simply because this happens to be that kind of era.

“English will be necessary forever” may actually be a pretty mistaken premise.

The Hardest English to Understand Is Native English

And here’s the funny part: even English, the current “main character,” looks a little off when you examine it.

An interpreter once told me that at foreign-affiliated companies and international conferences, the person whose English is hardest to understand is, in fact, the native English speaker.

That made me laugh a little.

Among natives, the abbreviations, slang, jokes, and assumed cultural background are so strong that they’re actually harder for non-natives to catch.

Meanwhile, each country’s non-native English — since everyone’s aim is to “get it across” — is actually easier to understand.

So what actually circulates in global society isn’t “beautiful, native-like English,” but a kind of “broken English” that works as nothing more than a communication protocol.

The “native-sounding English” that schools desperately aim for is, by world standards, closer to a dialect.

The Next Main Character Isn’t a Human Language

Once you get here, the story becomes simple.

What’s demanded of a common language isn’t culture or refinement — only the function of “the meaning gets through.”

And that “function” part is exactly the domain AI seems best at.

Just as French changed into English, the next main character probably isn’t even a human language anymore.

Put in an earpiece and speak: the other person in English, you in Japanese, and the conversation just works.

The common language shifting from “English” to “AI” — maybe it’s only that.

Before long, a time when people say, “Huh? People back then studied English at school for about ten years?” wouldn’t be strange at all.

Who Still Needs It

Of course, there are people who need it.

When communication gets dense, it’s not just the meanings of words — the mood, the sense of distance, “the culture of that moment” all come into play.

This part is still tough for AI alone.

But to put it the other way around: is there really any point in making the entire population uniformly spend thousands of hours on English, even those who don’t need it that much?

Still, then again.

The Japanese are diligent, so even when the common language changes to AI, I suspect we’ll probably still be fighting over the scores of English qualifications.