A new book by Robert McCrum charts the rise of English as the predominant global language, but not everyone is pleased by this development.
French resistance is well known.
In Germany, there’s a campaign to promote German as the language of ideas (The Economist reports) and there’s sensitivity over some imported words.
I had never thought about the origins of ‘blockbuster’ before – it’s apparently a 1942 coinage for city-destroying bombs.
UPDATE: Germany has won this year’s Eurovision Song Contest – with a song sung in English.
Bologna 2010 