The Bible story of the Tower of Babel has meaning for peacemakers. The account in Genesis can be interpreted as a myth to explain the origin of multiple languages, reflecting how they developed from the extinct Akkadian language, the lingua franca in Babylon. In other words, the ultimate failure, with the passage of time, of lingua francas such as Latin or French.
Many people would think that mastery of English as the supposed universal language – the lingua franca – of international trade and diplomacy in today’s global world is an essential skill of peacemakers.
Not so,
it seems. ‘A peace-building proposal
presented in a lingua franca is perceived as less favorable to one’s own side
than a proposal presented in one’s native tongue,’ conclude three academics
from the University of Chicago and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In other
words, the use of a lingua franca can result in alienation rather than creating
goodwill and harmony.
Their thinking is based on three experimental studies, the
results of which were published in 2023 by the Journal of Conflict
Resolution. ‘Specifically, our studies demonstrated that the use of a
lingua franca elicits higher levels of hatred and lower levels of sympathy,
thereby reducing the perceived favorability of the proposal. Broadly, these
findings indicate that the seemingly innocuous choice of the language could
have serious implications for conflict resolution as well as for international
diplomacy.’
So the revelation in July 2025 by the UK’s Higher Education
Policy Institute (Hepi) that more A-level students are now taking physical
education than French, German and classical languages combined, lays bare a ‘catastrophic
decline’ in formal language learning. Language teacher recruitment consistently
falls well below government targets – in 2024, just 43% of the target was
reached.
That is bad news for those who hold that foreign language
skills and cultural sensitivity are essential tools for peacemakers.
As the joint 1993 Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela
put it: ‘If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his
head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.’
Pictured is Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s 1563 painting of the unfinished Tower of Babel, from Wikipedia.
If you are interested in the history of early America, and Roger Conant as a peacemaker in troubled times you can join the Devon Peacemaker Festival Facebook group at
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