Putting Philosophy back in the marketplace!
The Stoa is a pub philosophy group. We meet at the The Bohemian on the Sea Front in Deal, Kent, UK every 1st Wednesday of the month from 7.30pm to 9pm.
You don't have to have studied philosophy or do any preparatory reading—you just need an open and enquiring mind.
All welcome. Just bring your brains and some beer money!
You can contact us at: east.kent.stoa@gmail.com
or on Facebook
The Stoa is essentially a conversation and discussion group and NOT a lecture series, course or reading group. We put up some reading each month on the website but this is just for interest. Feel free to browse but don’t feel an obligation to read any of the stuff. Just come along to the topics that interest you. You don’t have to be prepared on any of the topics or to have studied philosophy before.
What's on at the Stoa...
Mind Your Language!
Wednesday 5 August 2026
7:30pm — 9:00pm at The Bohemian
In the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis chapter 11 God punishes mankind for their hubris in trying to build a tower to heaven. It is envisaged that originally mankind had only a single language and that punishment took the form of destroying the tower and then fracturing their linguistic homogeneity. Multiple languages meant they couldn’t communicate and so they couldn’t cooperate. It is easy to see why ancient people would experience multiple languages as a curse and a punishment. It would become difficult to ascertain whether another tribe was hostile or friendly and it would be very difficult to negotiate prices when you want to trade.
It was traditionally believed that as a result of the fall of the tower there were originally 72 languages but the reality today is that there are about 6,000 languages. I say ‘about’ as it is difficult to make a hard distinction between a language and a dialect. About 500–10,000 of these languages are spoken by only a handful of people and they are dying off at a rate of 250 a decade. Experts say that by the year 3000 just 600 languages will be left.
What is striking is that while ancient people would view fewer languages as a blessing, in the modern world many think the death of a minority language is a tragedy. For instance the linguist David Crystal considers the death of languages as equivalent to the loss of biodiversity in nature and thinks that we all suffer cultural loss as a result. On the other hand the writer Kenan Malik in his article ‘Let Them Die’ considers that if a language is not fulfilling its function as a means of communication then there is no benefit in keeping it alive artificially.
It’s true that in the past suppressing a community’s language has been a powerful means of social and political control but should governments today be financing programmes for supporting a secondary language that only a small minority are using.
In the British Isles and Ireland we have seven indigenous languages but not a lot of speakers:
Scots: 1.5 million
Welsh: 538,300
Irish (Northern Ireland): 228,600
Ulster Scots: 190,000
Scottish Gaelic: 57,600
Cornish: fewer than 1,000
Manx: 2,000
Shouldn’t we just treat these languages as hobbies for those who are interested? Should the BBC be spending money on Welsh programming for only half a million citizens?
In contrast to many European countries the UK is 85%–90% monoglot. In the Netherlands over 90% speak at least one foreign language. In Sweden it’s around 85–90%, and in Germany it’s around 60–70%. Is this grounds for national shame?
Language teaching in the UK is now on the national curriculum but schools report problems in specialist teacher recruitment and university courses have reduced.
But does this matter? After all English has become the de facto international language. It is used in shipping, air transport, technical documentation and so many other areas of life. So why should we Brits be bothered about speaking their language when they can all speak ours?
Or are there other reasons for learning another language? Does it change your view of the world? Does your personality change when you are immersed in another language?
Let’s talk about language this month!
These are topics we've covered so far... Drop us a line to tell us what you'd like to talk about in future.