RAE accepts that it is impossible to displace English as the language of the world

The director of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), Santiago Muñoz Machado recognized that, despite the push and growth of Spanish, especially among students in the world, “it is impossible to displace English as the lingua franca in the world“.

“We have to move forward as the language of international institutions and, in fact, there is now a movement for Spanish to be used as the official language in the Court of The Hague. but it is very difficult to displace the importance of English and French in community institutions“, said the academic in a meeting with the press to gloss the conclusions of the IX Congress of the Language held in Cádiz.

“Sometimes it is said that since England is not a member of the EU, let’s take advantage of it, but English is the lingua franca of Europe and the world. A displacement is impossible, because there is no one either in the big corporations or in the big world politics that does not speak that language“, he remarked.

The academic highlighted that this congress has been held “in a very difficult situation, due to the haste” with which it had to be organized, after the replacement of Arequipa (Peru) as the venue due to the political instability of the Andean country. The director celebrated the joint work of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Instituto Cervantes and the RAE.

“It is undeniable that there have been moments of tension between these institutions that have been resolved as they have been presented and we finished the congress without difficulty and we concluded the congress in a situation of cooperation and good relations,” he declared.

The director of the RAE celebrated that the Spanish language “has become a matter of state”, something that he understands has been made clear throughout this event. “From the Government they are available to help develop important language policies,” she defended.

“But from the point of view of the activity, the RAE is very jealous of our autonomy. We are not a state body and a transformation of the RAE in this sense is not possible, but we are pleased to see that the Government is interested in language as a cultural issue of interest for Spain,” he said.