A world language

Foreign language study is becoming more attractive due to business opportunities abroad, as mentioned in the article ``As the World Shrinks Executives Hone Language Abilities,'' Dec. 3. But which foreign language is ``best''? In high school students might decide to study Spanish only to learn in later life that they really needed German.

The ideal situation would be for everyone to speak their native language in their own country and to also learn one common international language. This would be good not only for commerce, but for the UN (and UN troops), Olympic meets, and all international affairs.

Each major country believes that its language should be the international language. But these languages are full of irregularities that make them difficult to learn and which put non-native speakers at a disadvantage.

Several million people in more than 70 countries have solved this problem by learning and communicating in the international language Esperanto. Because it is a constructed language, without exceptions, it has already been accepted as ideal for computer translation and is being promoted as a communication medium for the European Union. The savings from dispensing with multiple translations would be enormous. Prenda E. Cook, Harlingen, Texas

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