While reading “The World is Flat” by Thomas Friedman, I realized something incredibly frightening: Countries that speak English will gain a substantial advantage over those that don’t in this new era of globalization. In this article, I will try to give my conclusions for the more hidden effects of globalization on especially the  Continental European countries, and how to counter them:

• Detachment from Productivity Improvements
• Intellectual Isolation
• Isolation from Talent Pools 

This article is available for download at http://www.juergenheuer.com/articles/TheHiddenCostofLanguage.pdf. It is also available in German at http://www.juergenheuer.com/articles/DieverstecktenKostenderSprache.pdf.