Mr Jeremy Fisher was reclining on a huge water lily leaf in the moat surrounding Chateau Artigny in France. He was alert but not alarmed knowing that the French are pretty partial to frogs legs and snails for that matter, but never-the -less he was going to enjoy his day and fortunately the chateau was pretty secluded from the local rabble. There were hundreds of his compatriots in the moat and they lived an idyllic life, playing around with the trout and hassling the silly ducks. Just as well Jemima Puddleduck wasn’t here to see the way those tiny frogs taunted the ducks, but when you are a visitor to a country you only see things superficially thought Mr Jeremy Fisher, maybe there was true harmony here.

Benjamin Bunny was nibbling on some very sweet clover under the four hundred year old box trees and Peter Rabbit had just returned from the veggie patch with the smallest and tastiest little carrots. All was well with the world in the Loire Valley in sunny France. The ducks were quacking, the bees humming and the fish were swimming through the murky water of the moat. Down the road the sunflowers were putting on a blinding show as they chased old Mr Sunshine. Foxgloves in all the shades of the pink palette were providing a great source of nectar for the bumbling bees. Life was pure and simple.

The friends were resting, as it was a “down day” They were quite exhausted after eighty five, plus, days on the road travelling through some eighteen countries. They had seen and heard so much that their brains were a bit like jelly, pretty wobbly and given that their mission in life was to entertain wee Ava and her soon to be born little cousin they were thinking of all the stories they needed to work on.

They had heard so many stories and so many new ideas but some of them they didn’t comprehend as it was in a language they had never heard and written in script they had never previously seen. Too confusing, for two bunnies and a frog, they all agreed.

“Why is it that we have travelled some twenty thousand kilometres and everywhere we go people speak a different language and sometimes they don’t even use the letters of the English alphabet?”, asked Peter Rabbit. It makes it so hard to understand the world he thought. And in some countries they have many dialects. You know people in Switzerland might speak French, German, Italian or Romansh. In the Stans countries there is a lot written in Russian, as well as Kyrgyz, Uzbek and Turkmeni.

“Yes” agreed Benjamin Bunny “ in western China the Uyghurs don’t speak Cantonese or Mandarin. Someone said in Mandarin there are more than 56,000 characters, lucky we use an alphabet with only 26 letters”.

“I love the Arabic script” said Jeremy. “It looks so pretty”. “Yep like calligraphy really”

“I think everyone in the world should all speak the same language” said Benjamin Bunny.

The knowledgeable Mr Jeremy Fisher then went into a long exposé about Esperanto and the attempt of one thoughtful man, in 1887, to create a single, simple second language which would encourage world peace. The meaning of Esperanto is “one who hopes” but it hasn’t been taken up by many.

“How come we don’t all speak Esperanto?” asked Peter Rabbit

The thoughtful Mr Jermey Fisher took a deep breath, shifted his skinny body into a Rodin like thinker’s pose and explained in great detail, why people don’t speak one language. The abridged version went something like this.

In olden days people lived in smaller tribal communities which were pretty isolated so language developed and evolved with each little tribe developing its own language and later a written code. Today the communication and travel infra structure means that most communities are not isolated but people by nature want to be different and to maintain the their differences and identity which is celebrated though language and script.

If you look at the animal kingdom, each species of animals has distinct communication system. Frogs croak, cows moo, cats meow and dogs bark.

People seek differences and diversity. They love to show their affiliations the way they dress, speak and the even though the cars they drive.

“Just look at this little MG convoy. By driving MGs the gang have tapped into the MG family and wherever they have gone we have seen this….in China, Italy, Switzerland, Greece and in the UK doors have been opened and suddenly there is acceptance. I reckon that language is like this. It is a symbol of belonging and makes you feel part of a tribe which gives you a sense of belonging. A universal language would deny people this”.

Sounds plausible thought the bunnies. “We better get focussed and start working on our stories for Ava” said Peter Rabbit, so off they went to the oak panelled dining room where no one would spy them and they could really tackle the task at hand.