English is a truly global language crossing many international boundaries. In fact, the English language is so popular; it is spoken in more than a hundred countries and has more than a million words. English has an inherent simplicity and flexibility allowing it to be learnt quickly, cementing English as a global language. As a great example, take the case of Indai. Hindi is the most widely spoken language, yet most people correspond in English. India plays host to many English speaking contact centres and 53% of Nigerians also speak English. English, as a global language, is very popular indeed, but why?
English began its development in Great Britain and was spread across the globe through the Commonwealth nations. It became so influential across the Commonwealth that countries adopted English above and beyond their own languages. Back to the case of India; with more than 22,000 languages and dialects it is perhaps clear why English became so popular and unifying. However, Hindi, being the most widely spoken language in India, never became the national language. Linguistic experts point out that the speed and depth with which the English language became so popular globally is unbelievable.
The major reason as to why the English language is so popular is down to its simplicity and flexibility. For example, compare the number of letters in the alphabet, or number of building block characters a language has. English has 26, Mandarin has 45,000. Similarly, but not as extreme, French, German and Hindi also have more characters than English. Further, English is pretty simple to use, with clear grammatical rules governing nouns, verbs, adjectives etc. Because of these simple under-pinning rules, it is also an easy language to teach. In fact, there are English language schools all over the world which could teach you all manner of English accents.
The main feature of the English language that has made is so popular globally, is the language’s adaptability. The English language has taken on words from many other languages and cultures, giving it its great diversity. There are mnay German, Greek, Latin and French words that have been assimilated by the English language – from avatar, bazaar, bungalow to bandanna and cummerbund.
No matter where you are in the world, English is a global language and once you should really consider mastering. By learning English, you can get a better job, have a better career but more importantly, keep up-to-date with world events and developments. Remember too, that 85% of all written material in the world is written in English – as a good a reason as any to learn it.
To find out more about studying English in England, visit Advice For You.
Wow, this article is naive.
You say English is a simple language, yeah its lost most of its inflections throughout times, and it doesn’t mark a gender difference i.e, masc, fem and neut. But that doesn’t make it easy- so it only has 26 letters (French and German have only a few more), you said it yourself, there’s a ‘million words’ (don’t think there’s quite that many!) in the English Language- does that make it simple? We have an enormous vocab and spelling in English is rather tricky as we pronounce words not how they are spelt. And we have so many irregular verbs that don’t follow a pattern that they are really difficult to learn. Sure, the basics are easy to pick up, but that’s far from being fluent/competent in English, the Oxford Dictionary of Grammar holds over a 1,000 rules.
Oh and it’s listed like 9th in the hardest language to learn in the world.
The MAJOR reason why English is the global language is because of the old British Colony and more recently and more importantly these days, the economic and popular culture of the US. End of. That’s why there’s English schools all over the world, and you’ll probably find they won’t teach you ‘all manner of English accents’ More than likely it will be American English, or Standard English, you definitely won’t be taught in the West Country accent!
“Better job and better career” are the same thing too…few spelling errors.
Poorly written article, suggest you research more in the future and don’t insult us mother tongue speakers!
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Thanks for the praise Erasmo, it’s so nice to hear!
Glad you took our feed too – let us know if there’s anything we can do to improve.
Take care.
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Hi I just wanted to start a new post for everyone to talk about tips, tricks and any problems that you might be encountering. Looking forward to this topic!
Please do not be shy. This will help all of us
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“Further, English is pretty simple to use, with clear grammatical rules governing nouns, verbs, adjectives etc.”
That’s no reason why English is a global language. Latin has many different declensions and conjugations. Though it was a global language.
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Hi Benni.
That’s a good point, but I think the primary factor in Latin being a global language was the dominance of the Roman Empire, which forced the language across the globe.
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