Why is English a universal language? Why couldnt it be Russian or Australian?

Question

Who made it a universal language?

Should the Universal language should have been French, or German?

Answer 1

It's called the US Dollar. The US economy is worldwide, so the language goes with it. You can't negotiate with an American company in Russian, and, at least the last time I checked, Australia speaks English. France's and Germany's economies don't have anywhere near the power of the US economy.

But the US economy just followed behind the centuries of British economic power (they speak English, too). The British Navy, following the emotional uplift of the defeat of the Spanish Armada ruled the seas and America just took over after British power waned in the 20th century.

Answer 2

Look at history. Britain was the largest imperial nations. They had the largest number of colonies. They spread their language in India, America and so many many countries.
When America got free, English was its language. So with all that technological development America made lately English got a further boost. Anyone who had to trade with America had to learn English for better negotiations. This is how English gained a strong foothold.
French and Russian couldn't establish all this. However In the former french colonies and USSR, these two languages are still dominant. Why, Germany is spoken all over Europe, which is a consequence of a strong German impact over Smaller European nations.
Today, however as Asian countries are growing economically English is on a run to absorb all the Asian words for which there are no translations. In India people call it Hinglish which is a mix of Hindi (local language and English which is very popular over there). So the impact of English will get decreased overtime and a mixed language is likely to get developed in due time.

Hope this helped.

TW K

Answer 3

Australian ??? Don't they speak English in Australia ?

French used to be the universal language a long time ago, even the English Royal family liked people to speak French at that time.
English spread with the great English Empire (colony) and then became universal language.

Answer 4

Couple of things going on- For economic reasons, English is the lingua franca of business. So in most hotels in the world, you can speak the local language or English.

However, French is still the official language of diplomacy. Sure, about 1/100 of 1% of the people are diplomats, but it's still so.

Many people in the world speak Russian, and that makes it an important language, but not so many Russians are in international business; those that are may use English a lot.

And Australian IS English. Though, like Sam Clemens wryly pointed out, "The British and Americans are two peoples separated by a common language."

I guess it depends on what you're doing, but I don't think you can go wrong in English. Does the USA have flaws? Sure, but speaking English isn't one of them.

Answer 5

When Germany was once essentially the most complicated technical country on the earth, within the early 1900s, it was once a common language. In the mid 1800s, French was once the common language due to the fact that they have been main the best way within the arts and sciences. Now it is English, due to the fact that America has the biggest quantity of scientists global, and in combination, America, England, Canada, and different English speakme countries have nearly all of the worlds monetary energy. By the best way, they talk English in Australia.

Answer 6

English is a universal language because of the british empire ruling over so much of the earth.

Answer 7

England was a bigger empire with more colonies, North America, India, Australia, South Africa so English got spread more around the world.

Where as the other powers didn't do so much/as much spreading so not as common.

France had the Carribean, Northern Africa, and parts of South America

Spain had the Caribean, South and Central America.

Germany and Russia were somewhat land locked (had fewer ports compared to Spain, England, France) so they could not spread around the world as quickly.

Answer 8

I think it is because of victory in WWI and WWII.