Why is english the global language?

Answer 1

the most dominated countries USA AND UK people speak in english..

Answer 2

Because the US was on the winning side in World War 2 and incorporated the spread of English in its ideas for the New World Order and the American Dream.

See Professor Robert Phillipson's book Language Imperialism to start to get some understanding of how this worked. The CIA and the British Council seem to have been involved.

Why wasn't it Esperanto? Because Esperanto didn't have the resources behind it to undermine the opposition in the way that the Neocons had.

But Esperanto's 'inner idea' - that no ethnic group should rule another - is the stronger philosophy. When the truth is out on the 9/11 cover-up, and the Middle East wars have been brought to an end, the World will have a rethink. Esperanto will then be an attractive idea across the Middle East and probably all over the World.

Estu paco.

Answer 3

The British empire was very strong back in the day and had influence in a good portion of the world and before it had a chance to die out and be replaced by another group who spoke something other than English the United States stepped up and took the place of Great Britain. No country has really stepped up to the plate of trying to change the universal business language from English yet.

Answer 4

It wasn't intentional.

But in the early 20th century England became a super-power. This started schools all over the European continent to begin giving British English classes. Keep in mind that, at this point in time, England still owned a lot of territory outside of Europe and is was usually required for the people in those territories to speak English as well.

Then, in the 1950s America became a super-power. This, in turn, led to countries on North and South America to begin teaching English to their students.

Since Japan recently became a super-power, I think almost 40 years ago now, I'm sure that soon more and more people will be speaking Japanese.

It's all about who has "control".

Answer 5

Hi, most of the answers you have already are right- regarding colonialism and economic power. The only one that isn't is that English is easy. Many languages are easier than English. If you think about it, even people who have heard and studied and used English, and only English, every day of their lives rarely have it perfectly mastered by the end of 12 years of schooling.
When the (first) world is ready to take a more fair approach to languages, we can all learn Esperanto in the first half of primary school and take a heavy burden from linguistic minorities worldwide.

Answer 6

Among the cultural reasons English is one of the more precise languages. In areas where communication is critical, such as air traffic control, English is used because of it's precision. Any language can be precise if you understand the cultural nuances of the language, but English is fairly nuance free when spoken by most people. Even people learning the language early on can clearly understand the commands and they are clear.
Culturally many of the technologically important items like flight, television, computers, and radio were developed in the English speaking part of the globe. To deal with the people who were developing them one had to speak English. The terms, manuals, and support were in English. Except for countries that felt this was an affront to their countries dignity the terms have been kept.

Answer 7

I would say that English has become the global language because at one time the sun literally never set on the British Empire then, the American economic empire spread and imbedded the language even more so.

Answer 8

Some of the above answers take for granted things that are not true. It is not true that English is easy. Most non English speaking youths, after 7 years of English in school, with 4 or 5 hours a week, can only stammer a few phrases in it. In a research made in Hanover, Germany, among 3700 students who had had 8 to 10 years of English, only 1% attained the "very good" level and 4% the "good" level. The great majority (96%) were not even "good". There is an incredible disproportion between the amount of time and effort invested and the poor result. And this is valid for the whole world.

On the other hand it's not true that Chinese is that difficult. In Chinese, if you know how to say "to be", you don't have to learn more words such as "is", "are", "am", "were", "was", etc. If you know how to say " I ", you automatically know how to form "me", "mine", "my", "we", "our", "ours", etc. Chinese is a consistent, rational language, which English is not.

The reason why English is the chief language today is called "money". The US economy is the first economy in the world. The US was not destroyed during WW2, as were Europe, China and the Pacific Islands. So it went on prospering. Those who have money want to keep and increase their wealth, so it's natural that the US acted to promote its language, since language plays a primordial role in influencing the way people think, and thus the way they spend their money. There has been a well defined US and UK policy, with huge amounts earmarked to it, to promote English all through the world. It has largely succeeded.

I like English, but I regret I've had to devote so much time and effort to learn it, which I could have used to study more interesting things. I also regret it is used as a global language. It's extremely unfair to the 95% of the world population who don't have it as their mother tongue, and to the millions and millions of youths who have to sweat for many years, all over the world, trying to attain a good level in the language, and realize gradually that they'll never reach that goal. (If nobody hears about them in English speaking countries, it's precisely because they don't have the language that could enable them to make their voices heard).

Esperanto, which was mentioned in another answer, can be mastered after a few months. It is much fairer. Just have a look at "Why Esperanto since we have, by default, a world language, English" < http://claudepiron.free.fr/articlesenanglais/whyesperanto.htm >. In my contacts with the whole world, I use Esperanto more than English and find this extremely pleasant. In English, I'll never feel secure as I feel in Esperanto, and I'll never avoid the risk of being laughed at because of my accent or the mistakes I make, a risk which I don't have in Esperanto, a foreign language for all.

The success of English in the world is also based on series of deceptions that are well explained in and that are self-strengthening and self-propagating.

Answer 9

English is so widespread because England was the home of the industrial revolution. Using their superior technology and weaponry, they spread English-ness all over the globe.

I think the British Empire covered about a quarter of the world's surface at it's height. Even if you weren't ruled by england, English was still where it was at.

Answer 10

Several reasons. (Some of these are just my opinion, of course)

1. The British Empire spread the English language to the 4 corners of the planet.

2. After WW2, the USA became big brother to the rest of the world.

3. Because the USA is one of the leaders of the global economy. (IOW, people from foriegn countries learn English just to operate an international business.)

4. Because English is fairly easy to learn. It is hard to learn how to spell and learn our stupid idioms, but it is easier to learn than a lot of other languages, such as Chinese.

5. Because a lot of people see America as "cool." Teenagers from other countries want to speak English because of the cool things we have and offer. Such as movies.

6. Because a lot of people hate us, and they need to learn English to plot against us.

7. ETC..............

Answer 11

It depends on who is considered the leader in world technology development and world trade. I don't believe English is considered the international language. It might have been at one time, but Japanese are the upcoming world trade leaders, so Japanese would be your best bet for international language.

However if you wish to remain in the know within the United States, it might be wise to learn Spanish.