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Many of us might be thinking why English is our global language? Why not Spanish? Mandarin? or Arabic? Why it has to be English? Around the world there are roughly 6,500 languages spoken today, and if we will look at the data, English doesn't have the most number of native speakers. Based on the data from Babbel Magazine (https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/the-10-most-spoken-languages-in-the-world/) Chinese language has the largest number of native speakers followed by Spanish. There are around 1.2 billion Chinese native speakers and roughly a billion of which speaks Mandarin. On the other hand, English is only third when it comes to number of native speakers. There are around 360 million native English speakers, or about half a billion people who speak it as a second language. But why English became our Global language? Historically speaking, English was once not our global language or "lingua franca". Thousands and thousands years ago, Latin was the most important language in the world with people across Europe, Africa and Asia they were eager to learn it to improve their lives. Then, came French language, nearly thousand of years after the popularity of Latin language, French Language became the international language of politics and trade. Even English kings and queens like Henry VIII spoke and wrote in French most of the time. English started to spread around countries and continents because of colonization and religion. England colonized North America, the Indian Subcontinent, much of the Caribbean and Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. So, the colonized had to learn English and a lot of new English vocabulary came from these new places. Between beating Napoleon and being a winner of the first world war, English got 10 million square miles and 400 million people, leaving new varieties of English to develop all over the world. When each of the countries in the empire won back their independence, speaking English still turned out to be very useful. Not only was it easier to trade with, work in and study in England, but people from these countries could start doing business with each other, too, using English as common language. To this date, English language became stronger and more important. Being able to speak English is not just about being able to communicate with native English speakers, it is the most common second language in the world. If you want to speak to someone from another country then the chances are that you will both be speaking English to do this. English is also the dominant business language and it has become almost a necessity for people to speak English if they are to enter a global workforce. Research from all over the world shows that cross-border business communication is most often conducted in English and many international companies expect employees to be fluent in English. Another reason why English became our global language is that because English isn’t the most taxing language to get to grips with. The vocabulary is simple to grasp and it has developed throughout different languages regarding its evolution that is explained in the article about the history of English language. Therefore, many speakers of those languages can see where concepts in English originated from and fast adapt to understand the basics of English. Although learning English can be challenging and time-consuming, we can see that it is also very valuable to learn and can create many opportunities!
