Teach English in Lockerbie - TEFL Courses

It is pretty safe to assume that english is the most widely used second language in the world today. Therefore it already has a head start over other languages in functioning as a true global language. One could even argue that it already is the global language since it will probably serve you the best as a communicative tool in the world in general, without any specific place with its native language in mind. I don't want to get caught up in semantics, but in the true sense of the words a global language would be a language that anyone in the world would be able to communicate in. Even english is not quite there yet. If there really is to come one language to serve this purpose, I am sure some people would argue differently besides english. Maybe they would like it to be spanish, or chinese, etc. Although the chinese language has more native speakers, it also has more disadvantages over english in becoming a true global language, besides the head start that was mentioned earlier. The Roman alphabet is already the most widely used alphabet in the world. Many seemingly very different languages make use of the roman alphabet. It is a phonetic alphabet and therefore represents sounds instead of concepts, as character based alphabets do. Native speakers using character based alphabets in general seem to learn the Roman alphabet more easily than vice versa, probably mostly due to this characteristic. spanish is of course also a widely used international language. Even in an english speaking country such as the U.S. spanish is recognized as the second language. Still in most other parts of the world it is hardly spoken at all (Asia, Africa, the Middle East) and english is. It is safe to say that in most aspects the english language is serving as the global language, be it politically, diplomatically, journalistically, formally and informally, business wise, etc. The rise of one language serving all these purposes is a truly new phenomenon and is unprecedented in world history. Other languages have been widely used at some point in history, some of them still are, but never on a scale as broad as english is being used now. Popular culture is another clear example of how english is being spread around the globe. english spoken music is being played all over the world, particularly appealing to young people. Movies and television shows are another example, although these are frequently dubbed in another language to appeal to a large part of the earth's population that doesn't speak english yet. As time progresses and the world is increasingly becoming a global community, more and more people feel the need to communicate with one another across the border. english is clearly the language of choice for this purpose, if the parties concerned don't share the same native language. In my opinion, if there ever is to be an official global language, english would be the obvious choice, due to all the arguments mentioned before. It is even widely perceived as a beautiful and poetic language, but this will always depend on personal preferences. Sources: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/271148/how_english_became_a_global_language.html?cat=37 http://www.hmpenglishonline.com/nadkarni2.pdf