Knowing the beginnings of English language in the world

Recent investigations show that 402 millions of people have English as their first language, and it is daily used by more than 1000 millions non native speakers of English. According to the British Council this number will continue increasing and by the year 2016 about 2000 millions people will be studying and speaking it, that is to say, half the population of the planet. Very soon, probably in a few generations, and for the first time in the history of human race all of us will be able to communicate with a single language in the world.

That is the biggest blow for worldwide civilization, in the last 25 years. In most of the parts of the planet English is spoken at least a little bit, so that, if you go whenever you want you are going to be able to “survive” and communicate with people. This expansion is a truly “earthquake” in the history if humanity and one of the most important events which has happened in history since the birth of language. No language before had achieved the universality that English has got and it is the first time in history that we can talk about a predominant language in the world.

English language is one of the easiest languages which can be learnt and this is one of the reasons why it prevailed in the United States. The German descendants were really numerous at that time in North America, but English was easiest and finally it was the victorious!

Relevant language in the world of business an travelling

If we are thinking about getting a job English is really important because nowadays most of the companies and businesses have international customers who prefer talking in English in order to sign agreements, solve incidences and problems, etc., instead of using their own native languages.

But if what you really feel like is travelling and understand local citizens stop worrying anymore about that! Most of the people in the world know English and even if you have a high level and the other people have a lower one communication will be possible. But you don’t necessarily have to travel abroad if what you want is speaking English, nowadays due to immigration and people moving from countryside to the city, even living in Spain speaking a common language as English is really important.

Let’s see a clearer example and think about India, which is a place where people from different places live and many languages coexist. The solution for that was to choose English as the main used language in that country, so that, there are many different nationalities but all of them know how to speak and interact in English. Everybody there can take part in discussions, having a chat with talkative shopkeepers and make a lot of friends there. 

Is it really important speaking English?

It has been carried out a worldwide survey which studies and examines how English is learned in each country. At the same time this investigation also looks at the importance of English language in the world, not only for professional opportunities, but also for the economic development of a concrete nation.

Only one English exam has been elaborated and done via Internet by students from all around the world who have wanted to collaborate with the investigation. More than 2 millions of students have participated in this test. Thanks to that examination a classification has been set where we can see the different levels of English in each country which took part in the test.

The first countries in the list with a very high level of English are Northern European countries such as Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, followed by Germany, Poland, France, Japan, Portugal, Argentina; and the in the number 36 of the list we find Spain. Thanks to that chart where we can see the positions each country has according to its level of English, we realize that Spanish are bad at English even being a developed country and having millions of children and young people studying English everyday.

Speaking English is necessary for globalization, it is also the key for foreign investments, or if you want to have an interesting and well-paid job a perfect command of this language is needed. To sum up, nowadays the knowledge of English has become a basic requirement instead of a simple advantage for people.

English may be considered to be a bridge language

What does it mean ‘English as a bridge language’? Could it mean that in order to build a viaduct an engineer has to know English? Or what? The truth is that English could be considered to be a bridge-language because it may help two people from different nationalities, consider a Russian and a Moroccan person. If they don’t know each other languages how can they communicate? By gestures? By sign language?

At his moment is when English goes into action and both, the Russian and the Moroccan can understand each other by speaking English as a lingua franca or as bridge language. It is for this reason why little by little more educative institutions set up English as a compulsory subject in primary and secondary schools, because it highly probable it will be useful for most of the people sooner or later in the course of their lives.