Lucky Native English Speakers

People who speak English as their first language often forget how lucky they are that they conveniently are able to perfectly speak the world's most important language. English speakers take for granted the fact that they are fluent in the international language of business, the international language of computers, technology and the internet and the dominant language in mainstream television, music and books. English speakers can not imagine having to learn an entirely different language in order to become internationally successful in business, entertainment, or science.

Beginning with the domination of the British empire of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, and more significantly with their domination of the telegraph industry, English became widely spread and spoken in many parts of the world. Just as Britain began to lose it's foothold, thereby threatening the proliferation of English as an up and coming world language, the United States emerged as a new world superpower who conveniently for Britain, used English as their dominant language.

At the forefront of technological innovation, world commerce, and entertainment, the United States solidified the use of English as the worlds most popular and most widely spoken language. It remains the international language of communication and it is expected that by 2016, over 2 billion people will be learning or speaking it.

However, as the world economy begins to shift from West to East, Mandarin may be in a good position to shake the foundations of this English speaking empire. Currently by numbers, there are more people who actually speak mandarin and it is expected that this number will only continue to grow as the Asian economy becomes more and more important on the global stage. An interesting thought is expressed in the Thussu book when it suggests that the emerging global English of the future may have an Asian inflection to it.

Thussu, Daya Kishan. “The Historical Context of International Communication.” International Communication: Continuity and Change. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. 163-166.


**Special Note**
This issue is especially important in my life as I will be traveling to Taiwan in May to teach English as a foreign language and learn Mandarin Chinese. My Uncle is head of languages at school of continuing studies at University of Toronto and has been studying Mandarin from the age of 7 years old. Currently my cousin lives in Shanghai where she has been living for 3 years working with an NGO (the Jane Goodall Foundation) and learning Mandarin Chinese.