For many years now, English has been the dominant language of business.

In the near
future, if you believe investment guru Jim Rogers, Mandarin will take that place of
domination.

I suppose it's a good thing to have a single language that can be used throughout
the world. As things now stand, you can find someone who understands English in
almost every country on earth. This eases communication problems for travelers and
business people alike, as they can rely on their English skills to at least get by
when visiting a foreign country.

So whether the lingua franca is English, Mandarin, or anything else, it is a

convenient tool.

But when that tool supplants native languages, as seems to be happening in Hong
Kong, then we have to pay attention to the influence of the lingua franca.

According to the New York Times, Cantonese-speaking parents in Hong Kong are
raising their children to speak only English, even when the parents' English skills
are less than perfect.

The reason? To help the children get into a "prestigious international school."

More and more, ambitious parents in Hong Kong are giving their children a head-
start in English by putting them into English-speaking play groups, kindergartens
and international schools.

Some of these parents have been speaking English to their children since they were
born, with the result that they don't understand any Cantonese, or any of the
Cantonese nursery rhymes and songs that have been passed down from generation to
generation.

If Mandarin ever does become the world's lingua franca, I would hope it doesn't do
so at the expense of other languages. But sadly, we already see this happening in
China and Taiwan, where some languages are dying out due to the predominance of
Mandarin.
other. Really, no other language is in a position to satisfy this need.

English � The Most Important Language Worldwide

March 26
17:322014
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??by Carolin Dudda 0 Comments
ENGLISH, ALSO CALLED THE LANGUAGE OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION, IS SAID TO BE THE
MOST IMPORTANT LANGUAGE WORLDWIDE. BUT WHY EXACTLY IS ENGLISH SO NECESSARY TODAY?
Chinese, Spanish and English are the most spoken languages on earth, but regardless
of this, one of them especially emerges not only in number of speakers but also in
influence and international importance, English.
More than two billion people all over the world speak English and that number
increases everyday. Being an English speaker has many benefits and there are many
reasons learn English. Studies have shown, that the presence of English language
skills are related to social and economic indicators, such as income and other
factors. With this in mind in Chile the amount of foreign language speakers is
surprisingly low. Only 4% of Chileans can speak English.
Ok so why is English actually so important anyways? English has special or
official status in more than 75 countries and is spoken as a first language by more
than 375 million people. It is also the most commonly used language among foreign
language speakers. Throughout the world, when people with different languages come
together they mostly use English to communicate.
Furthermore it is the most dominant language of diplomacy, business and science,
economy, computer and internet. It should also be noted that more than 90% of
websites are written and created in English with 80% of the data stored in the
computers around the world is in English. If you do not speak English this is a
lot of information that won�t have access to. An impressive 36% of the internet
users communicate in English.
Today a good knowledge in English belongs to the most important requirements in
many professions. A person that speaks English well also has a better chance of
finding a good job abroad. Many multi-national companies when dealing with cross-
border business communication will do it in English.
Apart from that, it is the language of art, the film industry, musics and books.
Knowing English opens up a great range of entertainment possibilities and the
ability to immerse yourself in new worlds of cultural understanding.
There is good news for all those who want to improve their English language skills.
English is said to be the easiest language of the world to learn.
The EF (Education First) English Proficiency Index (3. Edition) analysed the
English language knowledge of 60 countries all over the world, and they listed
their findings.
VERY HIGH PROFICIENCY MODERATE PROFICIENCY LOW PROFICIENCY VERY LOW
PROFICIENCY
1 Sweden
2 Norway
3 Netherlands
4 Estonia
5 Denmark
6 Austria
7 Finland
8 Poland
9 Hungary
10 Slovenia
11 Malaysia
12 Singapore
13 Belgium
14 Germany
15 Latvia
16 Switzerland
17 Portugal 18 Slovakia
19 Argentina
20 Czech Republic
21 India
22 Hong Kong SAR
23 Spain
24 South Korea
25 Indonesia
26 Japan
27 Ukraine
28 Vietnam
29 Uruguay 30 Sri Lanka
31 Russia
32 Italy
33 Taiwan
34 China
35 France
36 United Arab Emirates
37 Costa Rica
38 Brazil
39 Peru
40 Mexico
41 Turkey
42 Iran
43 Egypt 44 Chile
45 Morocco
46 Colombia
47 Kuwait
48 Ecuador
49 Venezuela
50 Jordan
51 Qatar
52 Guatemala
53 El Salvador
54 Libya
55 Thailand
56 Panama
57 Kazakhstan
58 Algeria
59 Saudi Arabia
60 Iraq