Varieties of English around the world

When people think of the English language, they usually associate

it with American, British, Australian or Canadian English, however English is spoken in many other countries as
a native language, and in many others as a second or foreign language

More than 300 million people around the world speak English as a first language. English is used as an official
language in more than 50 states. About 1500 million people speak English as a second language. All in all
almost two billion people can speak English. That’s a third of the world’s population.
The statistics show that the most spoken language worldwide is English with almost two billion people being
able to speak it,of whom only 375 million are native speakers. This means that you’re much more likely to
speak English with someone whose English is their second or foreign language than with a native speaker.
Due to this, if you’re an English learner you might have trouble understanding people depending on where you
are and who you’re talking to. Bearing that in mind, if you’re learning the language in order to work at an
international company or travel abroad, you might want to be aware and perhaps start practicing listening to
different kinds of English accents, especially the ones you’ll be dealing with.