Why English?

Some numbers ...

Almost 7,000,000,000

Some numbers ...

There are about 7,000,000,000 people in the world.

How many people in the world can speak English?

Some numbers ...

Between 1,500,000,000 and 2,000,000,000 people.

That is 1 of every 4 people!

Some numbers ...

How many people speak English as a first language?

Some numbers ...

About 400,000,000 people.

(About 730,000,000 people speak Chinese and about 270,000,000 people speak Spanish)

Some numbers ...In the year 2000 about 1 billion people were learning EnglishOver 130 billion web pages are in English.About 95% of scientific articles published in the world are written in English.About 75% of the world’s letters are written in English ... And about 85% of all e-mails.

Examples of fields where English is the main language.

Computers.Technology.Science.Pop music.Cinema.Politics.Bussiness.Aviation.Tourism.Etc.

...but why English?

Linguistic reasons? Is it “easier” than other languages?

Demographics? Is it spoken by the most people? Is it spoken in the most countries?

...but why English?

Politics and economy.

...but why English?

The British Empire.

The USA.Globalization.

Globalization.

The “Global Village”. What has made the world “smaller?

The Internet.

The printing press

The telephone

TV and radio

Aviation

Satellites

OK, but ... Do I need English?

Travel.Internet.Music.University studies (and cicles formatius).Finding a job.Etc.

How do you learn a language?