Why Does The Whole World Speak English?

[@storylearning]

Why is English so HARD? 10 Reasons 👉🏼 kzbin.info/www/bejne/eqPPiWCCadRlga8

[@keidanekeith668]

No it's not Olly 😂😂😏

[@carlos_takeshi]

Is French easier, or just differently hard?

[@southcoastinventors6583]

@@keidanekeith668 Agreed it easy to speak basic understandable English and most people are use to heavily accented English not to mention all the spelling tools to translate. Also Japanese and Korean have shot up in popularity due to the all the content coming out. The top studied languages in order are English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Italian, Korean, Chinese, Russian, Portuguese.

[@lume85]

English difficult? Uhmmm depends on each person and/or the context i guess. For me will be any asian language, with so many frking tones for each vowel

[@LOKI77able]

​@@southcoastinventors6583 Where did you get that order from? In fact there is no way we can rank languages according to the number of people studying or acquiring them as an additional language...we don't have enough reliable figures to do that, plus the figures and stats we do have for individual languages are often not comparable. And while Korean has seemingly become increasingly popular in recent years (and possibly in recent decades), it's unlikely that more people are studying it nowadays than are learning Mandarin, Portuguese or Russian. When it comes to this kind of rankings the only certainty we do have is that English tops them all :) :)

[@philipdavis7521]

One feature that will make English hard to knock off its perch is just how easy it is for young people to 'accidentally' learn it by things like playing online games in English or watching lots of US TV. A language that dominates popular media will always win out. This is another reason why mandarin will never displace other Asian languages, let alone become a world language. I'd also not underestimate Spanish - its very widely spoken and in my experience a very popular L2 or L3 all over the world.

[@davidguy209]

A Filipino friend of mine says his younger countrymen speak English - only the elder generations speak Spanish...

[@philipdavis7521]

@@davidguy209 In northern Vietnam the oldest people speak French. The over 60's speak Russian. The younger people speak English, but now increasingly mandarin.

[@davidguy209]

@@philipdavis7521 curiouser and curiouser :-)

[@marioandtyler]

Sadly, according to Wikipedia Spanish only has around 70 million L2 speakers... I wish it had more, but hey, by number of natives it's Mandarin Chinese, Spanish and then English.

[@Cau_No]

Another feature is volumes of scientific literature and programming languages that won't be rewritten soon. Especially the latter are so much engrained in our current technology that makes is hard to get by without basic knowledge of English. Unless those fields get really abstract new 'languages' with symbolic descriptions in place of literal ones, there will not be much change. I'd rather expect the writing to become a little more visual with more use of emoticons and memes as representations instead of abstract written words. That's a change that will be promoted through the new technological possibilities. Basically a new kind of technoglyphs.

[@Sometimes_Happiness]

One of the biggest advantages for English to remain the lingua franca is that it is so extremely flexible. It's very easy for words to be added to the English language vocabulary, and there's no gatekeeper of what it means

[@nsevv]

Many languages also use the same alphabet as english, like Malay, French and etc.

[@yamete_kudasai6969]

Yes for example the words Ligma and Balls

[@emocatgaming2332]

Society constantly cancelling words every day because someone got mad:

[@Dragondude30]

I mean you could say that about any language. The reason why English is the main language is due to European colonization. If india colonized the world, HIndi would be the worlds primary language and we would be adding new vocabulary to Hindi. This idea that only English can be flexible is just brainwashed.

[@nathankiss2486]

​@Dragondude30 I don't think he was saying English was the only language like that, but rather it was one of the ones that is. There are quite a number of languages that are restrictive in terms of both speaking and written

[@JK-br1mu]

English is the #1 language in the world because the two Greatest World Powers in Their Era of the last 200 years were both English-speaking. The Brits spread English far and wide, from India to Australia to Burma to Africa to the Americas. And then the United States became the greatest economic power in the world, so their currency and language both became important globally, building even further on what the British Empire had done.

[@acidspit14]

not really

[@Nathann99]

@@acidspit14literally what happened, Britain spreader the language with our empire then after our empire dismantled, or just after ww2, the USA became the great power with English as their main language, with their culture spreading across the western world, so basically since pax Britannia and now Pax Americana the language has become the most popular lingua Franca only way this changes is with technology which with ai could translate

[@hayabusa1329]

Nonsense

[@DerekDerekDerekDerekDerekDerek]

​@@acidspit14bruh

[@oleander1705]

Because of bloodshed and brutal colonial oppression. That is the true answer people might not want to hear. Everywhere the British came ashore, they left destruction in their wake. The same goes for the linguistic genocide they committed from Ireland to Australia and from the US to Nigeria. All those places had beautiful languages before the English came. Linguists call English the ‘killer language’. Scholars predict between 50 and 90% of all languages will have died out before 2100, the main reason being English. Even to this day, the British government spends millions of pounds spreading English through their post-colonial schooling system. The only way we can stop further damage is by first collectively acknowledging there is an unwanted and undeserved lingual hegemony and dismantling that hegemony. I hope that translation technology, allowing us to all speak our mother tongues, will be the savior of languages facing extinction. Just don’t tell the Brits before they kill it too.

[@darreljones8645]

A little-known fact about the phrase "lingua franca" is that it didn't originally refer to French. It referred to the language of the Frankish Empire (Charlemagne's domain), which is ironically closer to modern German than modern French.

[@herrbucketeer2674]

Frankish, right? Which modern descendants include Dutch and its offsprings.

[@lumizu2091]

Because the franks were german tribes, and the gaulish were celtic tribes, so at first the frankish language was germanic and the gaulish language celtic, then the roman empire latinised gaulish, and then the franks invaded it. So French is a mix of latinised gaulish and frankish, that's why original frank is more looking like german than french, I am french by the way

[@liliqua1293]

What's your source? Every source I've checked says it comes from Mediterranean lingua franca that was used in the eastern Mediterranean, Sabir.

[@kokofan50]

Not just German but all the Germanic languages including English

[@-SUM1-]

It wasn't the language of the Frankish Empire but rather the Franks. The Franks immediately used Latin upon establishing their empire.

[@Omhikmat]

I have met many people from Brazil, Haiti, the Philippines, and Spanish-speaking countries who speak English fluently--and they all told me that they gained their fluency mainly from watching English movies and television.

[@richardque4952]

As a young boy growing up in the 60s,I learn my english just watching the cartoon.

[@ianworley8169]

I live near the border country between Spain and Portugal. Virtually every Portuguese person I know, speaks or at least understands English to some extent or other. On the other hand, virtually no Spaniards here speak English. The key difference is all English speaking TV and movies are dubbed into Spanish in Spain, but are in English, subtitled in Portuguese in Portugal. Even those Spaniards that do speak English seem to have very poor pronunciation, mainly because they rarely hear English being spoken. In contrast, the Portuguese seem to pronounce English words exceptionally well.

[@tonylove4800]

Except they fucking don't. It's recognisable, I guess.

[@Comments_From_All_Channels]

Hollywood

[@jakel8627]

Anecdote isn't reliable. They watched English movies, television, and music, but they still had to study it. It takes hard work to learn a language. If you watch something in a foreign language, 95% of it will just be like noise.

[@Peter_Schiavo]

My wife is a native Spanish speaker, but was taught exclusively in Italian in elementary school. She was also taught English in high school. We are now living in Spain and Catalan is slowly working its way into her brain. She's told me in the past that English was the easiest to learn. It is so engrained in her that she thinks in English.

[@LoboSolo333]

Aside from spelling, she's right. English mostly nouns are gender neutral, thus only one 'the' (unlike el, la, los, las, in Spanish or der, die, das in German). English adjectives stay the same regardless of the noun ... one green house, two green houses. Conjugation of verbs is much simpler. The only case suffix is the possessive 'apostrophe s'. The biggest problem I'v run into in helping others le(a)rn English is spelling. Clean that up a bit, and English wd grow even stronger.

[@Hadrianus01]

My theory (in short): The rise of English as a global lingua franca started with the British Empire, which, at its height, covered around 25 per cent of the world. English holds onto its status because of the cultural and economic dominance of the USA.

[@Hadrianus01]

It never fails to amaze me how much young people in non-Anglophone countries want to learn English - it's seen as 'cool' and a means of getting ahead in life. It's this natural and uncoerced zeal to learn English (particularly among young professional types) that will perpetuate it as a global lingua franca. The sad flipside is, many look down on their own language because it represents 'no' economic or professional value. I can't help but feel lucky that I'm a native English speaker, but also wish I felt the same onus and pressure to study other languages to even the playing field. Greetings from Australia!

[@sheepboy2560]

that's what he said. you're just paraphrasing.

[@tommyrex6648]

@@Hadrianus01 I mean it's not really too shocking that other young people see English as cool. Most clothing you buy has English on it, most movies and music are in English, most of the more successful nations are Anglosphere/English speaking nations. I could say a lot more, but it's late and I'm tired lol.

[@EhzyG]

I think English as a lingua franca is also a result of the importance of scientific work in the US after world war 2. English is my 3rd language but i am glad that it was thought to us in school in a certain level, otherwise i would be like dependent on translations f.e. of medical scientific papers to German. But I must admit that I am not very comfortable with talking so I would prefer if Spanish would surpass English in the US 😅 maybe then things may change

[@davidjacobs8558]

@@Hadrianus01 English has Latin alphabet, which is easier than most other writing system. Easy to use writing system is a huge advantage. Which make Arabic, Chinese, etc as not a good candidate for Lingua Franca. So, English only has to worry about other Latin Alphabet using languages.

[@naguoning]

A common misconception about Mandarin speakers is the number of native speakers vs non-native; Actually China, Singapore and Taiwan have many people who speak Mandarin but their real native language is a dialect of Chinese which can be VERY different from Mandarin or even something else like Taiwanese Aboriginal languages etc.

[@naguoning]

@@thedamntrain I agree. In an extreme case Taiwan Hokkien is often called a Chinese dialect but it borrows so much from Japanese etc that it is only 70 percent the same as Hokkien in Fujian. Far less than say Dutch and German...

[@Perririri]

That is why they still don't use Simplified Chinese Characters!

[@guppy719]

While that is true I believe that Mandarin is increasing its influence within China similar to what you saw in France or Germany in the past.

[@naguoning]

@@Perririri No. Actually the meaning/way of saying a word can be different between dialects but can be written in simplified or complex. A good example of this is that in GuangDong they will usually use simplified but complex/traditional characters in HK and Macau where they also speak the same language (Cantonese). That said we have words that are specific to dialects and can not be written. Cantonese has some characters that are in common use but are specific to it and not really understood by Mandarin only speakers. In Hokkien as used in Taiwan it is really just a spoken language and thanks to the sound based borrowing from Japanese it is basically impossible to write a lot of words. Where it gets really strange is we have a lot of words that went from English to Japanese to Taiwan Hokkien and are sort of able to be understood in context if you can speak English (I am a citizen of Taiwan but I am part of the 30 percent plus that is not a background Hokkien speaker but my English is fine).

[@30803080308030803081]

For the younger generations, that is less and less so. The numbers of living native speakers of non-Mandarin Chinese languages are still big, but the average age of those native speakers is high. Mandarin is more and more the mother tongue of Chinese people in the PRC, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia.

[@SilverSunPublishing]

I've worked in several companies who employed people from all over the world. It was quite amazing to speak with people from Russia, Indonesia, Ireland, France, and other countries, and learn about their customs. We all understood each other well because everyone was speaking English.

[@519djw6]

I think that it was definitely because of a combination of the British Empire and the way that popular culture from the Anglophone sphere dominated the world--especially in movies and pop music. Leave the "artsy" stuff to other languages. Nobody does "superficial content" like the US and the UK! (Oh, and parenthetically, there is a lot of wonderful Literature--with a capital L--in English, as well.)

[@ireskin485]

Exactly! Imperialism and slavery… something not to be proud of.

[@Reforming_LL]

@@ireskin485 yep

[@zaqwsx23]

The spread of the pop culture is a consequence, not a cause.

[@LOKI77able]

@@ireskin485 Exactly...by the way, you forgot militarism :)

[@hammyshayaddy8330]

@Diego Texeira Definitely a dark side, if you know what I mean!!! 😉

[@Player-re9mo]

Media definitely plays a huge part. Immersion is an important factor when it comes to becoming fluent in a language. If you can't move to the country which speaks your target language, then the internet (movies, tv shows, video games, KZbin videos) is the only way you can gain immersion. And English speaking nations produce more content available world wide than others. I wonder if Chinese would spread more, were it not for government censorship?

[@storylearning]

I think the other obstacle with Chinese is the script

[@LOKI77able]

@@storylearning Still, some languages did manage to become lingua francas in the past despite their complex, unpractical scripts

[@PassionPno]

@@storylearning The script is not that hard.

[@belstar1128]

Yea Japanese and Korean are popular languages to learn among young people now i think china could have been similar if they had democracy but with 10x more stuff coming from there.

[@santoor_naad]

Well, it is important to remember that when we are talking Mandarin Chinese, we are not only talking Mainland China but also Taiwan & Singapore (both do not have government censorship like Mainland China does), so, I still believe that Mandarin has a chance. That being said, Taiwanese & Singaporian content still needs to be intentionally sought out. I do believe belstar though that Japanese & Korean seems to be taking media by storm at the moment.

[@hebneh]

One other consideration is that when English was imposed on various conquered countries, in some places people ended up favoring it because there were so many different native languages. This is particularly true in India and the Philippines, where the various native tongues are mutually incomprehensible.

[@oleander1705]

Making mother tongues home exclusive and removed from any public spaces completely. Same happened in Nigeria and South-Africa, where pretty much no one speaks English as its first language. It is beyond sad.

[@benjaminr6153]

My favourite story of the dominance of English is about am airline pilot in Germany and the air traffic control people insisted on speaking English despite, of course, being native German speakers. The German pilot asked why he, a German flying in German air space, should be speaking English. To which a British pilot responded with “because you lost the war!”

[@heroiccombatengineer6018]

Brilliant lol

[@jasperking991]

twice*

[@V68-l5y]

legalizujete násilie lebo aj Rusi vyhrali vojnu

[@panachevitz]

English is actually required universally for all pilots and ATCs so that there is quick and effective communication in the event of an emergency and normal interactions. That way, you touch down on your wheels instead of a flaming hole in the ground. Imagine a German air controller talking in German to a Delta plane coming in from JFK to an American pilot. If they can't communicate, things get bad fast. But yeah, losing the war twice doesn't give you a lot of say in things. ;)

[@peterc.1618]

@@panachevitz I'm surprised the German didn't respond with, "Ja, but vee vonn ze vurld cup four times." Sitting near the front of the cabin of a Dash 7 aircraft at a remote airport in northern Scandinavia once I was able to hear much of what the pilots said and, to my surprise, all the communication between the pilots and the tower was in English.

[@ntatenarin]

What sucks is because English is so popular, I can never practice my French and Spanish when I travel. When people hear me try to speak another language, they automatically speak English, and others would want to practice English with me. Ah well, I still enjoyed my vacations! Edit: Yes, once in a while, people will speak to me in their native language. In fact, in Canada, I had a secretary teach me French!

[@storylearning]

Yes, and that’s why I think travelling abroad to learn a language is overrated. Better to study from home until you’re good enough to hold your own when you travel. There is such a thing as the curse of the English speaker!

[@sealand000]

The locals probably have a hard time understanding some tourists because of the tourists' accents and/or lack of command of the language. But it's fine to say hello and such.

[@ntatenarin]

@Don Ricky I'm not scared to speak another language. Yeah, I may mess up, but it's good practice. Anyways, best wishes to you and your Spanish!

[@peterc.1618]

I'm sure, "I'll be home late, darling, my secretary is teaching me French" has been used before! 😀

[@EddieBeaumontThomas]

You stand a better chance of avoiding responses in English if you converse with people who live and work away from the cities.

[@jimjohnson4122]

Also, English was the language that started the backbone of the internet and computer science… This helped with the modern English language boom we see today.

[@Comments_From_All_Channels]

Technology

[@scottgrohs5940]

IMO, highly tonal languages like Mandarin are unlikely to become lingua francas because people raised in syllabic systems will just have too much trouble learning proper enunciation.

[@rumrunner8019]

I'm starting to study Chinese now and I have to say, the tones aren't that bad and once you get them, you get them. The thing I realize that will ensure Chinese doesn't dominate is a combination of the writing system and, just as bad, the lack of loan-words. There are very few loanwords in Mandarin and it just doesn't evolve. American standard English is the opposite: picking words from another language and adding them into the mix is no problema. Even Mandarin words and terms feng shui, yin and yang, tao, chop chop and wumao.

[@nsevv]

@@rumrunner8019 Mandarin also require bigger font to be readable and it is a very slow to write language.

[@danielantony1882]

@@nsevv Who ðe hell writes on paper in ðis day and age? Writing Mandarin on a keyboard is even easier ðan English.

[@lordomacron3719]

What makes you think English is not tonal? As an Englishman tone of voice can change meaning of a sentence. But hey tonal languages are always hard right?😊

[@geoff2504]

Trying to speak a language is hard enough but, have you ever tried to understand the written Chinese? Even Chinese children take 7 years to learn at least 10,000 characters by study in order to read a Chinese newspaper! And I was told that by a Chinese teacher.

[@thegoodlydragon7452]

The Latin speaking parts of Europe never stopped speaking Latin. The Latin just naturally evolved as all languages do, and different varieties got different names like Spanish, French, Romanian, etc.

[@notinterested8452]

Latino aka conquistadore aka Catholics, the old enemy of the British empire. English is a language of culture and freedoms and Latin a language of enslavement and misery. That's why English defeated all other languages. Because it is a superior language and upholds the principles of humanity and greatness.

[@panjacek2273]

@@notinterested8452 Do you take drugs? Because looking at your comment I don't doubt it

[@notinterested8452]

@@panjacek2273 because you are not English you will never understand. You can't even speak or read English and yet you dare to question my authority?

[@FirstnameLastName-mr8lk]

@@notinterested8452 tf you on about you don't know what language that person speaks . I disagree with you and my native language is English and I am British and my parents are British and so are their parents and so are their parents. All languages are just languages if you can convey a point to somebody else it really doesn't matter. Why not just let people speak what language they want and stop acting like any one language is superior if it isn't . A superior language would be something that has very distinct pronunciation for each word, words are short , and it actually makes sense grammatically .

[@panjacek2273]

@@notinterested8452 In a new year I wish you a nice stay in a psychiatrist hospital. High five!

[@bradsalubby]

French will never be linga franca. Africa is replacing it with English. Even in rowanda.

[@Sunflower-zc9fr]

I am learning Spanish. Before I found this video, I noticed that all the Spanish learning videos I watched, the persons can speak perfect English while we English speakers are struggling to learn one. So I do agree with this video.

[@carolineb194]

Your video is quite thought-provoking, thank you for taking the time making it. I'm French and I teach English in middle and high school, I was actually looking for a video for my class to explain why so many people speak English around the world but unfortunatly, this is way too fast for them. However, I've been quite surprised with what you said at the end : French becoming the number 1 language and English being not so easy to learn. Very unexpected as I believe English grammar is super easy and English vocabulary is all around us (through media). Sure, it can be hard to pronounce but that's it - I will watch your other video to see if you can convince me. I truly believe that French is way harder to learn, so many things make no sense at all. If you ever make the same video but shorter and slower, I will definitely show it to my pupils. Keep up the good work. :)

[@NEEJER]

Hi Caroline, he does talk very fast. Slow it down to 80% speed then show your class.

[@jakel8627]

​@NEEJER Why would you have a profile pic like that? Especially when the person you're replying to is French.

[@MDobri-sy1ce]

English is a mixed blessing because it has given me the opportunity to communicate and form relationships with people from other cultures that would not have been possible otherwise. Also, because of the Internet. The downside is I feel like English at times plays a dominant role in communicating. For example, I seen people in the language community in particularly Western European countries say, instead of speaking their mother tongue, it’s a mix of their native language and English words as a replacement.

[@MaoRatto]

For me, I do hate the fact English is my native tongue due to political conflict I hear and see in it disgusts me. The "cancel culture, woke culture, social justice ".... All of that is in English, the only exception was saw a very similar thing in polite speech Japanese, but was more of a cry for censorship. Of " think of the children ". English for me, despite being a native, I loan a lot of Latin language words. Keep an older syntax. I have saw a rise of " me " being in front rather than I. Which bugs the shit out of me as it comes off rude. There is a loosening of " I VS. ME " in the USA. I would say my English is internationally influenced, but mainly online. I find English is more of a language of conflict. The pronoun system getting mixed with honorifics within some circles. Where it's demanded with X statement of " him/her, she/her ". I don't see the point of a breaking a perfectly fine grammartical gender system. I find that's the beauty of other Germanic and Latin languages. You can condense and convey more specific information via those methods with markers for what the word is and meaning. Asian languages don't, but convey more meaning when written, but is pitch heavy but can convey more specific information via context.

[@MDobri-sy1ce]

@@MaoRatto Well, I try and look at it like it would not matter because if I lived in a European country especially, a Western European country I would have to learn English anyway non the less. I just wish maybe when I was growing up there would have been more opportunity to learn them in my country instead of just English and French. I speak more than one but probably after English, I am most comfortable with speaking Russian (speaking) not writing, Spanish, and French. Furthermore, Russian is a hard language but I like it because it is unique to any other language. Also, part of my background is Russian, Ukrainian, and Polish so, all the more reason to learn.

[@forgottens7712]

Same here in California we speak in a mix of Spanish and english

[@MaoRatto]

@@MDobri-sy1ce M'i, disappointed with mainly the people whom speak it. I hate the social conflict associated with it. Rather than the language of it. English as a language is a fine tongue, but culturally destorys everyone else like a virus. It's a real shame. If didn't have " political correctness, wokeness, and social justice " activism that it associates with. I would be fine it. I do love how Slavic languages have their own unique scripts to write in. As it feels like a proper alphabet, but... I prefer a syllable based system where 1 letter + vowel combinations / pitches.

[@MaoRatto]

@@forgottens7712 I can tell you, further south you go on the east coast. You will hear more spanish loan words, or the pronouncation is more akin to Mexican Spanish. When my co-workers say shut up, ( my co-workers do understand me responding in shut up please )... Typicaly loan " Catt'e por vor! " (My Linux PC's keyboard hasn't been optimized to use special letters ;( . ) Though English in the eastern south region gets softer. Though got a bad habit of mixing I's and Me's where they do not belong. Me is a plural and goes after ( your friend/family/co-workers ). I swear English is getting more basic or simplified. A lot of my vocab is closer to a romance language than the standard which is probably due to the fact of heavy exposure to Latin / Romance language words from music, education, and come in close proximity with Spanish speaking artists online.... Trying to figure out why the Spanish / Brazilian speaking world has such kick ass artwork, same with East Asia.

[@metrx330]

The next lingua franca will not be French, Mandarin or Spanish. It will be a descendent of English. Not English as we understand it today, but a mutated form that adheres to ease of pronunciation across multiple cultures.

[@andrefilipe9042]

Mha man, just read my mind.

[@nukebarbarbarian3735]

Like how latin seperated into multiple languages I think ur right but back then people didn't have the internet so maybe it won't spread to many languages if the world is connected

[@rumrunner8019]

Exactly. Just look at Singapore English, Jamaican Patois, or the Pidgen of Polynesia.

[@kyrxon277]

I hope the spelling changes too, because S and C shouldn't sound like each other. And the letter Z "needz to be uzed" more often. And there's some other things i would want English to change for the better lol

[@kb-ww1uw]

I agree, I think it would evolve more as one since it's hard nowadays to isolate cultures due to globalization and the internet. I noticed that British and American english at one point were slowly separating, but due to globalization it started merging again. Also within British provinces and American states, local accents are starting to die out, which if industrialization never happened would have transformed into their own languages. It's happening in my country too, where we adopt slang from halfway across the world because of the internet. The next lingua franca would be a new language in which the languages of the most dominant entertainment-exporting countries reign.

[@ahaz3469]

You hit the nail on the head when you talked about money. The USA, UK, Aus, Canada NZ, Ireland, Singapore are all rich countries. However by that logic it’s going to take a very long time for French to take over. Outside of France and Quebec,most francophone counties are poor, providing less incentive to learn the language and I don’t see the economic output of the Congo overtaking the US any time soon. Geography also plays a massive role. English is spoken widely across many continents. Spanish is primarily useful only in Latin America, it’s not going to help much in Asia or Africa…and Chinese is kinda useless outside China and it’s immediate vicinity.

[@theblackryvius6613]

So I see Belgium, Switzerland, and Monaco have been forgotten. I dont know how economically sound the other Francophone countries are

[@markmahan38]

There are more than 1.5 billion Chinese in the world. 1.4 live in China. While 100+ million live aboard.

[@Syl75]

@Esneyk nebulous Where did you see that 70 million people speak Spanish in Europe?

[@LucasFernandez-fk8se]

@Esneyk nebulous no they don’t. Who in Europe speaks Spanish?!? 1 little county, Spain. The rest of Europe speaks foreign or English

[@hirigone]

@@LucasFernandez-fk8se You... You do realize that no matter where you live any language that is not your own, is a forgein language. Any language that you do not speak regularly can be called foreign. THIS INCLUDES SPANISH

[@gianlucafantini1332]

Although I would like this to be true since I'm a native french speaker, I have doubt about french becoming a lingua franca for the world unless the Académie Française in France makes major change to the language. For non native french is hard to learn and for everyone, even native french speaker, it is hard to write it correctly. On the other hand, english is very easy to learn and you can become proficient within 2 to 3 month. I think that in the futur (like 200 or 300 years) the language of the American continent will transform into some kind of spanish/english, a spanglish if you will. The language will be composed of English terms, laced with Spanish and Portuguese and probably hardly understandable for today's people. That or we'll communicate telepathically with images, thoughts and feelings. Who knows! Cheers to all and Merry Christmas!

[@storylearning]

Merry Christmas!

[@bofbob1]

If reforming French was an issue that mattered enough to people, they could get it done without wasting a single second on the Académie. The Académie has no legal authority to set any standards for the language. None at all. Just a bunch of silly old sods cosplaying 17th-century nobles and yelling "get off my lawn" to an empty front porch.

[@colekinder517]

I think you're correct

[@mattsavigny6084]

The future lingua franca will be memes, end of the discussion.

[@exmuslim-prolgbt2610]

@@mattsavigny6084 😂😂

[@mattkinsella9856]

One big reason is that English is a forgiving language, in that you can get by with speaking it badly. There's so many varied English accents and dialects and native English speakers are used to foreign people speaking bad English so you don't need to be precise. I've learnt a few languages and none of them come close to English with how native speakers don't care so much about imprecise pronunciation, jumbled grammar and generally being patient when conversing with someone who speaks English badly. The goal is to communicate and be understood, that's mostly it. With other languages they look at you as if you're from another planet if you mispronounce one word slightly.

[@jamemule5326]

That is why it will never end.

[@oussemazoghlemi]

Tunisian here and I'm seeing more and more of the youth gravitating towards English (but French is still a big part of their lives through school etc.)

[@eosborne6495]

If I try to practice my Spanish with a native Spanish speaker, there is a near 100% chance that their English is better than my Spanish, so then I just feel rude for communicating in a clearly less efficient way. The ubiquity of English makes it so much harder to learn anything else!

[@LOKI77able]

I've never had much trouble communicating with native Dutch speakers in their first language despite the fact that their English was usually better than my Dutch though...and it has been all worth it by the way!

[@matthewosborn1123]

What spanish speaking countries have you been to? Having in lived years in latin America that is absolutely not true. To live in latin America you HAVE to know Spanish. I met almost nobody who could speak English outside of obvious tourist traps.

[@ourtube1128]

@@matthewosborn1123 perhaps I'm wrong, but in my experience quite a lot of non-tourist spots in puerto rico have tons of english speakers! It could just be the USA's influence being especially strong over there, there's a lot of anglicismos...

[@matthewosborn1123]

@@ourtube1128 Puerto Ricans are US citizens

[@belstar1128]

Now imagine trying Danish or Tagalog.

[@MyMy-tv7fd]

fun fact: the EU originally had French as its lingua franca, but one of the unintended consequences of the UK joining in the 70s ensured that French was displaced by English. Romanians in Brussels will tell you that they speak English with a Bostonian accent because they learned English by watching 'Friends'.

[@sebastianlabusch465]

It's a bit more complicated. The EU officially refuses to have a single lingua franca in order not to privilege any member country. That's why it has 28 official languages. The official language of each member is also an official language of the EU. As this is obviously impractical, there are also 4 "working languages". Both French and English are among them. Another one is German, which was never actually widely used despite its official status.

[@tolue]

I think the map you used shows why French won't become a lingua franca. Even though its the official languages for a lot of those countries on that map, less than a third of most of their respective populations are francophone

[@Alexandros.Mograine]

You skipped the fact that nowdays we are more globalized than ever before, that changes how languages develop, spread and maintain their usage alot.

[@kayleeson509]

Next lingua franca: Spanish??? I think a lot more could be said on this. Maybe a video ranking top 5 contenders for next lingua franca, with pros & cons of each.

[@storylearning]

Nice idea!

[@IAmTheOnlyLucas]

Francophone Africa certainly has an advantage in birthrates but as another commenter stated, young Africans will continue to seek opportunities and adapt to English speaking environments unless something drastic is done in their home countries. Just like "Friends" has been the quintessential show for English learners since it aired in the '90s, Spanish language music and pop culture is growing rapidly in popularity. The range of similar vocabulary between Spanish and English and the common popular and social culture between North America and Latin America will certainly help this development as well.

[@jamesparson]

I wonder if there is a writing system that could supplant the Latin alphabet.

[@Syl75]

Spanish can't be lingua franca because of its limited geographical area. Spanish speakers are mostly in Latin America whereas English and French speakers are on every continent.

[@erickquezada6918]

@@Syl75 Spanish is confined in the americas, but entering more and more in the U.S. that could led to some interesting language development. Dunno, maybe becoming in some distant future the ruling language in that country, or creating a new language type of Spanglish?

[@amabarbigrl]

When I was young girl, I thought that lingua franca should be the language of the biggest country, so I thought it should be Russian. I was so confused and a little dissapointed because I thought it would be much easier to learn Russian (as a Serbian speaker), but I had to learn English

[@hansgruber788]

Well at least you’ve learned it well enough for us all to understand 🥰

[@amabarbigrl]

@@hansgruber788 Yes, I'm very satisfied with my knowledge of English. It's very useful to know any foreign language, especially English. When I started learning (I was 7) it was difficult to read and write and to pronounce some words and I didn't like it that much, but now when I know English enough to be able to comunicate with other people it's incredible feeling. I also know French, but I don't speak Russian 😂

[@hansgruber788]

@@amabarbigrl thats very cool, i'm English and i can just about speak a couple lines of french lol

[@guppy719]

Well Russia was and still is a lingua franca to the former Soviet Union and used to be in the communist nations.

[@acutechicken5798]

Yes, Russian should be the Lingua Franca!

[@bryanbradley6871]

USA has 300 million first language of English speakers, UK 60 million, Canada about 30 million, Australia 25 million, South Africa about 20 million, and NZ 5 million. That's over 400 million (your first language or mother tongue is the language you dream and swear in)

[@dennis771]

India, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, New Zealand, Babgaldesh

[@Alphae21]

Ireland 8m

[@dennis771]

@@Alphae21 Jamaica, Singapore, Philippines, Ghana, Liberia, Namibia, Zambia, Rhodesia

[@robertjenkins6132]

I think it will be difficult for another language to supplant English because of the Network Effect. You can read about the Network Effect on Wikipedia. Speaking of Wikipedia and the network effect, there are more in-depth articles on the English Wikipedia than on any other language's Wikipedia. That's an example of the network effect: There is greater utility in learning English because there is more English content on Wikipedia; and for each person who chooses to learn English for this reason, there is a chance such a person might one day choose to contribute to the English Wikipedia, thereby causing the amount of English content to expand even further, and further increasing the utility of English. A spiral. A snowball. I speak of Wikipedia as an example, but the same can be said for other things: movies, media, scientific papers, ...

[@LOKI77able]

Networks are like chains though and all chains are broken sooner or later...plus we should not forget that Wikipedia and lots of other knowledge and "intellectual creations" currently available in English cannot be accessed in the People's Republic of China...

[@belstar1128]

I think in the distant future English will be similar to how Latin was in the year 1500 where nobody speaks it as a first language anymore but it will still be dominant in science and other high end things also about Wikipedia the English Wikipedia has been really disappointing me recently a lot of other language articles turn out to be more in depth and have info that is not in English but most people don't know enough languages to find the best one since its quite random which is the best.

[@LOKI77able]

@@belstar1128 We will see. English became the main language of science fairly recently (namely in the interwar period and, most notably, after WWII) and, to the best of my knowledge, only established its dominance in this field once for all in the 1980s with the spread of personal computers and the demise of the Soviet Union. You see, it all happened fairly quickly. I cannot see any reason why another language (or other languages for that matter) could not take over this role from English equally quickly. Indeed, in the late 1880s most scientific journals were in German, with English a close second, and even as late as 1920 German was still the most prominent language of science worldwide despite Germany having lost the war...

[@adrianwakeisland4710]

@@belstar1128 meaning, no global language or global lingua franca exist. English is always be a REGIONAL LINGUA FRANCA just like the rest of the lingua francas Worldwide.

[@valorzinski7423]

Most wikipedia articles are just auto translated to other languages these days, that's a pretty bad example I feel like the biggest factor in spreading the popularity of the language has to do with Disney/Marvel and American video games, but they're slowly becoming terrible due to wokeness and blatant ideological propaganda so it won't last

[@azuchan6079]

I think that the extreme flexibility of the English language in terms of its ability to form patois and creoles in localities where non-native speakers live gives it a greater edge over French, or other European languages with their versions of the Académie Française.

[@StarstreakHVM]

Patois should be seen as a different language in its own respect. Native English speakers without the relevant ancestry have much trouble understanding it.

[@peterc.1618]

French creole exists in places like Mauritius and the Seychelles.

[@misaelrobles1865]

That ability is intrinsic to all languages of the world. Even a hardly rigid language such as latin evolved in new variations, namely the romance languages

[@shaniquabobbert6128]

@@peterc.1618 And the entirety of the French speaking Caribbean

[@anndeecosita3586]

@@peterc.1618 French Creole exists in the US but barely because the government banned teaching it in schools for years and shammed it’s speakers.

[@r.markclayton4821]

Whilst some elements of English are hard (strong verb past tenses, spelling), in fact it is one of the easiest languages to make oneself understood in either written or verbal: - 1. Latin script, minimal diacritical marks. 2. Little inflexion of nouns or verbs. 3. No declensions or conjugations. 4. No grammatical gender. 5. No agreement of adjectives or articles. 6. Virtually no artificial tenses - e.g. subjunctive little understood or used by native speakers. A non-native speaker may struggle to understand a native (e.g. "I will not" can be "I'll not", "I won't" or even "I ain't"), virtually any phraseology the non-native uses will be understood by a native speaker. This is just compared to Indo-European languages, other languages with their ideographic scripts, tonal speech etc. are much more difficult - e.g. Japanese, which requires far greater study for natives than English. Perhaps this is the reason so many choose English as their second language - it is the easiest to learn...

[@SurmaSampo]

And this makes it highly suitable to writing of contracts and technical specifications which is why even Chinese companies prefer to use English outside of their own country. The Finnic languages would also probably fit this mold but we never conquered anything.

[@imurt3417]

Sometimes I think about the english words that are used in programming and I wonder if in the future, in case programming doesn't change its core drastically, programmers will see those word as relic of the past that are no longer used outside their field or who knows what else

[@ElectricChaplain]

English has a lot of inertia in science and tech at this point; ironically just like a programming language doing a refactor/translation in another when you've already written so much in the original would be super difficult 😀.

[@belstar1128]

Its going to be like latin was a few centuries ago not really a spoken language but it has a lot of impact and will be found in text form for millennia.

[@andrewgarner2224]

TRON

[@rafaelsantana4905]

That's true cause even English won't be the same in a couple of centuries. So no matter the language the world chooses, it won't be today's English, so todays coding will be some type of archaic literature. Languages always change, sometimes for convenience, sometimes for the pure sake of change.

[@StarstreakHVM]

I can tell that English isn't your first language

[@panjacek2273]

1. You can learn this language even if you have less than 80 IQ. 2. Colonial history of the British Empire

[@LucasFernandez-fk8se]

What’s the benchmark for other languages ? Is it higher or lower?

[@user-vr3mr5eu7y]

English is considered a hard language isn't it

[@burgundymarcia]

English is a living, growing language. It easily incorporates foreign words and phrases into its lexicon. It creates new words and phrases for new concepts. You can meaningfully communicate with 26 characters and an average of 10,000 of the most commonly used words. It may have a mishmash of spellings and pronunciations, but most of those are among those 10,000 common words that are used on a daily basis. French is a dying language. They do not readily accept foreign words and phrases. Their pronunciations and spellings frequently bear no resemblance to each other. The use of elisions slurs words together so badly that non-native speakers have no idea what they have just heard. Some other language may overtake English, but I can't see it being French. (I have studied many languages over the years and even Korean and Greek were easier than French.)

[@Ronlawhouston]

I think media and the internet mean English will stay on top. It's the reason my daughter's Argentinien husband speaks English and she struggles with Spanish.

[@septanine5936]

Looking at long term lingual dominance, like 500+ years from now or something, we'll probably see a seemingly alien version of English. As many people learning it as a second language, often including words and/or sounds from their first language. With the connectivity of the internet, and popularity of other widely spoken languages, we might get a cool English-like smoothie

[@lindsayheyes925]

English accents have changed incredibly since the 1950s. They are still localised, but many dialect words have fallen into disuse. The Cockney accents of the East End of London, and the dialect rhyming slang that went with them, sound very different to the Cockney English of my grandmother. We are in for another Great Vowel Shift, sses are much more sibilant, inflection has changed at the ends of sentences. And the pitch of American English is much higher than it was even twenty years ago. Future English may be globally intelligible in 400 years, but you and I would find it difficult to follow.

[@danielzhang1916]

I could imagine a blended, creole version of English with like Spanish, Italian, etc. mixed in there, the next evolution of the language is coming on the horizon, maybe in 100 years or so we will start to see it happening

[@lindsayheyes925]

@@danielzhang1916 The hispanic effect on the language will be far greater in the USA than in Britain.

[@P1MPST1K]

English is cool because it has influence from multiple different language groups. Romance, Germanic and even a little Greek.

[@Warriorcats64]

English has imperialism as the main reason, but this leads to some key things that separate it from the other imperial languages 1. Media influence [English dominates the internet, 'nuff said] 2. Vast geographical spread [not confined to Africa only or the Americas only or The North only, English has a presence in lots of places.] 3. Slowly spoken pace [It's not spoken very fast, so it's not hard to find the spaces between words and actually get the rhythm. This is offset by contractions, but not by much. Too many languages [but not Mandarin] speak at 600 kph. English is not one of them [except maybe the New York or Irish dialects]. 4. Native Speaker Attitude [The meanies likely don't have a fallback language, and the nice ones are super polite and willing to help, and both are likely very literate and won't shut up. No introversion, no condescending cutting off to another language, and lots of concepts to explore for the curious...but this plays into media again] 5. Easy-to-learn-hard-to-master grammar and syntax [no cases, no conjugations, no genders, no weird verb-goes-here-with-this-conjunction [Hallo Deutsch] or this-adjective-goes-before-noun-but-this-one-after [Hola Espanol]...but there are enough exceptions left over to make you question.] 6. Borrowed words galore [This is why spelling and pronunciation are hard, but it also means you can probably find a cognate in there somewhere and pronounce it mostly like your own language...you'll have to battle other people's cognates, but that's a good bond too.]

[@mollyrooney7268]

you explained it perfectly!! especially on 3,4 and 5 (coming from an irish person too ahahh)!!

[@cwt5654]

Pity he speaks so fast...it's not a problem for me but for non-native speakers it must be close to being unintelligible. Just because the language centres of the brain work at 2x speed doesn't mean your mouth has to!! Select a lower gear next time....

[@XXXTENTAClON227]

Most overlooked is the World Wide Web being made by an Englishman. To program/code, you still need English. Considering the success of the web, it set a future precedent.

[@cyanhallows7809]

What do you mean NY and Irish dialects are spoken particularly quickly? Is there any evidence for this on average because that strikes me as bullshit, could be wrong though

[@sathyasview4892]

I would say an example in india 🤝🏼 that English never fade out because in India there is more than 26 official languages because every state has their own language so as a nation we can't learn all the languages rather we can learn a common language that is English because its easy to learn in india every state has English as a official 2nd language and everyone knows that India is a republic country 🇮🇳✨ it was ruled by a British for long time so here in india lot of English culture and language is spread and also indian modern economy is running through Information technology and well known by everyone in india there are lots of offshore business are getting from US and UK Australia and english speaking countries so final conclusion is : As a big population nation 🇮🇳 we are speaking English so we equal to china so definitely English language will not be fadeout at any stage but one thing we indians all are speak respect our mother tongue and we always speak our language as a first and any language could be a second one. Thanks for reading by statement ❤️😄🇮🇳

[@antfaz]

This video absolutely floated my boat: history, language, geopolitics, futures, animation, and confirmation that all the duolingo time I'm putting into learning le français is not going to waste. Subbed!

[@a.r.4707]

English is not my first language but I kind of like it.😃

[@d2d2d]

Short answer: because America rules economically. That implies science and tencological invovation. Cultural exportation is also a important part thanks to its huge internal monolingual maket, easy to produce and sell in and out.

[@arolemaprarath6615]

Oh please, US is a British colony

[@ottoneiii4353]

short answer: industrial revolution starts in uk.

[@franknwogu4911]

@@arolemaprarath6615 do you think people fell in love with english because of harry potter or because of American movies, the UN literally uses miles to measure distance countries are allowed to claim in the ocean

[@arolemaprarath6615]

@@franknwogu4911 Yes and Imperial System came from Britain. US = British colony

[@franknwogu4911]

@@arolemaprarath6615 but the uk separated their version of the imperial system

[@TS-je3cl]

as a non native speaking european, it's damn nice to be able to speak with people from other european countries with relative ease, in a language that I'd say isn't ugly, and easy to learn. and wouldn't want to see it change to something else.

[@AdrianPenalo]

Yes, English has become the language of international business. But in many regions like Latinamerica and mainland China if you do not speak the local language you are lost.

[@briann3211]

Facts, that is why I studied portuguese also i plan to visita brazil

[@nsevv]

Not really, When I visited China, Japan and Korea if i tried to speak the local language (not fluent) to them they prefer to speak English to me. They are more interested to practice english with me.

[@dennis771]

If you speak to the educated and upper class of these countries you will be fine

[@YTYY]

I dont think that French will overtake English. English is the perfect (european) language to use for a global language because its basically a mixture of many different languages mostly a mixture of the romansh and germanic language family. French is also not as easy to learn because you mentioned that English is a hard langauge but French is definetly as hard as english if not harder because of the various pronounce options etc. In my opinion the humanity will create the perfect productive language wich gives the highest amount of information in the shortest sentences with no relations to any current language.

[@aresee8208]

One of the advantages of English, I think, is the lack of an attempt by any formal institution to control it. As an analogy, English is sort of the freeware of languages. Everybody has access to it - and can modify it to suit local conditions. To the French, the French language is a work of art that should not be messed with. To most English speakers, English is a tool to accomplish things. Sometimes you have to modify it to make it work. And remember, most speakers of English worldwide are not native speakers. THAT'S what makes if global.

[@amw7828]

💯It’s a “free” language

[@appleislander8536]

Seems to me like English's dominance is only increasing.

[@anon8740]

Nice to see a fellow Tasmanian in the comments

[@adrianwakeisland4710]

Thanks to native english speakers' laziness. If not because of english speakers' laziness, english would never dominate as the most used language in the world at all, until now.

[@anon8740]

@@adrianwakeisland4710 On the contrary, it spread specifically due to our industriousness. Not only in going out and conquering vast areas, but then unlike the other imperialists, actually building them up into prosperous nations which could then work on spreading English further through different mediums. Film, music, the internet, and more.

[@adrianwakeisland4710]

@@anon8740 you focus only in the anglophobe side, that's why you think english is dominant. Yes, english is commonly used on most aspects you mean like films and internet, but most of them are in Anglic countries. The films, industry and internet in the americas outside anglic areas is Spanish, not English. English is strong only in Anglic north america, pacific regions and africa.

[@adrianwakeisland4710]

@@anon8740 You didn't know internet is now a multilingual media, not exclusively english. English language suits only in the anglophone country. The fact that majority of the World's population cannot understand and speak english at all is the real sign that English is just THE REGIONAL LINGUA FRANCA, neither a GLOBAL LANGUAGE nor a GLOBAL LINGUA FRANCA. English is just like the rest of international languages of the World, it's just a REGIONAL INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE forever, even it has the most number of users of that language in the World.

[@marcelleclair4452]

English has the advantage that it is a very simple language. We often say English is not something you learn it’s something you catch … like a flu. Send you kid to day care, register them in sports, send them to play in the park .., a few weeks later they come home and speak English. Perhaps that simply confirms how widespread the language is. But grammatically it is simpler than most Latin languages that I know and it certainly seems easier than the Asian languages with their many many symbols.

[@RangelGabriel]

@@thedamntrain what is hard for you may not be hard for someone else. Some people find English hard whereas others don't see a problem learning it. As a native Portuguese speaker, Spanish is a hellish language for me to even try to learn, whereas English just carved its way into my brain really easy. It should be the other way around, but somehow i do find Spanish harder than English, even though it is the sister language of my own native tongue and shares a lot more similarities in between. The thing is, everything depends on which is it your native language and on yourself.

[@RangelGabriel]

@@thedamntrain i don't think of English in linguistical aspects, but i do agree with you that some things are senseless in English and they could have constructed the language a little bit better in some ways. Haha

[@Peter_Schiavo]

@@RangelGabriel My wife speaks Spanish and Italian. Portuguese and Catalan make her head hurt. Same story from the other side of the fence, I guess.

[@kaydod3190]

Exactly

[@Howie900]

One additional fact is that English is the international language of the sea. Seafarers in most cases if English is not their first language have pass a MARLINS fluency test. Every Port for Comms speaks English, Marine Emergency services too. Pilots for port entry etc. By default all ships agents or anyone else involved with ships services needs to be fluent. It's far more reaching than you think. I am a Ships Master and have been at sea for 42 years and everywhere I have been English is the common tongue.

[@zeminoid]

I loved many things about this video, except one thing; you completely ignored Spanish almost entirely, Spanish is a much more easy language to learn than French, French has a complicated pronunciation and letters that are just there and don't sound or sound different than they should sound which makes it complicated while Spanish has a plain set of rules and the pronunciation of the letters never change. Spanish has a major population of native speakers and L2 speakers are on the rise, Spanish speaking countries are increasingly getting more developed and thus the content in Spanish is massive; movies, books, YT videos, Wikipedia articles, music, news and tons of more media. Yeah there's a lot of L2 speakers in Africa and they can make a lingua franca of sorts in a region of Africa, but that's not enough, most of them use and promote their own native languages and make their content in those languages. Spanish is also the second most spoken language in USA and China has been promoting the language extensively. Once some Hispanic countries make it big economically you'll see how the language will have another major renovation for the widespread of its use which is already happening with the growing popularity of Spanish language music and shows, Spain is also the fourth-largest economy in the European Union and after Brexit its power is increasing and you see a lot of their media including the internationally acclaimed show La Casa de Papel known in English as Money Heist. I believe that you have a personal bias towards French because of this, you only showed one somewhat meaningless example to support your whole argument. English will continue to be the global language of the world for quite some time as it's easier to stick with something well established than change it, and with massive countries with L2 speakers like developing India, a lot of Africa's influencing countries, most of Europe, Latin America, Asia and basically most of the internet users globally, also powerful native speakers countries like Australia and Canada and the developing South Africa (which is an African powerhouse), I see it sticking to the first position for the foreseeable future and Spanish in second place, I believe Chinese could enter at the third place but it's extremely complicated and undesirable to learn for most people because of that and the fact that most Chinese conduct their international trade in English. In conclusion, French won't be a global lingua franca anytime soon.

[@RangelGabriel]

Fully agree. I try to but i don't see an end to English being the most spoken language, let alone being replaced by French or "Chinese" (quote unquote because of different dialects).

[@RangelGabriel]

@@thedamntrain well we are not in the 19th century. It was a whole different world back then comparing to what it is now. I believe the language that dominates the media and mainstream (in all ways) will always be more attractive than others from this technological era onwards, and at least for now i don't see it being replaced by any other language soon (like growing Korean and others). For me, only Spanish has a minimal chance. Anyway this is just my opinion and i'm no one to decide whether it will continue to or not be the most spoken language in the future. Who knows what future holds in store?

[@jandron94]

​@@RangelGabriel Spanish speakers around the World are also the most likely to improve their English skills. I mean like in the US where a lot of Hispanics are progressively assimilating the English language and spreading it back around. The international business language in Spain is English... In terms of "popular music softpower" the Spanish language is quite important but so much less in terms of technologies, world-wide brands and products, etc.

[@RangelGabriel]

@@jandron94 i agree with you. If English were to be replaced by any other language, so technology and society as a whole would need to be different. Whether we want it or not, English "rules" technology, and technology owns the world.

[@zaydalaoui9397]

As a french I agree. I see no langage replacing english anytime soon. Chinese and French because too complicated, spanish would be an easier choice but unless some new incredible tech is developped in spanish to drive people to learn it I don’t see how it could work

[@justinhan286]

Easy to learn for me as a Chinese. SOV structure just like Chinese. I don't know how easy English is until I tried to learn Spanish. OMG, verb conjugation, mood.... confused about what is actually the subject. Me gustas tu, (who like who??)

[@zaydalaoui9397]

English is definitely the easiest language to learn, at least to have a sufficient level for casual conversations. I speak 5 langages and English was by far the easiest. The hardest one is definitely mandarin, i don’t see how it can spread like english did even if they open up and spread their culture. French (as a native speaker) is also very complicated, both in the grammar, spelling and pronunciation. So unless their is a specific driver to learn it I don’t see it become again lingua franca.

[@GUITARTIME2024]

English is much more complex than you think, but you are right, casual English is not too tough.

[@Blaze6432]

You can't have a closed society and have your language spread. Its just a simple fact, people keep talking about China becoming a world power and Mandarin overtaking English but their citizens can't even engage with foreigners freely online.

[@GUITARTIME2024]

@@Blaze6432 agreed.

[@zaydalaoui9397]

I agree! English still has quite a long run in my opinion. I don’t see it change in the next 50 to 100 years at least.

[@mr.commenter7953]

@@Blaze6432 mandarin overtaking english? What a joke😂

[@CleverNameTBD]

Our local variety of French in louisiana was nearly completely stamped out by Anglo Americans and it's been making a revival, primarily among the youth. So you may be on to something lol

[@judewarner1536]

While spelling can be problematical, English has the best combination of complex words/ideas with the simplest rules of grammar, especially when it comes to verbs and tenses.

[@BlackWater_49]

7:15 I disagree with that sentiment as well. To become a true global language a language has to check a few boxes in my opinion (in no particular order): 1. Is it easy for foreigners to speak/understand? 2. Is it easy for foreigners to learn? 3. Is it easy to write in? Chinese fails at basically every single one of those while English doesn't. Let's do the checks for English: 1. Is it easy for foreigners to speak/understand? Most words/sounds in English are quite distinct in my opinion. There are few words that completely change their meaning just because of a mispronunciation. 2. Is it easy for foreigners to learn? Simply yes. It has one article, the alphabet has only 26 letters and the list of irregular verbs fits onto about four DIN A4 pages. 3. Is it easy to write in it? Also yes. You only have to learn/have ways to use 26 letters and a little punctuation and you're good to go. Chinese in comparison has 3500 basic characters but Chinese schoolchildren graduate often knowing 5k-6k but all together there are over 50k. Easy is different. This is the main reason I firmly believe that no "hieroglyphic" language (for the lack of a better word since English isn't my native language either) will ever become a world language in the way English is today.

[@jt95124]

You missed some: I am a retired software engineer who worked with internationalizing applications. First you do it in English, but you have to leave more room, because all other languages take more words to say the same thing. There are way more words in English than any other language, each word has more meanings, and the context matters more. You can say more things, more precisely and more concisely, in fewer words. Chinese is not only pictograph (pinyin, 2 ways to write it), but it uses totally different vocal techniques to other languages. It has no case or tense. It is the same writing everywhere, but many dialects are spoken that are so different that they can't understand each other. I am skeptical how good a tech manual you can write in Chinese. French? Doubt it. The installed base of speakers and writing is beyond immense, useful, and would take decades to duplicate in another language. You can write a tech manual in French, though.

[@pan_nekdo]

I don't agree with your 1st paragraph. You can express (almost) whatever you want in (almost) any language, and the expressions are approximately the same long. Only some culturally determined expressions might be problematic to express. And actually I think my native Czech is "shorter" than English. I read The Animal Farm and the book had on one side original (English) and on the other one Czech translation and allways the Czech page was shorter (not much - 2 or 3 lines) and I couldn't find any differences.

[@eabellamy1]

Forgot to mention that the Normand's invaded the UK, so English is like an Esperanto of European languages, easy for everybody to learn.

[@marktwain2053]

English has become the universal language much like Latin and French were in previous times!

[@hjordatube]

I think that the new generation are interested in learning Korean and Japanese. Korean is a little bit easier because hasn't 3 ways to say the same thing 😸. On the other hand USA and alla America is becoming more and more Spanish.

[@franknwogu4911]

yet they still learn english first, american culture is more dominant than japan's and korea's

[@jasastopar]

I think the global language has to be easy to understand and learn for most people, thats why i think english and spanish are/were doing very well globaly. French and mandarin on the other hand are quite difficult for most people to learn (espacially mandarin) so i dont see those 2 replacing english anytime soon

[@Takuaku867]

English sound have a large deviation from its writing system. Plus the grammar is so complicated, because it belongs to fusional language. On the other hand, Mandarin have the most easiest grammar, because Altaic people invaded and moved into china many times. Thus, grammar was simplified, and most of the grammatical rules have no exception. And Spanish has very systematical writing style and sound. Overall, in my opinion, Chinese, Indonesian,or Spanish is suitable for global language

[@philgamer5280]

@@Takuaku867 if it's so suitable why are they not global languages then? I agree with spanish being the second most likely to take off after english. But I dont see the other langauges ever being international.

[@Takuaku867]

@@philgamer5280 That’s because the influence of British Empire and America. They invaded many countries, and also they were economic superpower. Thus, people had to learn English. However, recently, China got to be a economic super power. Then many people started to learn it. In east Asia, such as Japan, Korea and Vietnam, if they can speak Chinese, they can enter a good company. I expect that Spanish would be the dominant language in north and south America. however in Asia, Chinese would be the most dominant language in the future. and by some chance, Chinese would be global language, because of its economic power.

[@nsevv]

@@philgamer5280 It is unlikely Mandarin will be dominant. In Asia there is Malay which uses the same alphabet as English and is spoken in Malaysia and Indonesia. The alphabet that is used by english is also used by many other languages all across the globe. Mandarin alphabet is most isolated to China, The country of Taiwan and a little in Japan, vietnam. Mandarin is only spoken in China and the country of Taiwan it is geographically "isolated" even though alot of people speak it. Even in Singapore with mostly chinese population most of the young generation don't speak mandarin and prefer to communicate in English. Most chinese also add English name to their ID as well. Mandarin require larger font to be readable which makes it take up alot of space ie not efficient visually you can see this problem in road signs. When trying to learn Mandarin you will encounter teacher from china who are spreading CCP/CPC propaganda which is a turn off to learn this language.

[@kaydod3190]

Exactly

[@vanrozay8871]

I drove an airport shuttle van in Kona, Hawaii for a few years. During an international conference on optics, at a local hotel, I drove attendees arriving from all over. ALL of them spoke English. The one young Chinese guy I drove, whose English was poor to fair, told me he'd got to go because, tho he wasn't tops in his field, he spoke English. Since (that was decades ago), the language has spread even more. It's hard to see how another tongue could oust ours, what with its deep worldwide cultural penetration.

[@ElectricChaplain]

French also happens to be a difficult language to learn even compared to English. It and Romanian are like the red headed step children of Romance languages

[@kaydod3190]

French isn’t difficult to learn

[@belstar1128]

French is not that hard but slightly harder than English.

[@lisanarramore222]

But BEAUTIFUL step-children!

[@rafaelsantana4905]

Franch is easy to read (for romance languages natives) but the pronunciation, damn....

[@adr77510]

@@kaydod3190 it’s difficult to understand spoken but written French is pretty easy

[@MDobri-sy1ce]

Just a few days ago, I was wondering which would be harder to learn French or German. I read that French starts out easy but becomes progressively harder over time while German starts out hard but gets easier over time instead.

[@keidanekeith668]

I find French much easier to learn and speak

[@C.J.Hamilton]

@@keidanekeith668 French is easy to read because you can use context clues to figure out what is being said. But spoken French, instead of a feeling like a challenge, it feels like suicide lol

[@erenparla3869]

French does not get harder (I’m preparing for a C2 certification exam, so I know the process). It actually gets easier as lots of advanced words in english are borrowed from french

[@MDobri-sy1ce]

@@erenparla3869 I heard the opposite but I guess the only way to really know is find out for myself and develop my own opinion.

[@kaydod3190]

French is easier, it doesn’t get harder

[@zahleer]

I do prefeer English as the lingua franca. Is not an easy language but it's at least easier than Mandarin, more simplyfied than Romance Languages and way less complex than Slavic Languages

[@LOKI77able]

Why do you say that English is not an easy language? It tends to be so for native speakers of European languages

[@zahleer]

@@LOKI77able It's the easiest language after Indonesean or Esperanto. But if you want to be highly specific it gets complicated not as other languages though

[@LOKI77able]

​@@zahleer Indeed. But then again, any language gets complicated as you try to become familiar with and master its subtleties, although some languages more so than others as you rightly point out...

[@yzfool6639]

@@LOKI77able It's not because of grammar, that is for sure. It must be the idioms. English speakers can have whole and sophisticated conversations in idiom.

[@LOKI77able]

@@yzfool6639 Sure, plus there are so many idioms that are specific to a particular English-speaking country or region and are not common or easily understood elsewhere in the English-speaking world. Still, this is once again almost certainly not unique to English, as there must be not a few other idiom-rich languages in the world...

[@svy99n]

I am a Sea Captain and as such work Globally and have done for 40 yrs. English is the International language of the Sea which anyone involved internationally has to be able to speak. Most Marine Manning agencies require candidates to pass an English language test before considering them for Employment.

[@julbombning4204]

My mission is to make Spanish the new lengua franca! I haven’t invested this much time into learning a language not to take full advantage and use out of it!

[@adilhoxha5443]

Never gonna happen

[@grasia]

@@adilhoxha5443 its already happening lol

[@adilhoxha5443]

@@grasia lol no it’s not

[@annmariebusu9924]

I love Spanish so get to work 😁

[@Thunderworks]

@@grasia no. There are only 3 Lingua Franca in the last centuries : Latin, French, English.

[@lucaschiantodipepe2015]

I was a guard in Rome for 25 years so I had to interact with hundreds of people per day. I could use English easily with scandinavian and dutch visitors without difficulty, Germans do not know English very well. Russians the same. East Asians? Definitely don't.

[@fukpoeslaw3613]

Germans don't know English very well? not my experience and I understand most German (I'm Dutch) so I don't have to speak English with them, although most of the time I switch to English after a while cause that's a lot easier for me and about never a problem. The French speak a lot less English, Spanish people hardly at all (except in Barcelona)

[@ronaldonmg]

It's quite clear why the average Dutch speaks better English than the average German: Dutch TV shows british/american programs with good subtitles, Germany uses voice-actors

[@chethands3862]

English is my love, food and Shelter.

[@Garcwyn]

The linga franca of the future: a mixture of Navajo and Hungarian. Easy peasy

[@wesleydaub8002]

I always assumed that English has been popular around the world due to the dominance of the British Empire before the World Wars and the power and influence of the United States after the World Wars. Another thing that has surprised me as a British Canadian having moved to the States is how different American English is when it comes to spelling and writing. I had to go through the odd experience of taking out U's from words where they should be and reversing re's into er's and crap when it comes to grey vs gray I still don't know which one is the correct American spelling

[@mikeyoung1361]

I don't know about the US, but in Canada, if you use US or British spellings it doesn't really matter, both are readily understood.

[@brawnbenson552]

We’ll still understand, if you write centre, theatre, or favourite. 😊 and we use BOTH gray’s, greyhound and gray suit.

[@wr2899]

@@brawnbenson552there are other things, whereby we can easily get past them but can cause momentary confusion. For example, in my northern England English if I need to answer a call of nature, I would ask where the toilet is. Stateside it would be more correct to ask where the restroom is. I only actually realised this when working (in England) somewhere with a lot of tourists where English wasn’t their first language. Restroom or washroom was commonly asked, and while I knew what they were referring to without issue due to the influence of American culture, it is not a word I ever use myself and would raise eyebrows if I did towards other people of my kinfolk. Other examples of this are trash/trashcan- not a term I’ve ever used but would understand if someone said to me. Faucet is a word I probably wouldn’t understand at first, here we call it a tap and I don’t think I’ve seen much American media where it’s mentioned.

[@shaydowsith348]

​@@wr2899 tap water is commonly known at least where I live in America as water from the faucet. On the other hand abbreviations can differ, as I had not encountered the abbreviation W.C. as being a toilet (water closet) until I went to Israel back in 1977. (Israel having been under British rule from the end of WW1 to 1948 meant that most signs that are trilingual (English, Hebrew & Arabic) are in British English.

[@jeromemckenna7102]

I think English has one big advantage, it is the 2nd language of India. That give English a huge amount of educated and mobile speakers. In the US I meet very few Africans, but Indians are everywhere.

[@robertomartinez2684]

I think Spanish would become more dominant in the U.S. due to increasing numbers of immigrants from Latin America. I personally see this as a good thing because it would encourage Americans of all ethnicities to learn Spanish.

[@pml8256]

El imperio actual no deja que así sea, desgraciadamente.

[@anndeecosita3586]

It depends on what part of the US you live as to how useful Spanish is. The parts that are formerly part of Spanish colonies I hear it spoken more than other parts. And TBH a lot of the speakers speak either broken Spanish or Spanishglish. I have a lot of immigrant friends and some places they can live and get by fine without learning English and some places they can’t advance. Just like when I went to Mexico, in the US what they teach in school and what people speak isn’t usually the same.

[@tommyrex6648]

Maybe, but English is still going to be the "world language", because it's much more wide spread throughout the entire world. Don't get me wrong, I know a lot of people speak Spanish too, but it's mainly concentrated in the Americas and Spain, whereas England and the US literally tried to conquer the whole world, through imperialism and soft influence like movies/music etc. However, you're right, Spanish could very well become the dominant US language, not just because of immigration, but Latino/Hispanic families have at least 5 kids for every 1 child an Anglo/white family has. It's inevitable, but it won't supplant English as a truly global language. I don't see Spanish becoming as big in Africa, Asia, or Australia as English is. English is the main second language in almost every country in the world now.

[@savioblanc]

I don't see that happening. If anything, they will likely create a Spanish/English hybrid, with English being dominant and then spread it down to Mexico and South America

[@atackplus-rediconnt8189]

@@savioblanc I really doubt it, although English is taught in many South American countries because it's the current lingua franca and it's important in many countries, there is very little interest in people to learn it, and those who learn it is because they have a special interest or an academic need, but it is difficult for English to penetrate too much in South America because almost the entire subcontinent speaks Spanish and Portuguese and its use is not as essential as it could be in other continents such as Europe or Asia

[@slayer_starswirl]

I think one other thing to mention that might not be so important. Perhaps we could ask, is the current English language gonna be the lingua franca forever? There are already many different dialects and variations of the English language spoken other countries. I wonder if someday, English will be so influential that it would not only be common for foreigners to learn, like in China, but that those same people might create their own variation of English and if the country of these people were to gain a lot of influence and power, like China, maybe their version might become more popular? I don't know, just a quick thought

[@lisanarramore222]

Very good thought! There's a vowel shift already beginning in a certain part of America... and these linguistic sound shifts take generations to fully develop, so if there's a 'one world English' some day, we're unlikely to be around to witness it. Perhaps our great-grandkids will speak differently to us? I have no doubt that if China rules the world some day, it will be in English -- their own version of it!

[@reel1tv587]

In America we have 2 languages English then Spanish. I learned Spanish because I grew up around Mexicans. I'm learning Japanese right now.

[@solaries8185]

Great video. English may not be the easiest language to learn, but French is by no means an improvement. I'm also doubtful that the proliferation of new ideas and compelling media from French speaking sources is going to increase dramatically in the foreseeable future (50 years?) as compared to English; although I'd be pleasantly surprised if it did. Economic opportunity is a big driver of language adoption and in the near-ish term, Africa is certainly poised to offer a lot of that... as an aside I always hoped that a grammatically, phonetically and orthographically simple language, like Korean (I'm not Korean btw), would become a global lingua franca but I don't see that happening anytime in the future.

[@artesiningart4961]

✌️😅🇵🇭 As a Filipino from and living in the Philippines, the English language, or specifically our own Philippine or Filipino English language variant/s, variety/ies or dialect/s, is one of our two official languages alongside the Filipino (national) language. There are, I think, two reasons why it is still one of our two official languages and one of our two languages for communication and instruction (teaching and education) among other functions, uses or purposes, and they are: (1) being a product of American occupation, imperialism and/or colonization and the later American influences and (2) because of great necessity and English's usefulness in the 20th to 21st Centuries, as English is almost always used in most things, events and happenings, places, among many others, in the world. I don't think we will lower English's status anytime soon as just a language that or which shall be promoted on a voluntary or optional basis like Spanish and Arabic are to us now, as an auxiliary official language and/or recognized languages like our regional languages or to take it away from any recognition and/or status as official, auxiliary official, voluntary and optional, recognized and/or working language, among others. 👋😊🇵🇭 Buenos dias desde na Ciudad de Zamboanga na Filipinas! (This is not Spanish but in Chavacano or Chabacano, specifically in the dialect, variant or variety of Chavacano de Zamboanga or Zamboangueño Chavacano.)

[@AliAli-uk9nh]

Buenos días desde la isla de #Bonaire.

[@emptytoiletpaperroll9112]

De Zamboanga tamien yo na Tumaga hehe

[@artesiningart4961]

@@AliAli-uk9nh ✌️😊🇵🇭 Buenos dias tambien contigo! (Good morning or day also to you or to you too or as well!)

[@artesiningart4961]

@@emptytoiletpaperroll9112 ✌️😊🇵🇭 Buenos dias o especificamente buenas tardes ya ahora en este tiempo, hora o momento desde aqui na un barrio na Distrito Dos o na Costa Este del Ciudad de Zamboanga!

[@CPTM1]

I don't think English will die. It will just evolve

[@dinhnguyen2110]

I don't think English will be overtaken for a while. I think the next candidate is going to be some creole language with English, the aforementioned French, and Hindi. As has been said in this video, a language must be "exportable". It must have some quality that makes it able to be shared. Chinese is about as insular as a hermit in the woods. Hindi has native speakers willing to travel. They work a lot of intellectual labor jobs. They have Bollywood. The African Francophones have a high birthrate and the likelihood of forming a diaspora. Hindi suffers from a difficult script while African Francophones need more exposure via intellectual labor jobs. But in a century or two, one or both of these languages could imprint onto the English lingua franca.

[@tobyihli9470]

You didn’t mention one of the best things about it is it’s vocabulary. English has the largest vocabulary of any language, and it isn’t even close. The English vocabulary is larger than the next biggest by almost 30%! That’s a very compelling reason it fits so many instances across the world. English is written in the Latin alphabet, the largest used alphabet in the world. There are only 26 characters to learn, and they combine to create phonics, syllables. Some languages have 40,000 characters to learn, each character almost a small sentence. English is composed of 1/3 Anglo Saxon (a type of German), 1/3 French, 1/3 Latin, and so many of the words are easily recognized by the most amount of people. Having a very large vocabulary, comprised of composite sentences creates a language whose words and sentences can easily rhyme, lending for ease of use in written entertaining poetry, and song. It’s for all these reasons English shall always be the world language. It has by far the most advantageous reasons for its use, not just due to the fact it is currently the largest language in use.

[@emeidocathail7808]

I taught EFL for about 10 years and can happily confirm that it is very easy to progress to a good intermediate level where speakers can communicate quite comfortably in almost all everyday situations. Can’t say the same for Manadrin, or Russian or German, french or even Spanish.

[@I_Have_The_Most_Japanese_Music]

Yes; just by using the word "dude" in a variety of tones of voice.

[@uingaeoc3905]

I think Olly skated over the issue of when and WHERE English became dominant. It had been a World language since the creation of the Empire from 1750 to 1800. It was not the major language of Europe until after 1945, displacing French and German as second languages in most nations. Although there are technically only two member states of the EU that officially as their National Language have English, Irish Republic and Malta the actual default language of the Commission, the Parliament and all other interactions between member states eg Finland to Spain, Italy to Hungary is English. French is a very distant second.

[@ronlevine8873]

I think it all started in 1588 when the British defeated the Spanish Armada. English became the dominant language when trading with other countries, and the British Empire had a presence around the world eclipsing even the Roman Empire. In the 20th Century, American dominance, media and technology helped to perpetuate what Britain started.

[@trinajcarrionvega3680]

Armada was defeated by a big storm, just be realistic. History tell what is suitable for the dominant side.

[@giannidalessio1100]

America didn't help to perpetuate what the British Empire started...better, America ECLIPSED British Empire!! 🇺🇸

[@johnbaldock6353]

Liverpool has Bucked the trend of speaking English!!🤣

[@ryanthomson1]

If any language will become the lingua franca it will be hindi, indians are traveling and settling all around the world, and with their population only increasing with it set to overtake China, it would make sense. Especially considering they have a large foothold in the West, Middle East and even other parts of Asia.

[@hayabusa1329]

Agreed. Not to mention, Chinese languages are very different from English and Indian languages are much closer to English.

[@rogerterry5013]

English? No gender, no cases. It’s a winner because with a little you can do a lot.

[@andrei1971]

More people should be curious about other cultures and languages. It's important in the grand scheme of this big beautiful planet that we all share and call home. Understanding of one another is a path to peace.

[@DeepSouthernTX]

British empire, american and british culture and technology that was spread through music, films and especially technology like windows, computers etc

[@levvellene570]

I'm a Norwegian, and both of my mother's parents spoke English, French and German to some degree, even before the nazis invaded us. After the war, they often travelled with a Norwegian shipping line known as the Hurtigruten (which ran between Bergen and Kirkenes, I think?). My grandmother once told me that even if they couldn't speak perfect English, the British were delighted to find someone who could communicate with them! The French were mostly insulted if you didn't speak French perfectly... So guess whose language ended up being the preferred language of trade throughout most of the world? 😉

[@xxxlik8805]

Yeah English is understandable worldwide but we don't pay attention to accent or grammar we only care about having a common and understanding each other. I watched how Chinese and Russian communicated In English they both had strong accents but they understood each other.

[@xolang]

I strongly doubt that French will be the next lingua franca despite the high birth rates in African countries. Even those from francophone background in Africa often use English to communicate with people from other countries. Also, French is most definitely not easier than English. Just the fact that it has grammatical genders, and let's not even start with the conjugation and how the forms are pronounced. the fact that parlait, parlais, parlaient are pronounced the same and barely distinguishable from parler, parlez and parlé is just an example.

[@LOKI77able]

Also, the stats predicting a spectacular demographic growth of the French language on the African continent are disputable to say the least...E.g. in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the largest and most populous officially French-speaking country, French is actually losing ground as was pointed out by an article appeared in French daily Le Monde back in 2016...last year I mentioned this fact to a Congolese university professor who confirmed this is indeed the case and advocated for Swahili as the official language of his country

[@jandron94]

@@LOKI77able Niger has the highest demographic natural growth in the world, followed by Angola and some other Francophone countries (RDC, Mali, Chad, Bénin). It is a fact. For sure when in 25 years near all of those countries will have a population higer that of France (67 million) and possibly a much higher GDP then the perspective will be quite different. If the current trend is maintained then in 2050 the population in Italy and Spain will be near 40 million each but above 40 million in more than 10 African Francophone countries (150M in RDC !) Indeed French is and will probably stay as a lingua franca in Africa besides English. One article of 2016 is not much information and at Le Monde they are extremelly keen on denigrating France (and especially France around the World) : I don't know excatly why but that's their trademark.

[@LOKI77able]

@@jandron94 In fact in my post I mentioned another source of information to back up my claim, namely a Congolese professor teaching history at a university in Kinshasa. When I got a chance to talk to him last year he confirmed that, in the east of the country Swahili is on the rise even as French is losing ground and he also explained that even many of his students, who have had French as the medium of instruction throughout their education and tend to come from the upper classes, still struggle with the French language - so much so that half of them sometimes even have a hard time understanding what they read as well as finding it hard to write assignments in it. Plus I read in a report published a few years ago by OIF (Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie) that, in present-day Congo-Kinshasa, French is no longer seen as a gateway to public sector jobs, which is one of the factors that used to make mastery of it attractive in the eyes of locals. The OIF report also points out that there are a few African countries such as Mali, Rwanda and Burundi where French has never been appropriated by the local populations, and also notes that the proportion of locals speaking French at home is very low or even almost negligible in other "Francophone" countries on the continent such as Tchad, Niger and Burkina Faso. Of course as ever reality is unpredictable so anything can happen, therefore you never know what the future holds for French and other languages that likewise have the potential of playing a (much) bigger role worldwide later in the 21st century.

[@jandron94]

@@LOKI77able What is important is the public use of the language and if it is on the rise or not. By the way Rwanda can't be put in the same bag, it's an anglophone country ! Indeed what matters is the present situation and what the future holds. What I know is that 50 years ago african francophones represented less than 15% of the Francophonie and that in 50 years they are most likely to represent 75% of the Francophonie. What a change ! The OIF says that in 2050 about 700 million people will speak French around the world. Wether they speak it only at school, in the administration, at home, wherever... it does not really matter. You know 200 years ago in France maybe only 25% of the population could speak proper standard French, the rest were speaking different "broad" patois and dialects like Breton, Alsacian, Flemish, Basque, Corsican, Creole, etc. In "French" Belgium people would then mostly speak Wallon or "Brusselaar". I don't know what your native language is but I presume that it might be Italian and that you consider all the Italians who at home speak a dialect still to be Italian locutors. I don't really care if French will be 2nd, 3rd or 4th in the future but one thing is certain is that France will be less and less the center of gravity in the Francophonie. In my recent trips to Africa I was surprised how the French language tends in some aspects to be more "valued" than in France and sometimes even better spoken than in France ! That being said I hope that in Africa the local traditionnal languages will be preserved. For instance in Ivory Coast many traditionnal languages are in danger of being eradicated by the French language. The world is better and nicer I think if it preserves its diversity in languages and cultures.

[@LOKI77able]

@@jandron94 That Africans will become (overwhelmingly) predominant within the French-speaking world at some point in this century is an easy bet, I totally agree. On another note, there is usually a close or fairly close link between the proportion of the population that speaks the official language at home and the actual spread of that language in the wider society as well as its use in daily life, that is why I was mentioning this kind of statistics in my previous comments. By the way, Rwanda is far from being an Anglophone country: while French is mastered by a small percentage of the local population (less than 5% according to a Flemish woman I met recently who spent several years there), English is by all accounts even less widespread.

[@C_B_Hubbs]

We should revive Classical Latin as the popular international auxiliary language, as well as the language of science and arts.

[@galacthicc693]

No

[@mbasir]

The most important factor isn't mentioned at all: The english language simplicity. The english grammar is A LOT simpler than any other language, including esperanto. The language has no grammatical gender, no grammatical cases and so on. French is way to complicated to be the next lingua franca.

[@jlouis4407]

The base and sentence formations are Germanic with loads of Latin and other languages on top. If an English speaker is at home talking about mundane things they use Germanic words, if they are talking philosophy they use Latinate and Greek words. Most words are one to two syllables. 90% of words over two syllables come from Latin.

[@timfagan1333]

English will remain the worlds language due to its high fault tolerence, adaptability and simple grammer. It is often said that english is hard because of all its irregularities - but all languages have those - one just has to learn them. However, some languages have only one way of saying something and if you don't know it you can't say it - and this is where english shines! With its many words and lack of gender modulation a poor speaker can still commiunicate well. If the tenses are mixed up, plurals etc in english the message can still mostly get through. It's not tonal like chineese - simpler for to speak, has about the same tonal variation as most other languages (10) whereas french has less (3). The lack of verb, noun and adjective conjucation simplifies the learnin too.

[@mattbosley3531]

Because of the British and the Americans. The British started it with their empire and the Americans continued it with their widespread influence and huge entertainment industry.

[@keacoq]

The conventional wisdom that you espouse is that English became powerful because English speakers liked to travel and wanted to settle. I think you ignore important technical advantages that helped English spread, and perhaps helped spread anglophone culture. Small alphabet with no accents, no gender, simple conjugation, spelling only loosely connected to pronounciation, so it is easy to borrow words, nobody in charge (so develops naturally), Because of this easy to be understood in, if not to speak well. English, the low prestige language in middle age England, displaced French, the high prestige language. Usually the reverse happens. I think that French was the prestige language, but English the language of business, So I suggest that technical advantages played a signigficant part in the spread of English. I live in France, and it is incredible to see how much English is used. Often the English version of something is shorter, crisper, gender/conjugation free. So often I see things in English and wonder why. Looking at the French translation reasons become evident. A French version is often longer, needs conjugation and gender, or was decided by a French Government agency. Example "STOP" signs, using the imperative from English. In French you'd need at least go to "Stopper", Instructions are often constructed with Je rather than imperative, or with 'on' rather than 'nous', all seemingly in attempts to keep things crisp. Solution: Use the English that is just easier.... Sometimes there is no good equivalent French word.