A Foreign Language: English
About one hundred years ago many educated
people learned and spoke French when they met
people.................... other countries. Today most
people speak English when they meet foreigners. It
has become the new international language. There are
more people who speak English as a second language
than people who speak English as a first language.
Why is this?
There are many reasons why English has become
so popular. One............... them is that English
has become the language of business. Another
important reason is that popular American culture
(like movies, music, and McDonald’s) has quickly
spread throughout the world. It has brought its
language it.
Is it good that English has spread all parts
of the world so quickly? I don’t know. It’s important to
have a language that the people of the earth have in
common. Our world has become very global and we
need to communicate with one another. On the other
hand, English is a fairly complicated language to learn
and it brings its culture with it. Do we really need that?
Scientists have already tried to create an artificial language that isn’t too difficult and doesn’t include any
one group’s culture. It is called Esperanto. But it hasn’t
become popular. But maybe the popularity of English
won’t last that long either. Who knows? There are
more people in the world who speak Chinese than any
other language. Maybe someday Chinese will be the
new international language.