French was the medium of
exchange in international forums till a century ago. English was lagging French
till 1st world war. It is
The growth of English in
last 100 years comes from these factors - Colonialism, British & American
soft & political power, scientific research in English etc.
- Colonialism - Former British
colonies continued to accept English. Today India has the largest number
of English speakers (mostly as secondary language) and most widely
circulated newspaper in an Indian newspaper. In 21st century, French is
taking a beating in Francophone regions and they are gradually switching
to English. French has suffered most in North America (USA & Canada)
and the number of French speakers have come down significantly in last 100
years. Even South Americans have started to learn English at the cost of
Spanish & Portuguese.
- American & British soft
power - It is impossible for Chinese of Japanese cinema to even come
closer to Hollywood. Even Indian cinema is number 2 in the world. The
British legacy of Oxford, Cambridge and its elegant culture has sill some
impact on the world. Most of big technical giants like Microsoft, Google,
Facebook etc are American companies and they rule the internet. Soviets
were not able to match American soft power and they failed to produce even
a “Jeans”.
- Superpower - English is de
facto (not official language) of America and official language of Britain.
These two countries have dominated the world after the defeat of Napoleon
in Waterloo (1815).
- Scientific Research - Look at the noble prize in science by counties. America and Britain are in top 3 along with Germany. It is more likely that a scientific paper is published in English than other language.
English is spoken by 41%
of Europeans, while only 19% speak French. French has lost the plot in its home
continent. I have visited Germany many times and faced hardly any language
problem. Today China & Russia has started teaching English in a big way.
Soft power plays a bigger part in spread of language. Even India has an edge
over China in soft power in western world. China will become no. 1 economy soon
but I don’t see Mandarin becoming most dominant language in next 100 years. It
would be an achievement for Mandarin if they beat French & Spanish in
international forum to become no.2 Language.
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