01-13-2012, 10:10 PM
I think there are about 550 million English as a first language speaker (USA, UK, Canada, Australia, and NZ), and then there are far more second language speakers around the world from the colonial legacy (Nigeria, Zimbabwe, South Africa, India, Sri Lanka, Kenya), and then there are substantial numbers of speakers in Asia and Europe for economic reasons.
English is by far the most widely spoken language in the world right now, but not as a native tongue. As Fred said, it is largely the lingua franca of international discussion.
There's a lot of talk about Mandarin replacing English, but there isn't a widespread trend of learning Chinese in the West, and when it is available it is usually only at universities or maybe a handful of private language schools.
Also, I disagree that Westerner's tend to lump all Asians together as Chinese, this would depend on where you're from. Most of the Asian people in Montreal are from former French colonies like Vietnam and Laos. We also have substantial Chinese and Korean populations and anyone who doesn't make a deliberate attempt at social ignorance would be aware of this.
English is by far the most widely spoken language in the world right now, but not as a native tongue. As Fred said, it is largely the lingua franca of international discussion.
There's a lot of talk about Mandarin replacing English, but there isn't a widespread trend of learning Chinese in the West, and when it is available it is usually only at universities or maybe a handful of private language schools.
Also, I disagree that Westerner's tend to lump all Asians together as Chinese, this would depend on where you're from. Most of the Asian people in Montreal are from former French colonies like Vietnam and Laos. We also have substantial Chinese and Korean populations and anyone who doesn't make a deliberate attempt at social ignorance would be aware of this.
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