21. English Everywhere

Because I am interested in what happens to the English language, over the past year or so I’ve been asking people, at dinner parties and 1)professionalgatherings and so on, whether they think that English is well on its way to being the 2)globallanguage. 3)Typically, they look puzzled about why I would even bother to ask such an 4)obviousquestion. They say firmly, “of course.” Then they start talking about the 5)internet.

English has 6) inarguably achieved some sort of global 7) status. Whenever we turn on the news to find out what’s happening in East Asia, or Africa, or South America, or practically any place, 8) local people are being interviewed in English and they are telling us about it in English. When pope John Paul II arrived in the Middle East to speak to Christians, Muslims and Jews, he spoke not Latin, not Arabic, not Hebrew, not his native Polish. He spoke in English.

English is the working language of many world organizations. It is the working language of 98 percent of German research physicists and 83 percent of German research chemists. 9) It is the official language of the European Central Bank, even though the bank is in Frankfurt and neither Britain nor any other English-speaking country is a member of the European Monetary Union. 10) It is the language in which black parents in South Africa wish their children to be educated.