International English

English as a global language

English is often referred to as a world language or global language. It isn’t, however, an official language in most countries across the world and its status was brought to it as it is most often taught as a foreign language and is, therefore, widely spoken. No surprise then that English is an official language of the United Nations and other internationals committees and organisations. Books and newspapers written in English are available around the world and even though it has no official status of being the universal language on the Internet I think most of us realise this is how things look in reality.

Why English?
There’s one major reason why English has attained its position as a global language and it’s the economical and political importance of today’s English-speaking countries with the huge, world-scale domination of the US. At the same time it doesn’t mean that linguistically English is suitable as a universal language. I would even go far enough to say it isn’t.  Due to the fluency of native speakers whilst speaking English problems arise with non-native speakers not being able to understand and the former having an unfair advantage when discussing things orally or even in writing. Also,native speakers get misunderstood easily as they tend to use rare words, idioms, speak fast and have varieties of accents. Even amongst native English speakers there are skirmishes over dominancy as there are numerous regional accents and variations.

Not the easiest at all…
There is a myth about how English is supposedly the easiest language one can learn. A seemingly endless repertoire of idioms, synonyms with totally different connotations, an immense number of words with irregular spellings and grammatical forms, complex grammatical tenses, rich vocabulary resulting from word borrowings… the list goes on. Look at the following:

The bandage was wound around the wound.
I subject the subject.
Soldier wants to desert his dessert in the desert.
I’m too close to the door to close it.
It comes to the point when you as a student wonder about how ridiculous English is.