Isn English spoken world-wide already?
Don Harlow: Interestingly, while English was spoken by about 10 % of the world’s population in 1900, and by about 11 % in 1950, it is today spoken by about 8.5-9 %. The corollary is that, for better than 90 % of the world’s population, it is not the de facto means of international communication. David Wolff: English is a very difficult language to learn unless you’ve been immersed in it since birth. English spelling is said to be more difficult than any other language except Gaelic. English grammar, although it may be fairly simple, is riddled with exceptions. Verbs are very often irregular. Many people just aren’t going to devote several years of effort to learn it! English has gained its present stature because of the current economic and political power of English-speaking countries. In the past, every super-power has briefly seen its native tongue used internationally: France, Spain, Portugal, the Roman empire. In fact, one of the main reasons why Esperanto was never adopted by the
