7. English World-Wide

English is now the international language for airline pilots, scientists, medical experts, businessmen and many others. Consequently, more and more people are learning it. The BBC's English teaching radio programmes are broadcast daily to four continents and supplied to radio stations in 120 countries. Films and video are on the air or used in institutions in over 100 countries. All this helps to add more speakers to the estimated 100 million who use English as a second language. The rush to learn English has reached even China. The main reason for the upsurge in interest is the recent increase in China's contacts with the outside world.

Unlike many other widely used languages, English can be correctly used in very simple form with less than one thousand basic words and very few grammatical rules. This was pointed out in the 1920's by two Cambridge scholars, Ogden and Richards, who devised a system called "Basic English". Another reason for the popularity of English is that English-speaking countries are spread throughout the world. An estimated 310 million people in Britain. U.S.A., Canada, Australia, South Africa, etc. use English as their mother tongue. Also in former British colonial areas in Africa and Asia where many local languages are spoken, no common language has been found which would make a suitable substitute for English.

In Delhi, although nationalists would prefer to phase out the use of English, the man from South India finds English more acceptable than Hindi, while the northerner prefers English to any of the southern languages. Turning from India to Africa, a similar problem exists. However reluctant African nations are to use English and, as it were, subject themselves to a kind of "cultural imperialism", there seems to be no alternative language which will do the job of communication effectively.

The view that spreading the use of English is entirely beneficial has its opponents. Some teachers who have returned from overseas consider it creates a wider gap between those who are educated and those who have little or no education. Nevertheless, in many parts of the world, the technical and scientific knowledge needed to develop a country's resources and improve people's living conditions, is just not available in the mother tongue. A second language opens the door to the world-wide sharing of skills and discoveries in science, engineering and medicine.

As for the future, it seems certain that English in one form or another will be spoken by far more people than it is today. It will doubtless continue to change and develop as a living language always does.