But it makes _no sense_

[andrewducker]

At least, none that I've discovered so far.

According to The Guardianthe global spread of English is a threat to the UK..  This is because:

as the number of people around the world who speak English nears 2 billion, the advantage traditionally enjoyed by UK citizens is disappearing, with millions of students in other countries speaking English and at least one other language.

The reports author says

"When we are in competition economically, educationally or culturally, conversing in English alone is no longer enough." The report found that English is not taught as a foreign language in many countries, including China and India. Instead it is seen as a "basic universal skill."

So because everyone else now speaks our language we're at a _disadvantage_?

Oh no!  We can work anywhere in the world, with absolutely anyone and be understood across the entire of the financial and technical industries, whatever will we do!

Can someone please explain to me what the problem is?

Comments

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

Oh - it's not English that a large proportion of students etc speak, by the way.

Take a look around - we're not in charge.

It's American English. I am always vaguely amused that (in my experience of Europeans of varying nationalities) very often teenagers etc will speak English with a pronounced American accent, using American slang (even more than the average youngster here)

Of course, I have no idea whether Americans tend to be multilingual or not. I'd suspect not, excepting Spanish and American English, but I wouldn't know for sure.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

Your suspicion is correct. Most citizens of the U.S.A are monolingual. The joke goes that "Someone who speaks French and English is French. Someone who speaks German and English is German. Someone who speaks Chinese and English is Chinese, someone who speaks several languages is a polyglot, and someone who speaks only English... is an American." Spanish is probably the most common second language - or perhaps I should say the most common first where English is second.

Americans generally do seem to like an mild English accent, which means it's popular enough to many attempt, but is generally not present or studied enough for an American to actually get right.

I was surprised when I once had an Egyptian professor who spoke English with what seemed to me to be a German accent.

[andrewducker]

There's a certain amount of bilingualism in the US, but only in areas where Mexican immigration has been quite high. Other than that I believe they're even worse than the English.