English
has become a world language. People from different countries and parts of the
world use it to communicate with each other. English is one of the languages of
the United Nations and the European Union. It is the language of computers,
science, industry, business, education, medicine, music, film, sport, travel
and tourism. So you will need English in your life and work. You will need it
when you meet people from other countries or to understand the latest hits and
computer games and you will need it if you want to become a rock star, a
computer expert, a shop assistant, a pilot, a tourist guide, an engineer, a
taxi driver, a businesswoman, an actor, an athlete, a teacher, a scientist, a footballer, a doctor, a
waitress or a ship captain.
The language that has the
greatest number of people who speak it as their mother tongue is Chinese.
English is number two. It is the mother tongue of 400 million people in the
United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and
parts of the Caribbean. But this is not the whole story. If we put together the
number of native speakers of English and those who speak it as their second
language in countries like India, Pakistan or South Africa, for example, as
well as those who learn it at school and speak it as a foreign language all
over the world, English is a clear winner. Over one billion people in the world
or 20% of the world population speak English.
