Speak English!!

[NissanGurl]

It was inevitable I suppose considering English speaking contries create the widest worldwide media broadcasts available (yes, I consider movies as a form of media).

BBC Article

If it hadn't been English, what would you guess the "world language" would be?

My guess would have been spanish or another Romance language.

 

[Qwest]

on a somewhat related note

English and French are the official languages used at the Olympic Games as well as the United Nations.

 

[3chordcharlie]

If the last 500 years of world history played out differently?

Almost certainly Spanish or French.

 

[Casawi]

French is very useless! trust me on that

 

[dsfunk]

Originally posted by: 3chordcharlie
If the last 500 years of world history played out differently?

Almost certainly Spanish or French.

no chance for German eh?

 

[AdamSnow]

Not a huge fan of French either... heh

 

[djheater]

Esperanto of course.

 

[Casawi]

I spoke french my entire life learned English in past 3 years and i havent spoken frensh for a good six months maybe. I use it for nothing. I cant even stand surfing in french sites

 

[3chordcharlie]

Originally posted by: dsfunk

Originally posted by: 3chordcharlie
If the last 500 years of world history played out differently?

Almost certainly Spanish or French.

no chance for German eh?

I think that would have been too much of a leap; though not impossible.

France and Spain were both legitimately dominant world powers for extended periods of time. Both engaged in the same sort of colonialism as Britain, and both had the same sort of widespread (albeit somewhat ambivalent) support from those colonies.

To dominate the world takes more than military power, it takes cultural pervasiveness as well.

 

[JDub02]

Originally posted by: NissanGurl
It was inevitable I suppose considering English speaking contries create the widest worldwide media broadcasts available (yes, I consider movies as a form of media).

BBC Article

If it hadn't been English, what would you guess the "world language" would be?

My guess would have been spanish or another Romance language.

German or Russian .. because if it wasn't for the English speaking countries (US and UK), Germany would have won WW2 ... Without us, Russia probably would have kept it's alliance in WW2 with Germany, so no telling how the nuclear race in the 70's and 80's would have played out.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Dude, it's totally Chinese. Over 1 billion people speak it, I would bet that that is much more than the number of people that speak Spanish or French.

 

[jadinolf]

Originally posted by: dsfunk

Originally posted by: 3chordcharlie
If the last 500 years of world history played out differently?

Almost certainly Spanish or French.

no chance for German eh?

I'm glad I'm not German.



I can't speak it.

 

[Phoenix86]

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
Dude, it's totally Chinese. Over 1 billion people speak it, I would bet that that is much more than the number of people that speak Spanish or French.

It wouldn't surprise me if more people spoke Chinese, but almost all of them are in China. By contrast a lot of people speak English who don't live in the US/UK.

 

[nakedfrog]

I'm a native English speaker, and took French, Spanish, and German in school (in that order) and like German the best out of those three, and French the least.