Teach English in Yuetan Jiedao - Beijing

English as a global languageNowadays, English is widely used as an official language in many countries, i.e. Great Britain, united states and Australia to name just a few. These countries, through their power and other factors, influenced people of other nationalities to use English, when communicating to them, as well as between each other.Number of English speakers has increased enormously since reign of Queen Elizabeth 1st and probably there are as many as one billion speakers who use English world-wide. What makes English a global language? It is not the number of people who use it as their native language, because only small part of people speaking English is native. It may be the number of countries who declared English as an official language and use it in their government institutions. More than 70 nations do so. However, the most convincing argument, for English to hold the title of a global language, is the recognition of its universal use on international arena reflected in the teaching programmes of most of the countries. Children, whether east or west, are most likely to go to school where English language lessons would be an option. If this is not possible, their parents would still like their kids to learn it privately. English is a language of former colonial administrations, world language for international communication, diplomacy and business, scientific and technological research and publications and in some nations considered a ?neutral? language. Why English is a global language? There were other global languages before, for example Latin. They are no longer the most important languages, because people who made them this way are no longer most powerful in the world. Christians lost their dominance some time ago, and so Latin language. USA is, or was, leading country both economically and militarily for decades, so their politics and language are highly regarded in the world. Moreover, they were at the centre of technological boom, which found English incorporated in most of the computer systems and TV shows, including advertisements. united kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada played their part in this process too. With the ease of communication, both physically and electronically, non-native countries are getting increasingly more exposure to English language. However near or far they live they may meet native-speaker of English language on their own street. Alternatively, they can firstly communicate via internet and then visit others in another part of the world. Larger international organisations seek employees who speak English, so that they can benchmark their practices with colleagues from other countries. Some linguists argue that the language itself lends itself to becoming a world language. English is a hybrid language which has borrowed extensively from other languages, has avoided extreme forms of prescriptivism. Therefore, English has a great range of rules for the formation of new words for ex. English as a global language. Is it good or bad? It is easy to notice the many advantages of one global language. It is helping people to travel and talk to others without having to learn specific language, as long as both parties speak some English. It is much easier for scientists and scholars to share their knowledge, so that new solutions, technologies and cures can be developed. Politics became much easier and can reach further, which can be proven by the existence of United Nations and other such organisations. However, there are disadvantages of this phenomenon. The major one is the perceived laziness of native-speakers, who may believe that they do not need to speak any other language. It can be often noticed in tourist-populated areas, where local people are forced to speak English or they will lose customers or in some cases face verbal abuse, which they may not understand.