English is spoken by about 400 million people in Australia, Britain, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and the USA. In India and Singapore, English is used as a working language. In China and many other countries, it's the most important foreign language that children learn at school, because when they grow up, it will be quite possible for them to meet people from other countries. They will need a common language to communicate with each other. English is now used by about a quarter of the world's population, and wherever you go in the world, there is a good chance that you will meet someone who speaks English.
The reason why English is spoken everywhere is that in 19th century, the UK sold its industrial products all over the world. And in the 20th century, the US spread English to the world through newspapers, television and films. It is now the common language for international travel, science, industry, and recently, information, technology and the Internet.
English has borrowed many words from other languages.For example, "restaurant" from French, "zero" from Arabic, "piano" from Italian, and "tofu" from Chinese.
Will the importance of English last? As China continues to grow, many people think that Chinese will become as common as English by the middle of the 2lth century. More and more schools in Europe are teaching Chinese as a foreign language. Chinese may be the next world language in the future.
So who owns English? The answer is everyone who speaks it — the British, the Indians and the Chinese all help make it a rich language. It changes every year with new words and expressions.
Even though there are differences in grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling, we all belong to the international English speaking world.
