Status Quo of English as International Language

Papai Patra, 

Research Fellow, 

Centre for Translation and Literary Geography (CTLG), 

University of Calcutta

Briefing on why English has been considered as the status quo of International Language  so far ?

• Language is an important factor or component of the Human beings in this enormous world. 'Language' enables us to communicate with each other, it allows us to exchange our ideas and opinions. The presence of English Language has spilled over into almost every field, physically and virtually that energies the aspects of our everyday life. English has opened so many doors for the average person allowing them to access to the better jobs and migration opportunities.

There was a concept of something called 'Global', related to anything that reaches the international level. But an auto-generated experiment happened with English Language. People, not the native English speaker, always feel some comfort to communicate in their own language but with a slight or heavy touch of English. Therefore, English Language has also taken the soft corner of almost every society and class. The mixture of English with other languages has generated a new concept called, 'Glocal', the mixture of 'Global and Local'. The world today is so closely linked as a result of Globalisation. And that is a prime example and cause of English being a language of international level.

About 1.53 billion people speak English worldwide, but the number of native English speakers is significantly lower. The United States has the most native English speakers, with around 244 million people speaking English as their first language. The United Kingdom follows with approximately 59 million native English speakers. Other countries with significant native English-speaking populations include Canada (20 million), Australia (17 million), and New Zealand (4.5 million).

So, more than 300 million people around the world speak English as a first language and more than 430 million speaking it as a second language, there are English speakers in most countries around the world.

This English language has so many historical events to form it. English Language become the primary language of official status quo. English Language increases our chances of getting a good job in a multinational company. It’s also the language of international communication, the media and the internet and in today’s world most of the time every official of unofficial work circulates through the English Language. So learning English is very important for socialising and entertainment as well as work. But if we want to know it’s versatility and the consideration as the international language, I mean how it became a worldwide language so we have to go through it’s historical movements or events. Once upon a time the native English speakers i.e. Britishers ruled the world politically; at present the same country ruling this world in the terms of 'Culture.' This is the major reason behind English being an international language. In English there is a famous quote that is ‘the sun never sets in British Empire’. British rule was established from the North sphere to the South sphere, in many South Asian countries and some countries in Africa. In such a vast empire they had successfully established their language as a means of communication among the inhabitants of the countries they ruled. If we talk about the necessity of English by the aspect of the Business communication than we have to remember that most multinational companies require a certain degree of English proficiency from potential employees so in order to get a position with a top company, more people are learning English. So learning English is very important in our everyday life. We should take it as a global phenomenon.