English. It is known as the world’s second language, and for more reasons than we think. An astonishing two billion of the world’s population is learning English as a second language, while in China, the idea of learning English far surpasses personal desire and is implemented by law from the third grade. It is the world’s third largest English speaking country, after India and the United states of America. In India, which harbors over 350 million speakers, higher education is taught entirely in English. Throughout Asia and in parts of the Middle East, English can be seen in government documents, billboard adverts, film subtitles, restaurant menus, and even the labels on medicine bottles. It’s safe to say that learning English is one of the world’s biggest trends.

Anybody with a basic knowledge of the language has probably at some point wondered: why English? An array of contextually and culturally dependent answers could be put forward. In Asia, it could be generalized that it seems to be because English came to be as a result of colonization, very similarly to the Caribbean.  However, it must be noted that English has coexisted in many of the sub-continents of Asia prior to this, as a second language. It was also thriving long after these countries have claimed independence. If we move the compass more towards the West and begin to dissect the influence of English in the Middle East, it is much less pronounced; it is not one of the top five languages spoken there, and shares the absence of a European language on the list, although the Middle East was once not too long ago a war ground between the East and the West. The British, once they established control of the Persian gulf, the French expanding their influence into Lebanon and Syria, and the Italians seizing Libya and the Dodecanese Islands. It seems then that colonization and war, although integral to the emergence of languages, is not enough alone to account for the prevalence and  growth of English. For, interestingly, it is the countries that were not colonized, such as the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, where English is taught and used as a second language.

Perhaps, we should travel further towards the West and observe Europe, in which English boasts the lingua franca, with 2 out of 3 Europeans speaking the language. Many argue that this is because of the lexical similarity of English to French, or because around half of the words in English have Latin origins, or simply because of the geographical proximity of the UK and the rest of the EU as well as it’s membership and close political ties within the EU. Whilst these are all valid reasons and play a role in the growth of English, they are also not enough as a stand alone in explaining the frenzy for English across the world. So what does the world have in common with English? Is it really a matter of coincidental colonization, and lucky chance that the linguistic structure of English seems to be easier than other non-native languages?

The truth is, there is no proper answer. Sure, we can propel ourselves in time instead of direction, turn around to the person next to us studying linguistics, and ask; ‘Why did you learn English?’ But there would be a different set of answers for each individual, a detailed account of their childhood bouncing between International schools, or their parents coming to the UK for a better education – the list is endless. And it’s because language questions culture and identity;  English questions culture and identity, but we’ve chosen to let it bring us together. English isn’t being pushed into the world, we are pulling it in, pushing our differences aside, declaring it the centripetal force in our rotation with the Earth. English is the language of politics, business, international affairs,  and education. It is the language of the world, and we’re all in the scramble to learn as much of it as we can.