The English language originated in Britain and the ever-expanding British Empire spread Modern English around the world during the 18th and 19th centuries. This is why many of the countries where English is an official language were former British colonies, including Canada, Australia, South Africa and the United States. English is also widely spoken in India and in parts of Africa. Although Hindi is the most widely-spoken language in India today, English remains an official language in the country and is often used in university education, and within the field of politics. Officially, just 12% of Indian people speak English, with many only speaking it as a second language. Nevertheless, the country has an extremely dense population, meaning that this 12% cross-section of society exceeds 100 million people.
As a result, India has one of the largest English-speaking populations on the planet. As in the Caribbean, a number of African countries have English as an official language because of colonialism. In all of Africa — a population of about 1.2 billion — only 6.5 million people speak English as their native language. But following the pattern of a number of other continents, a number of Africans have learned English as a second language. Around 237 million people in Africa speak English in total (including native and non-native speakers). All foreign business organizations operating in Korea, whether they are from English-speaking countries or not, would also benefit from Korea's two official languages policy.
The same would be true of international governmental and non-governmental organizations operating in Korea. The region with the least Spanish speakers, Asia has hosted the Spanish language since the sixteenth century, when Spanish explorers colonized the Philippines and set about imposing their rule and spreading Christianity. Here, Spanish was spoken primarily by the elite – businesspeople, intellectuals, missionaries and the local court. Briefly in 1973, then finally in 1987, Spanish lost its title as the Philippines' official language. Despite having two different official languages, Canada has the third largest English-speaking population, with somewhere in the region of 20 million native speakers, while Australia is next in the list, with around 17 million.
The European Union is a supranational union composed of 27 member states. The inner curve of this bean-shaped province fits around the northwest border of Lesotho, a country where Sesotho and English are the official languages. Over a third (36.2%) of all Sesotho-speaking South Africans live in Gauteng.
Third, Korean academic, arts and sports organizations could more actively participate in their respective international conferences and activities. In particular, the Korean sightseeing business will greatly benefit from this dual official language policy. Finally, Korean educational institutions would benefit greatly. It could produce more competent and internationalized students and attract more foreign students and scholars. Most importantly, the educational gap between students from rich and poor families would be greatly reduced because all students would learn both the dual language and non-language courses at all levels of schools. Those countries recognizing English as the only official language are either the countries whose majority of the people are English-speaking ethnic groups or are former colonies of the U.K.
And are populated by one dominant language group or equally numerous language groups. With over 400 million native speakers, Spanish has now become the second most commonly-spoken language on the world stage. English ranks as the third most commonly-spoken language with nearly 340 million native speakers around the world, in over 90 countries.
Unlike many other countries, the United States does not have an official national language policy. Educational language policy in the country is largely the result of widely held beliefs and values about immigrants and patriotism. Language policies, implicit or explicit, are used to influence and control social behavior, and the U.S. is no different. Nothing prohibits states from having one or official languages, and a majority of U.S. states have designed English their official language policies.
How Many Countries Speak Urdu New Mexico and the Common Wealth of Puerto Rico have designated both English and Spanish as co-official languages. The state of Hawaii also has two official languages, English and Hawaiian (ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi). English has evolved to become an international language with over half a billion people occupying the native speaker space, with another one and a half billion learning or using English as a secondary or foreign language.
That is what makes English unique to the world—the total number of English speakers globally, not the number of native speakers. The Caribbean Sea encompasses over 7,000 islands, including the famous tourist destinations of Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and Barbados. Taken all together, the Caribbean islands, sometimes referred to as the West Indies, are incredibly diverse, yet they share distinct historical traits, behaviors, and values which have created a Caribbean culture and identity. For countries like Jamaica and other islands, English is a shared language. Not only is it a shared language, but it is the mother tongue, making these groups of English-speaking Caribbean islanders indeed native English speakers. There is a great deal of diversity in India, both in terms of culture and language – hundreds of dialects are used here, and in fact the 2001 census identified no less than 26 different mother tongues with more than a million speakers.
However, in Indian universities, the language of instruction is largely English, especially at postgraduate level, and there are often language classes available for non-native speakers to strengthen their knowledge of the language. The costs of living in India is very affordable, and tuition fees are also on the low side, with courses usually costing US$3,300-7,800. If you want to study in English in Singapore, the good news is that English is one of its official languages, with around 80 percent of the population fluent, and it's also the official language of instruction at universities. However, costs in Singapore are relatively high – as an example, undergraduate tuition fees at NUS started at S$17,550 (~US$13,000) in 2018, and the high standard of living is matched by high living costs.
This is another country with a high percentage of English speakers. Higher education is free for Austrian nationals and students from the EU. Students from non-EU countries can expect to pay €726.72 (~US$815) per semester.
Dutch has always been the mother tongue of the majority of people in Flanders, but it was not always recognised as such because Flanders was governed by many foreign rulers in the past. When the French took over in the 18 th century, Dutch was deliberately pushed aside. French was the language of the upper and middle classes and the ruling elite. In 1898 Dutch was finally granted official status, but as change was slow, it was decided in 1963 to make it the only language allowed in Flemish education and public life.
Nowadays, there are 6 million speakers of Dutch in Flanders The southern part of Belgium, Wallonia, remained entirely French-speaking and the capital, Brussels, is bilingual. Often in America such people are the children of immigrants; these children grow up speaking their parents' native language in their childhood home while speaking English at school. Many bilinguals, however, are not immigrants; it is not uncommon for people born in the U.S. to speak English at school or work and another language at home.
Children can also become bilingual if their parents speak more than one language to them, or if some other significant person in their life speaks to them consistently in another language. Sometimes a child will grow up in a household in which each parent speaks a different language; in that case, the child may learn to speak to each parent in that parent's language. In short, a young child who is regularly exposed to two languages from an early age will most likely become a fluent native speaker of both languages.
The largest English speaking countries are located in North America--the United States and Canada. Although English and French are both the official languages in Canada, fully 85 percent of that country's population speaks English. In addition to the US and Canada, several Caribbean countries speak English.
These are primarily the countries that were colonized by England, and include Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, Grenada, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Bermuda, still a part of Great Britain, speaks primarily English as does the tiny, Central American country of Belize. Many westerners have heard of Mali and the northern city of Timbuktu. The population of 18.5 million speaks French as the official language.
Other major languages spoken include Bambara, Berber, and Arabic. The second concentric tier of English, the outer circle, grew roots through imperial expansion of Great Britain in the continents of Asia and Africa. In countries like India, Nigeria, Malaysia, and the Philippines (via U.S. colonialism), English is not the native language, but it is the auxiliary language, or the lingua franca, between ethnic and language groups. This plays out in countries like India where there are over 20 official languages belonging to different ethnic groups, but English is the common denominator in institutions like higher academia, government, and national commerce.
More than 300 million people speak French on the five continents. The OIF, an international organisation of French-speaking countries, comprises 88 member States and governments. French is the second most widely learned foreign language after English, and the fifth most widely spoken language in the world. The truth is that there will probably always be immigrants in the U.S., coming from a wide variety of countries, who cannot speak English but whose grandchildren and great-grandchildren will end up being native English speakers. The reason for this is, again, the fact that it is much easier for children to learn another language than it is for adults. Adults who immigrate to the U.S., especially later in life, may never really become fluent in English.
It's not that they don't want to speak English; it's simply much more difficult for them to learn it well. Their children, however, will be able to pick up English easily from their friends and the society around them. These second-generation immigrants, the children of the adult immigrants, are likely to be bilingual, speaking their parents' language at home and English at school and in the English-speaking community.
When they grow up and have children of their own, those children - the third generation - will most likely speak only English, both at home with their bilingual parents and in the English-speaking community. This three-generation pattern has been repeating itself for many years, through wave after wave of immigrants. Many adults today who speak only English can remember grandparents and great-grandparents who spoke very little English, who instead spoke mostly Polish, Italian, German, or Swedish - the language of the country they grew up in. In sum, bilingualism isn't a danger either to the English language or to the bilingual speakers themselves. On the contrary, there are many advantages to bilingualism, both for the individual and for the society as a whole.
English enjoys tremendous dominance in the U.S. and in the world. But if history is any indication, there will always be people in the U.S. who cannot speak English - and they will have grandchildren who do. The United States does not have an official language, but the country uses English, specifically American English, for legislation, regulation and other official pronouncements. America is a land of immigrations and the languages spoken in the United States vary as a result of the multi-cultural population. The second most common language spoken in the United States is Spanish or Spanish Creole, which over 41,75 million people spoke at home in 2019.
There were also 3.49 million Chinese speakers,1.76 million Tagalog speakers and 1.57 million Vietnamese speakers counted in the United States that year. Yet at the same time that the benefits of bilingualism have been discovered, education systems in English-speaking countries have continued to be relatively neglectful of foreign languages. In the UK, the number of schoolchildren choosing to study a second language to A-level standard has halved since the early 1990s. The US has seen a small rise in the number of children taking high-school language courses but the proportion still remains even lower than in the UK.
Compare that with continental Europe, where multilingualism is the rule rather than the exception. More than half of EU citizens are bilingual, and not just because they live in countries like Luxembourg with multiple official languages. Even in France, which has only one official language and is immensely proud of its linguistic heritage, most people speak a second language. Many countries have English designated as the de jure official language, meaning it is legally recognized as the official language. In some cases, English may be the official language but may not be the primary language. This means that English can be used in business, education, and official documents but may not be the majority of its residents' primary language.
India is the most populous nation with English as its official language, with over 1 billion people. The smallest nation where English is an official language is Niue, which has a population of just 1,600 people. Most African countries have many different official languages. South Africa, for example, has 11 different official languages, and even more languages and dialects are spoken in the country.
Though English is listed as an official language in these countries, many people may not speak English. In Namibia, for example, only 7% of the population speaks English, even though it is the only official language. Below, we provide a breakdown of some of the most significant countries that have English as either a de jure or a de facto official language.
The countries have been sorted based on their geographical location. An official language is defined as a language used by the citizens of that country during interactions with their government. It should be noted that some of the countries listed have more than one official language and, therefore, English may not necessarily be their most common native language. In Canada for instance, there are two official languages – English and French.
The Canadian federal government is required to be fully bilingual, offering all services to its citizens, in both languages. By doing so, the government claims to be able to effectively communicate with 98 percent of its residents. In others, there are several, and in a few, there is no official language at all – and this is what interests us.
Last time, we wrote about the repercussions of establishing an official language, and explored some European countries. But what impact does not having an official language have on a nation and its people? People often call English the international language of business, and it's increasingly true as international trade expands every year, bringing new countries into contact. Many of the best MBA programs are taught in English, so speaking it well can put you in a position to get the best training and credentials.
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 and people are learning English. Meanwhile, the U.S. does not have a nationwide foreign-language mandate at any level of education. Many states allow individual school districts to set language requirements for high school graduation, and primary schools have very low rates of even offering foreign-language course work. Some foreign-language learning standards can be met by taking non-language classes. For example, California requires one course in either the arts or a foreign language for all high school students.
English language, West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family that is closely related to the Frisian, German, and Dutch languages. English originated in England and is the dominant language of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and various island nations in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. It is also an official language of India, the Philippines, Singapore, and many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa. English is the first choice of foreign language in most other countries of the world, and it is that status that has given it the position of a global lingua franca. It is estimated that about a third of the world's population, some two billion persons, now use English. There are also nations where English is a de facto national language, meaning that it exists in reality and is practiced, even though it is not officially recognized by law.
