@Bruce, if you analyze everything one writes here like that, you can find a stereotype in every sentence. You are, in the sheer letter, right. Yes, nobody has ever pointed a gun at my head and said: learn English. But, if we had to express ourselves like that, that precise, it would be like we all 'd be politicians and italki is the parliament. English is, say, socially and economically that important that it's hard to avoid. In short that is called 'forced upon', by Rosia. And everyone here knows what she means, and she means no harm.

Never! Well, I almost use English at my work. One can't deny the fact that it is the language of business, science, news..etc. Here, if you want to get a good job, you need to speak and write good English. However, I speak pure Arabic with my friends and family and I still can express myself better in my mother tongue. I still believe that poetry and different arts are more beautiful and astonishing in my native language because I can understand them deeply and I can figure out the beauty and power beyond their words. That's why I never appreciated the translation of any artistic work. Reading the work in its original language is sweeter and tastefully stronger. For me, English is a way to communicate with the wider world and I think it is amazingly beautiful but Arabic is another story.

As a native English speaker, it's kind of hard for me to empathize with people who are forced to learn English. Moreover, I have never lived in another country where English isn't the official language, so I don't know what it's like to need to learn English or any other language because of a job or living abroad.

English is essential to many people, even those who don't plan on moving to another country because of their jobs or education. The reason for this obviously is because of the necessity to communicate with others from abroad for business-related or other reasons, or for finding information that can't be found in that person's native language, especially if that language is spoken by a small population of people in comparison to the rest of the world. (Latvian, Slovak, Estonian, etc.) 

I can imagine, though, that needing to learn English could be annoying to some people who just aren't interested in it at all. But the results and successes that one can acquire thanks to knowing English is good enough motivation for a lot of people. But I do slightly feel for those people who are being forced to learn English and really hate it.

For me, the negative aspect of English spreading around the globe is its threat and influence on other languages, especially minority languages. 

I'm not convinced that English is "dominant". It is fairly widespread, but certainly not universal. Anyone who has ever travelled will tell you that not everyone understands or speaks English.

I see many people on this site working really hard to improve their English, that I wonder how people feel about having to learn it. In some ways it is an amazing thing, that there is one common language for everyone to communicate with, but in other ways it makes me feel sad. There are so many people with their own rich cultural and literary traditions and English has been forced on them. There is even a top Italian university that has switched entirely to English. Do you ever feel that the widespread use of English affects your ability in your native language? Thank you for sharing your thoughts and feelings.----Rosia

 I think I understand your point.  Your claiming status as some sort of an aggreived victim of the English language.

  It's a peculiar argument, at best,  as you are not discussing any issue of fact, and yet, through the fog of your own confused thinking,  you   write as though  some sort of "Language  Wars"   are an issue of public concern. 

               It makes a good "Bleeding Deacon" argument, but no objective information appears in your  discussion topic, for which reason,  I think  petty personal gripes   to be   uninformative at best.

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