Hi Patrick. English is spoken around the world. It has been estimated that out of the roughly 6 billion people that are alive today about 350 million speak English. When you look at the importance of English for International Business, you must look at more than just the number of people who speak it. You must also look at what the language is used for. English is the ideal language for many governments around the world, and it is also prominent in business, education, world news, and communication. In addition to this, Western pop culture is also carried to foreign countries in the form of music or movies. If you wish to be successful in International business, learning English is incredibly important. In many places such as Asia, Africa, and South America, the ability to learn English will determine who will increase their living standards, and who will remain in poverty. There are a number of powerful tools that have allowed more people to learn English than ever before. One of these tools is the Internet and look how many Italki people are using it..

English is international language and everyone is trying to master exactly this language because they want to communicate, work, travel and so on. But I agree with you partly that there exist many other languages which we also have to know. It is not necessary but it is vey pleasant activity to learn new languages.

hola patrick. el ingles es la nueva dictadura linguistica....aunque parece que la gente la acepta. o, si quieres, la moda linguistica universal...si no hablas ingles no eres nadie...Pero todo cambia en esta vida y quien sabe si dentro de unos años no es el chino y luego otro, etc. lo mas interesante es ver que la gente hablando en un idioma que no dominan creen que se entienden. si esto sigue igual, dentro de poco el ingles sera una lengua minoritaria y el creole ingles planetario, la lengua mas usada del mundo. ya veras. saludos.

All languages are important. Language is for communication. If you wish to communicate with French speakers then English is not so important. As Jura's numbers show, only a fraction (slightly a little more than one twentieth) of the earths population speaks English. Because of England's dominance in world trade during the nineteenth century, many people today still conduct their business in English. But as the economies of Asia and South America rise it is likely that we will see a shift in the prominence of English towards Spanish and Mandarin/Chinese.

hi patrick, it's not actually considering english as the universal language, but it's indeed is a universal language spoken across the world. one of the metaphoric term I can describe language is like a 'bridge' that apparently connects to parties together. Among the different languages spoken, I can say that English is the most sturdy and useful bridge... If for instance a Chinese and German meet, they would not speak of their own native languages but rather English... If you happened to post your question in French, do you think majority of members here in italki will understand you? English is taught in many, if not all countries in the world and it is not surprising that most people understand english. ;)