Who owns the English language?
This is the 3rd video of Speak Global English series. There are all together 22 video in the series. In this third video, Hansen talks about who owns the English language. Let's find out what she has to say in this third video.
This is the 3rd video of Speak Global English series. There are all together 22 video in the series. In this third video, Hansen talks about who owns the English language. Let's find out what she has to say in this third video.
Who owns the English language?:
Transcript:
Speak Global English Video Series Part 3 (of 22 parts): Who owns the English language?
There are about 400 million native English speakers in our world today. And when we say "native" speakers, they are geographically defined as people living and speaking English in the UK, US, Canada and Australia.
In the rest of the world we have about 1.4 BILLION non-native speakers of English.
In China alone, there are 300 million people who speak some level of English. There are an additional 350 million learning English. And what I find especially interesting is that they are learning American English.
American English is spoken by about 280 million people in the US. So basically, we have over double the number of English speakers in China than in the whole United States.
Oh, and that Queen's English everyone talks about? Only around 1 million people in the world actually speak that variety.
To think that native English speakers can continue to claim some kind of ownership of the English language is ill-informed at best.
Communication is a two-way street, and whether you're a native speaker or not, you still need to take responsibility for your communication. But I don't want to get ahead of myself -- we'll talk more about responsibility next time!
Speak Global English Video Series Part 3 (of 22 parts): Who owns the English language?
There are about 400 million native English speakers in our world today. And when we say "native" speakers, they are geographically defined as people living and speaking English in the UK, US, Canada and Australia.
In the rest of the world we have about 1.4 BILLION non-native speakers of English.
In China alone, there are 300 million people who speak some level of English. There are an additional 350 million learning English. And what I find especially interesting is that they are learning American English.
American English is spoken by about 280 million people in the US. So basically, we have over double the number of English speakers in China than in the whole United States.
Oh, and that Queen's English everyone talks about? Only around 1 million people in the world actually speak that variety.
To think that native English speakers can continue to claim some kind of ownership of the English language is ill-informed at best.
Communication is a two-way street, and whether you're a native speaker or not, you still need to take responsibility for your communication. But I don't want to get ahead of myself -- we'll talk more about responsibility next time!
