Eli5: Why is the English language most common in this world?
In: 41
Four letters – UK US
Or is that three letters?
The British controlled huge chunks of the globe and brought in English as a language of government, commerce, and education. As that was waning, the US then gained dominance in technology, business, and politics in many areas and sectors and using English became beneficial for commerce, etc.
These days many entities will use English to communicate with other entities, even if it is not the native language of either party. For example a German company and a Japanese company are likely to do business in English, which is beneficial to both, rather than doing business in either German or Japanese. I say beneficial to both because their English speaking employees are also able to do business with companies from lots of other countries. A Japanese speaking German is limited to Germany and Japan, and vice versa.
Even if you just want to stick with English speaking countries, the US is the largest economy, and India is now or soon will be the country with the highest population. Investing in English capability is a good investment.
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