[throwaway3878]

English is far from the international language. There are billions of people and entire continents where no one speaks English.

Unless you meant the de facto language for business and research, or the language spoken in the areas I care about, which is different from the international language.

[koenigdavidmj]

Sure, English isn’t a language that everyone speaks natively for personal use. But usually we think it’s a bad thing if people’s other languages die.

[asutekku]

As far as i know, every single continet has english speaking people. Either as a primary or a secondary language.

[throwaway3878]

The same is true for French, or Mandarin Chinese. Still, good luck getting by in English in the middle of China, Russia, West Africa or Latin America. Hell, rural Germany can be rough going.

[yorwba]

Yes, English literacy is low in China (about 6% according to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-s... ) But that doesn't mean finding someone who can understand you is hard. If you just pick any random person, they likely won't speak English, but if you ask 20 or so, you have good chances of being understood by one of them. That's pretty good and qualifies English for "international language" status in my opinion.

[throwaway2989]

There are plenty of Chinese diasporas all around the world. I'm willing to bet that if you asked around 20 people or so in an average American or British city you'd end up being understood in Chinese. Yet I don't see many people calling Chinese an international language.

It'll take more than just stats gleaned on wikipedia to make a coherent case. A large majority of mankind has no use for English and thus doesn't use it, and this can be readily witnessed firsthand by travelers who stray off tourist paths. (For instance I say rural Germany is rough going because I've been there and witnessed it firsthand.) That doesn't mean English isn't a lingua franca, it's just not the lingua franca in most of the world. In Latin America people will use Spanish or Portuguese, in Africa people will use French, Arabic, English or Swahili, in much of Central Asia people will use Russian. Even then, knowledge of those languages isn't a given.

The fact of the matter is that English isn't known or used by most of the world population. Arguing about the rest is just semantics.

[firatcan]

I am on you with this, sure English de facto language for many things. I don't believe it's just for business or research many things but most of rural areas or less educated areas all over the world has little amount of English speakers or even not at all.

For instance, let's take Spain or Italy not even Africa or Asia. I mean Europe, Spain, if you asked 20 people in Barcelona or Rome you'd end up being understood. On the other hand if you asked 20 people in Naples or Granada, the chances are they wouldn't understood you.

[ryanfreeborn]

Which continent is the one where no one speaks english?

[throwaway3878]

I had (somewhat hyperbolically) Asia and Latin America in mind but this being HN I eagerly await someone pointing out the existence of Belize or some parts of India and Singapore in a valiant effort to be technically correct.

[samatman]

India has the largest English-speaking population in the world. Yes, larger than the United States; it has a lot more people.

That's not a technicality, nor is it fair to Singapore to call that a technicality: it's a small country, but the vast majority of its citizens speak English as their home tongue.

English has official status in only Guyana and the Falkland islands, of all of South America. That's more like a technicality, especially since Creole is the actual spoken language of the people.

Belize is in Central America, which is part of the North American continent; the Caribbean (and its various English-speaking islands) are also lumped in with North America.

[throwaway2989]

> India has the largest English-speaking population in the world. Yes, larger than the United States; it has a lot more people.

India is a populous country with English as an official language. If you think all its inhabitants speak English you're in for a surprise should you ever go there. People are educated in English, certainly; however Canadians' well-known mastery of French as well as Irish people's mastery of Irish shows this criterion doesn't necessarily amount to much.

I'm wasn't disappointed by all the other technicalities in your post though, keep it up

[samatman]

At no time did I say that the majority of Indians speak English. I said they have the largest English-speaking population in the world.

Assuming that 300 million Americans speak English (to be generous), that would require more than 22.2% of India to speak English.

According to the last census, conducted in 2011[0], India has about 125 million English speakers. That same link says this is "projected to quadruple in the next decade".

If that supposition is at all accurate, India now has the largest population of English speakers in the world. The next census is in 2021, so we should know for sure by then.

[0]: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20500312

[Zenst]

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/english-speaking-countri...