It is hard to imagine the modern world without the English language. Today it's one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. Of course people of Great Britain and the United States, New Zealand and Australia speak English. But it is also one of the official languages of Ireland, Canada, Liberia, Belize, Malta, and is used as the official language in India, Pakistan, the Philippines and other countries throughout the globe.

When we used to be children and began our English study, we must have faced with such a question: why do most people study English? Why the world language is not Chinese, for instance? There are so many people living in China (actually about 1.3 billion people)!

At a certain point when we studied history, we could understand why English came to be a world language now. The reason is because Great Britain gained colonial lands and English language was brought there in the course of rather severe policy towards the occupied. Ever since Great Britain spread all over the world and influenced nations in Asia, Africa, Australia and the New World, English has been the world language. After Unites States, the largest British colony, gained its economic and political independence from Europe, USA took the baton in spreading the language worldwide, which became especially active and rapid after World War II. 

What shaped the English language? Historians believe that the formation of the English language began in the 5th century AD. It was during this particular period that the tribes of angles, saxons and yuts have moved to the isles of the modern UK. Over time, four independent kingdoms - Northumbria, Mercia, Kent and Wessex - were formed on the islands. While the kingdom of Wessex oftentimes ruled over the rest. That is why it is the Wessex dialect that laid the foundation of English. Besides, Scandinavian language had a great influence in the formation of English. Regular plundering raids from Scandinavia have surely left its trace that even today we could see quite a lot of Scandinavian words in the English language.

We learn this from history, and as a matter of fact now English is among the most influential languages that is being used by the greatest number of people all over the world. World Media and especially World Wide Web are English-based - more than 80 percent of all the websites and online chatting of people from various countries are in English. In other words, most information in the modern world is in basic English. Nowadays English is the official language of such international organizations as UN, NATO, UNESCO, international business and scientific conferences and the main language of international sports competitions and tourism as well. 

"What is it about tourism?" - people might ask you. And your answer could be: "The common language of worldwide tourism is very important not just for administrative workers and managers of tourist agencies, but for people who are travelling to one country or another. It is important for people because they could easily get information about a certain country, places of interest or resorts, they could get to know traditions and customs of the country they are going to visit. People who speak fluent English and are planning a trip abroad almost always sure they would not meet any misunderstandings in communication with native people there. So English is the main language of international tourism.

Also, most music, advertising, TV cast, computers and video games are in English. If all these were in different languages, it would be difficult for all people to understand them. 

For people all over the world to come together as one big global family the common language is vital. So English has become the language of international communication. If we share certain interests and views and wish to communicate with other people living in various parts of the world, we all should speak English as one common language to be able to interact. In fact, English is the native language for some 500 million people, and another 1 billion people speak English as a second language. So it is not a mere chance that English came to be the world language.