SPREAD OF ENGLISH ENDANGERS US & BRITISH DOMINANCE
For all of these years we expected that if people wanted to do business with us that they would learn OUR language. And they've done exactly that -- but maybe too well.

English is still the world's dominant trade language (although more people speak Chinese than English). But now that much of the world speaks English as at least a second language, the competitive edge that Americans and Brits enjoyed are disappearing. (e.g. There are so many eager English speakers in India that companies often look there to develop call centers, rather than in the US). And on top of that, the English speakers from the rest of the world have an added advantage of speaking at least two languages -- while Americans and Brits are generally limited to one.

A report commissioned by the British Council says monolingual English graduates "face a bleak economic future" as multilingual competitors flood into the workforce from all corners of the globe.

A massive increase in the number of people learning English is under way and likely to peak at around 2 billion in the next decade, according to the report entitled "English Next."

More than half of all primary school children in China now learn English and the number of English speakers in India and China -- 500 million -- now exceeds the total number of mother-tongue English speakers elsewhere in the world.

These new polyglots, and the companies that employ them, have significant competitive advantages over their monoglot rivals, including a vital understanding of different cultures, in a world faced with rapid globalization.

Sometimes you get what you ask for.