Advantages and Disadvantages of English as a Global Language

Nowadays, English is spoken in almost every country in the world, either as people’s mother-tongue, their international language, or their foreign language. Therefore, there is no doubt that English has become a global language. English has taken an important role in our everyday lives and it is used in many fields, such as education, economy, or politics. But, even though English is very useful, from the aspect of being a global language, it also has some negative features.
To start with, one of the advantages of English as a global language is easier communication. Even though it is a good thing that every country has its own language, it is easier to have one common language, language which everybody knows. That one common language can provide many benefits for people. For example, if we decide to travel in foreign country, it can be very helpful to establish communication with residents of that country by using that common language. It is one of the ways for people to find food, place to sleep, and even to make friends. Another advantage is better career opportunities. When we talk about business, people who speak English are much more appreciated and have better opportunities than their colleagues who do not speak English that well, or who do not speak it at all. Knowledge of English has helped many people to go abroad, find better jobs and therefore, to earn enormous sums of money. On the other hand, considering English as a global language, we can find a number of disadvantages of it. One of those disadvantages is, of course, the disappearance of minor languages. Due to the fact that the usage of English has increased, we have experienced that, eventually, many people stopped using large number of languages. One of the reasons for that is strong military and political power of the United Kingdom and the United States, which is, at the same time, the main reason why English has become a global language. This is also closely connected to the fact that because of this, cultures of many people have also disappeared. Furthermore, using English as a global language, or even as only language can be very difficult for some people. For example, it is difficult for people who have more than one word to describe something. The best example of this are Eskimos who have a number of words for snow which they need. This fact is important because these people find difficult to express themselves the way they want to do it and it is unfair to them to lose the right on it. To conclude, English as a global language has a lot of disadvantages, but also, the number of its advantages is huge. We sure should not forget about our mother-tongue and it should always be part of us, but learning English can bring us a lot of good things. It is not harmful, and thanks to English, we can have wide open spaces and brighter future.