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One of the
most frequently asked questions we receive is:
"How can it possibly benefit all the billions
of foreign peoples overseas to send them Christian literature
in English?"
Unknown to most American
Christians is that English is now spoken to some degree by
nearly 1 in 4 people worldwide!
In 2010, we
commissioned one of our volunteer regional coordinators
skilled in the field of research to conduct a thorough
investigation into the use of English in every nation on
earth. After three months of intensive study, he delivered his
report to us. To our knowledge, no study like this has ever
been conducted before. Following is the summary from his
report:
Across the
worldwide linguistic research community the verdict is
unanimous: English is the world's most globally utilized and
fastest growing language, expanding into the remotest
corners of the planet. British and U.S. linguistics
experts have estimated that more than 375 million people
speak English as their first language, second only to
Chinese (1.1 billion speakers). But when the numbers are
added to include all who speak English as a second language
(bilingually) or otherwise as a foreign language, English
comes out the clear world language leader. It's estimated
that an additional 375 million speak English bilingually
(mainly in lands of the former British colonies), and as
many as 750 million have or are learning English as a
foreign language everywhere else--for a total of 1.5
billion, or nearly 1 out of every 4 people on earth.
Following the historic
20th century global expansion of the American
economy, English is now the language of choice in world
communications, business, diplomacy, technology and national
government administration. It is seen as necessary to
societal advancement in even the poorest countries, and
English education is compulsory in the vast majority of
nations. Partnership initiatives between government,
business and the humanitarian sector are in force in every nation for the
advancement of English instruction, fueling a demand for
English literature at all levels. Such demand has created an
opportunity for the spread of the gospel through the
dissemination of English Christian literature unlike any
that has existed before the present time.
Following are links to the
abridged version of this report and to the World English Table
which provide a brief country-by-country analysis of English
usage together with an overall discussion of English usage
worldwide.
World
English Analysis Project Report 2010 (Abridged)
World
English Table 2010 (Abridged)
For
access to the complete files and documentation that give the
in-depth analysis on a particular country please contact
us.
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