1. English Is the Most Spoken Language in the World

According to a report from Statistics & Data, English is the most spoken language in the world. 

And if you include people who use it as a second language, an estimated 1.5 billion people worldwide speak English. Further, a total of 96 countries in the world use English.

Considering that there are over 190 countries, that means over half of the countries you will visit likely use English as their lingua franca—the main language that people from various groups use to communicate with each other.

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2. English Will Teach You About World History

Throughout the centuries, the British Empire expanded and ruled over many different countries. The empire (a group of countries ruled by a single government) forced the people they ruled over to speak English.

Because the empire lasted over 300 years, many of the countries under the former British Empire (like Ireland, which had Gaelic as its original language) speak English to this day.

When you are studying English, you will come across the different types used around the world. When you know the history of English as it is used in a certain country, the similarities and differences between, say, Australian and New Zealand English make much more sense.

 

3. English Opens Up New Career Opportunities

Many companies need employees who can communicate with partners and clients all over the world. Very often, that means finding employees who speak English.

Are you job hunting? Do you just want to keep your professional options open? Learning English can be an important step to achieving those goals.

The global job market has even created new positions for bilingual people (people fluent in two languages). By learning English, you could become a translator, a language teacher or an English marketing professional for a global company.