English and Spanish hold their positions as popular languages based on the fact they were both spoken in world spanning empires in the past, not because they ar

English and Spanish hold their positions as popular languages based on the fact they were both spoken in world spanning empires in the past, not because they are particularly simple. English, in particular, is known for being difficult to learn--it uses phones that very rare ("th" and the English "r"), it has a bizarrely large vocabulary, and, somewhat separately, its spelling is nonsensical.