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I'll respectfully disagree here. English is one of the worst choices for a latin alphabet based lingua franca, as a mix of germanic and romanic languages, with

I'll respectfully disagree here. English is one of the worst choices for a latin alphabet based lingua franca, as a mix of germanic and romanic languages, with inconsistent to non-existent rules, differences between sound vs written character. It's funny though how English, despite basically being a language of "every second word is an exception" is still so easy to learn? French is much harder. German is much harder. In Chinese (and Arab) you not only have to contend with a different alphabet to learn but (at least for Chinese - don't know for Arab) also a completely different style of putting these symbols together to make sense. English at least shares that with other Euro languages and even if you get the structure a bit wrong (you can easily tell German or French sentence structure in an English sentence in many cases) it's still easy to comprehend well enough. What I do think though is that Chinese or Arab might still take over simply because of numbers of speakers of them being more and dispersing and taking over that way. Firefly universe style.

hyperman1 3y ago
Seriius question:. How do you compare easy to learn? Afaik, the main thing English has going for it is massive exposure, originally by TV/Hollywood. But if you watch e.g. French or German TV programming long enough, you'll pick up the language soon. I think English succeeded despite its downsides, for geopolitical reasons.
- tharkun__ 3y ago
  I have one anecdotal piece of evidence: me :) I picked up English very easily despite all the "oh it's all just exceptions". It feels natural even. Latin on the other hand took much more effort. French I never could quite get through. Reading sorta works sometimes given Latin, English and German knowledge. The whole language sorta always feels weird though. Can't bring myself to even try any longer.
MandieD 3y ago
English seems to be a lot more fault-tolerant than German. I've come to see it as jazz (English) vs. classical music (German). Either that, or native English speakers are lazier than native German speakers, and would rather work out how a non-native speaker is trying to use our language than try to understand that other person's language or a third language we both kind of speak.

hyperman1 3y ago

Seriius question:. How do you compare easy to learn? Afaik, the main thing English has going for it is massive exposure, originally by TV/Hollywood. But if you watch e.g. French or German TV programming long enough, you'll pick up the language soon. I think English succeeded despite its downsides, for geopolitical reasons.

tharkun__ 3y ago
I have one anecdotal piece of evidence: me :) I picked up English very easily despite all the "oh it's all just exceptions". It feels natural even. Latin on the other hand took much more effort. French I never could quite get through. Reading sorta works sometimes given Latin, English and German knowledge. The whole language sorta always feels weird though. Can't bring myself to even try any longer.

MandieD 3y ago

English seems to be a lot more fault-tolerant than German. I've come to see it as jazz (English) vs. classical music (German). Either that, or native English speakers are lazier than native German speakers, and would rather work out how a non-native speaker is trying to use our language than try to understand that other person's language or a third language we both kind of speak.