You have just related a lot of facts that show that English is a success as a world interlanguage. The British Empire has barely existed during my lifetime, and

You have just related a lot of facts that show that English is a success as a world interlanguage. The British Empire has barely existed during my lifetime, and the great majority of people now living were born after its demise. English has a majority of speakers who live outside the "inner circle" on English-speaking countries, and a very widespread use of English is as an interlangauge among persons all of whom are not native speakers of English. I have seen numerous conversations in English in the country of Taiwan among people who grew up in various countries of Asia where English is not a native language, and I hear news reports literally every day with interviews in English from people all over the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language#Geographical_distribution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language#Geographical_...