I am a lover of linguistics. Being a white, western-Canadian my native tongue is naturally English... that alone might suggest that is the only language I know and may ever care to know. This is not the case, I am in fact rather well versed in Spanish. Admittedly, every Joe two-thumbs on this continent knows atleast some Spanish, but I like to fancy myself as someone who can actually hold an intelligent conversation in the language. Spanish isn't the extent of my language ambitions, however. I do fantasize about a time where I am also fluent in French, German, Russian and Japanese. Why? Because I enjoy travel and I like talking to people, that's why. I did, in fact, live in Russia for three months and picked up a handfull of Russian during my stay there, though nothing of great substance. Another country I visited within those three months was Turkey, specifically the city of Istanbul (which really is an incredible city, I highly recommend it as a holiday destination). In Istanbul I discovered a remarkable amount of Turks who spoke incredibly fluent English. This can be partly expected; anyone who's read into anything about the history of Istanbul knows that the city, as the easiest passage into Asia, has had to deal with countless whities coming through. Therefor, the Turks have become masters of ripping off dumb-ass westerners through shrewdness and coercian. Turkey isn't the only country that doesn't have English as its official language with a significant number of English speakers. Europe and Asia are ass-full of people more than versed in English... some can speak it even better than a lot of North Americans. Even in Russia, where the English-speaking population is municipal, did people atleast have some understanding of the language. My point is that is remarkable at how popular this language is and how wide its spread. It is, officially, "the language of trade", and that is clearly apparent in Istanbul.
Here is a list of countries by English-speaking population (graciously supplied by Wiki): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population
I think it's remarkable to see Germany have a greater English-speaking population than Canada with only 56% of the population being able to speak it. India, Nigeria and the Philippines all have English as their official language, which may or may not surprise many people. Sweden is reknown as a country with an exceptionally high English-speaking population (89%) despite it not being an official language, yet China is ahead of it on the list by about 2 million people. China's speaking population is only 0.8%, yet it still has more English-speakers than Sweden. Christ, that country is huge.
English is expanding at a remarkable rate. The question is, is this a good thing? Surely it would be easier for everyone to communicate if the whole world knew English, but then how long would it take for English to completely diminish these languages? German is already dwindeling, how long before French and Italian are swallowed? Is diversity more favourable? I'm sure most people of the world would agree to this as there are only so many countries with English as the actual native language, and the idea of your native language dying to most people would certainly be losing a piece of their culture and, in extension, themselves. I believe in an "ethnosphere" that thrives on diversity, and it is therefor my personal duty to my small part in perserving various languages by learning them. Or atleast that's a good excuse for simply me wanting to look better than others...
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