何故、英語を学ぶことが必要なのか？

How Many People Speak English

Did you know English is by far the world’s most studied language? And that 20% of the world speaks it? Read on to learn more interesting facts about the English language.

BY DYLAN LYONS / Babbel Magazine / March 10, 2021

English is the most-spoken language in the world, and it can be found spread far and wide. While there’s no official lingua franca (イタリア語：異なる言語を話す人同士の共通語、補助言語) for the planet, English is often used to communicate across nations. This is because of a number of historical factors, most notably the patterns of colonialism by English speakers. Exactly how many people speak English?

A Brief History of English

English is a member of the Germanic language family. That means it’s descended from Proto-Germanic, along with German, Dutch and Swedish, along with 43 other living Germanic languages. If you go back even further up the language family tree, English is an Indo-European language, which is one of the largest language families in the world and comprises most of the languages spoken that originated in Europe.

Historical linguists date the English language back to the fifth century, when Germanic tribes (speaking Proto-Germanic) invaded Britain. The languages of these groups influenced each other, forming Old English. The earliest form of English looks very different from our modern form, but the two share a number of words and roots of words. In 1066, the Normans — a group from the area now known as France — conquered England and brought with them a form of French. Many French words, along with some Latin, were mixed in with Old English, and these eventually changed the language so much that Middle English was born.

Two factors led to the evolution toward Modern English. First was the advent of printing in the 16th century, which allowed mass-produced language for the first time. The spelling of words became standardized by the next century, and words could travel further than ever before. Second, waves of colonialism and imperialism spread the English language further afield. The United Kingdom imposed English on their territories around the world, and when the period of British colonialism was coming to a close it was only replaced with American imperialism, which is what forcefully made the English language as widespread as it is today.

How Many People In The World Speak English?

Out of the world’s approximately 7.8 billion inhabitants, 1.35 billion speak English. The majority aren’t native English speakers, however. About 360 million people speak English as their first language. The most common first language is Chinese, followed distantly by Spanish and then, in third, comes English. In addition to being widely spoken, English is by far the most commonly studied foreign language in the world, followed by French at a distant second.

78.0億人：世界人口
  3.6億人：第一言語
13.5億人：第一言語を含め、英語を使える人口
＊第一言語として最も使われている言語：①中国語→②スペイン語→③英語

日本語を第一言語として話す人口は、日本の人口と同じなので1.2億人

現在、情報こそが付加価値の源と考えられ、その情報は、英語による情報が世界において圧倒的に多い事から、日本語しか使えないのでは、英語の情報を取り込むことが非常に難しく、結果的に生産性が低くなるように思います。例えば、科学論文は殆どが英語で書かれている様に、英語により発信される情報は、有用性・価値の高い情報が多い為 (価値がマイナス、ゼロ、低い情報も当然多いが) 、英語の情報を自由自在に利用できなければ、色々な領域・分野において、大きく飛躍することが難しいのではと思う次第です。
ですから、TOEICの点数とか、英検とか、そういう英語を否定する訳ではありませんが、大切なのは、自分の知りたい情報を、英語の情報で自在に収集・分析できる能力を身につけているか否か、ということだと思います。