The U.S. News and World Report – Nicholas Dirks
At a time of a U.S. trade war with China and growing global tension – when one would think international understanding is more important than ever – the English-speaking world has never been more complacent about speaking other languages. The fact that English has become the language of international business, and the steady technological advances of different computer-based translation apps, confirm and deepen pre-existing sentiment that English is the only language one really needs to know. Add in that 300 million to 400 million Chinese students are studying English, and perhaps one could be forgiven for believing that English is more important than any other language. (more)