{"id":6911,"date":"2019-12-04T17:00:46","date_gmt":"2019-12-04T17:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.utalk.com\/news\/?p=6911"},"modified":"2025-12-02T16:37:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T16:37:31","slug":"language-learning-myths-3-everybody-speaks-english","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/language-learning-myths-3-everybody-speaks-english\/","title":{"rendered":"Language Learning Myths #3: Everybody Speaks English!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In our ongoing series, we\u2019re busting all kinds of myths that prevent people from learning a new language. We\u2019ve previously looked at whether you need a special gene or talent for languages<\/a> (you don\u2019t) or if you\u2019re too old to learn a language once you\u2019re past a certain age<\/a> (you\u2019re not) but today\u2019s myth is a lot more widespread in certain countries: you don\u2019t need to learn another language because \u2018everyone\u2019 speaks English. Is this true, or are the facts more complicated than that?<\/em>
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English is the world\u2019s most-studied language. It has around 360 million native speakers (1.5 billion total speakers, once you add in those who\u2019ve learnt it as an additional language) and is the official language of a whole host of countries, including the United Kingdom, Fiji, and South Africa.
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But, if you look at those numbers, you might notice something at odds with what you\u2019ve probably seen or heard before: if there are almost eight billion people on the planet, then 1.5 billion isn\u2019t even a quarter of that.
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Why do some people think that <\/strong>everyone<\/em><\/strong> speaks English?<\/strong>
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English is actually the language with the third-highest number of native speakers, clocking in behind Mandarin Chinese and Spanish (first and second, respectively). However, it\u2019s the number of learners that tips it over the edge into the most widely-spoken language. For more information, be sure to read our guide to the\u00a0Most Popular Languages in the World<\/a>.
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Of course, this means that if you go somewhere on holiday, you\u2019ll most likely find at least one person\u2014if not entire communities!\u2014who speaks English. But how has this come about?
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The spread of the British Empire accounted in large part for the initial spread of English around the globe\u2014as more countries were colonised, the people who lived in them learnt English. This led to trade increasingly happening in English and so it became useful to learn the language.
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After World War Two, as more and more countries began to regain their independence from the empire, focus shifted to the USA. The spread of global media and advances in science and technology, both of which were heavily influenced by the USA, meant that English continued with a lot of momentum; even more so as time went on, television became widespread, and English began to be seen as a \u2018cool\u2019 language.
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So yes, many people in many countries speak English and, if they\u2019re younger, it\u2019s likely they speak a fair bit of it. 
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But What About When They Don\u2019t?<\/strong>
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The UK, the USA, Australia, Canada\u2026 these are all large countries where English is a majority language (if not official) and if you were to travel just between them, then it is likely you might not have to ever learn a language that wasn\u2019t English*.
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* Note: it depends where you go, of course. Spanish is increasingly spoken across the USA (approx. 58 million speakers, which is around 17% of the population) and there are Francophone regions of Canada (Quebec, Montreal), as French is spoken by around 13% of Canadians.
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However, levels of English vary dramatically across countries, both because of historical factors and because of cultural differences.
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For example, Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway) tend to have populations that have an overall very high level of English; whereas countries in Southern Europe, such as Italy, do not. France and Spain, while not in Southern Europe, do come further down the list than many countries in Western Europe, which seems a little surprising. After all, Spain, France, and the UK have had a tangled history that goes back thousands of years.
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In this specific case, there are obviously many different factors; education, the prestige of English versus the prestige of the country\u2019s official language, but the key one seems to be that in Nordic countries, films and TV shows are usually not dubbed from English into their native languages.
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Instead, they\u2019re subtitled, which means that from being small children, Swedes and Danes and Norwegians watch an awful lot of media in English. They read the subtitles in the language of their country, but they hear English, hours and hours of it every week.
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Of course, as we\u2019ve seen, this isn\u2019t the case for most countries or regions; so if you go to the Middle East, you might find fewer people with the standard of English they have in Norway, for example (many Arabic-language films are a product of Egyptian cinema, which is the most productive country in the Middle East for film production) and the same can be said for South America or East Asia. 
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Regardless of general levels, however, if you do travel somewhere as a tourist then you\u2019ll likely find someone who can help you in English. If you want to travel off the beaten path, though, or make friends with the people you meet, you may have to try something else.
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What\u2019s the Magical Solution?<\/strong>
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Well, it\u2019s not magical, but it\u2019s simple\u2014in concept, if not in execution: learn their language!
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Now, before you panic, no one\u2019s saying you have to become suddenly fluent. That\u2019s not necessary, not for travelling, not for making your life\u2014and the lives of the people around you\u2014a little easier.
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All you have to do is be willing<\/em> to learn. Believe that you can (because you can!) and then give it a go. \u2018Hello\u2019 is a good place to start, as well as \u2018thank you\u2019\u2014and then add in the rest as and when you feel like it.
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Believe it or not, no matter the language, you\u2019ll turn out to be somewhat comprehensible, and what\u2019s more important is that people will see that you\u2019re trying to communicate with them and react accordingly. This might lead to you all stumbling through some awkward conversation that\u2019s mostly hand gestures and it might mean that they switch to English to help you out, but the important thing is that, by trying, you\u2019ve shown that you care.
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If you\u2019ve never learnt a second language before but are thinking of starting now, then why not try our uTalk app? Choose one of more than 150 languages and it\u2019ll help you learn up to 2,500 words and phrases\u2014most of which will be incredibly useful when you\u2019re travelling\u2014and what\u2019s better is that if you subscribe via this link<\/a>, you\u2019ll even get 40% off the price of all our subscriptions. Neat, right?
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Now, get out there and get speaking, whatever your language!
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In our ongoing series, we\u2019re busting all kinds of myths that prevent people from learning a new language. We\u2019ve previously looked at whether you need a special gene or talent for languages (you don\u2019t) or if you\u2019re too old to learn a language once you\u2019re past a certain age (you\u2019re not) but today\u2019s myth is … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1695],"tags":[32,333,1696],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6911"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6911"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9759,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6911\/revisions\/9759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}