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Language represents not only the communication but also the culture of any community, hence, there are many languages and dialects around the world. However, some languages achieve the status of “global language”, and like it or not English is one of them. Thus, a few languages in human history were enough powerful to spread in large territories to connect and facilitate the interactions between different cultures, as Latin, Spanish or French. Hence, why English is a global language in our times? English is a global language due to it was the language of the British Empire and the official language of United states. Hence, the last two centuries English has been the language of the great powers, not only in politics and economy, but also in technology and development. Moreover, English has the richest vocabulary and its very flexible in comparison with other main languages, plus its grammar is simpler than most languages. Thus, English is the language of the main powers and it is simpler to learn than other languages. The defeat of the Spanish Empire and the French Empire by the British, was the pavement to establish English as the main language in the western world. However, the colonialism was the main road to strew not only the western culture but also English as predominant language (above other languages as French or Spanish). Furthermore, most of the ex-colonies of the British empire stablished English at their official language or as a second language at least, and with exception of Ireland and USA all the countries with ties to United Kingdom are former members of the Commonwealth. Although the British Empire was falling at end of the first world war, United states was rising at main power of the western civilization and the main economy of the world. So, during the last century, English became the most important (and useful) language. On the other hand, the American soft power (movies, music, culture, influences, technology, and so on) was more determinant to the disseminate the English language than its hard power (industry and military advantage). On the other hand, the free trade and the international business made English the official language of these fields, so most of the countries had the necessity to improve their human capital by teaching English as second language. In addition, the individuals of many countries felt the necessity to study English to have the opportunity to start a new life on the biggest markets on the world. Another determinant feature of the English as language is the simplicity and flexibility in its structure, allowing most of the western countries to adopt it easily, due to it has the same alphabet as the majority of the western languages and it is simpler than most of them. On the other hand, the non-western cultures that don’t share the same alphabet are available to learn English due to it has less grammar, conjugations and phonologic obstacles than their native languages (as the case of the south east countries). In other words, most of the nonwestern cultures are adopting English at the first step to westernize their cultures. Unlikely, history taught us that nothing it is forever, and English will be replaced by another language, inevitably. As an example, Latin was the “lingua franca” of most of Europe, Minor Asia, and North Afrika during the peak of the Roman Empire. Thus, the last research of the language department from the Yale University in its article “language, power and Inhabitants” established a strong correlation between population and language. Actually, a change in population trends to be and influential factor on the language establishment. For example, the increasing Hispanic population in the USA has already begun the displacement of English in its own territory. So, even that English has a well position as the closest “global language” it doesn’t mean that would be forever. Finally, there are two main features to establish a “Lingua franca” and it is the economic and political power of the native speakers’ region, plus the ability to spread their own culture and values trough the language. However, English has another advantage and it is that most of the people could learn English due to its simplicity in grammar and its structure. Thus, the English language it is very achievable for most of the people of the world, plus the most profitable for the people that adopt it as their second language.
