Ten Interesting Facts About English Language

1: Sole Official Language. English is the sole official language in 31 nations. An additional twenty nations identify English as one of two or more official languages.

2: Facts & Figures.

• California leads the nation in the number of limited English speaking proficient people, with 19.8 percent of its population (around 6.9 million people) struggling to read, write, speak or understand English. Texas is second with 14.4 percent of its population (3.4 million people) classified as LEP, followed by New York at 13.5 percent, New Jersey at 12.5

• From the survey held by National Adult Literacy found that immigrants with a low degree of

• Proficiency in English earned one-half of what those with a medium degree of proficiency earned and less than one-third of highly English proficient immigrants.

3: Adult Latino Immigrants .Almost 90 percent of Latinos are of the belief that adult Latino immigrants need to learn English in order to succeed in the United States.

4: Employment Related. The U.S. Department of Education found that those with limited English proficiency are less expected to be employed, less likely to be employed constantly, have a tendency to work in the least desirable sectors and earn less than those who speak English

5: English- An Asian language.

• English has been used in a variety of parts of Asia for 200 years.

• There are more glib users of English in Asia (estimated at 350million) than on any other continent. Frequently conferences in Asia are conducted in English (and their proceedings published in English) when only a few, if any, of the participants are mother

• Tongue English speakers – English is the working language of ASEAN even though it is not the first language of any of the member countries

6: Studying English is More Popular in Asia.

• Nationally produced and published English newspapers can be found in every major capital city across Asia. More people are studying English in Asia than in any other part of the world. China alone has more than 200 million. Although most people in Asia do not speak English, Asian leaders in very diverse fields including Arts, Business, Education, Diplomacy,

• Law, Military, and Religion usually do use it freely and easily. English sometimes enables different ethnic groups in the same country to communicate with one another, as in the Philippines, India, and Singapore, helping to establish a sense of nationhood.

7: Richest in Vocabulary. All of the world’s language i.e around 2700; English is arguably the richest in vocabulary and the Oxford English dictionary lists about Five lacs words and there are a half million technical and scientific terms still uncatalogued.

8: Widely Used.

• Three quarters of the world’s mail, telexes and cables are in English

• English is the medium for 80% of the information stored in the world’s computers

9: Monopoly in Media Industry. The largest broadcasting companies like BBC, CBC, NBC etc. in the world broadcast in English, reaching millions of people all over the world.

10: The “U” Fact. The only words in the English language to have two consecutive u’s is vacuum, residuum and continuum.