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<blockquote data-quote="Thunderfoot" data-source="post: 3014086" data-attributes="member: 34175">I remember growing up in the 80s they tried to get us to learn French, because it was the language of the world (trade), now other countries are learning English for the same reason.I would think that taking a cue from the Geneva Convention would be most helpful as they regulate all world trade, events etc. (to some extent anyway).&nbsp; Using the Olympics as a guide, the three languages used for announcing events are (in order) English, Chinese (Mandarin) and French (recently changed from E, F &amp; C and changed from 10 yrs ago from F, E &amp; C).&nbsp; The United Nations prints eveything (Official) in English &amp; French.Part of the reason English is so popular is because America invented the telephone&nbsp; - laugh if you want, but when we showed others how to use it, we said you pick up this thing (the reciever) and say &quot;Hello&quot;.&nbsp; If you have ever done any transactions with other countries, most of them still say &quot;Hello&quot; (or a local variation) when the answer the phone.&nbsp; With the exception of France, I would say most countries do so (to include the Asian, Slavic, Arabic, Hindi and Latin countires to name but a few.)&nbsp; I can't give statistics (and who would believe them if I did) but it's out there, just dial and find out.&nbsp; In that same vein a lot of our &quot;inventions&quot; end up as the &quot;watch words&quot; of the world.&nbsp; Telephone, television, computer, postal, etc. (Of course England has a lot to do with this to, but as an American I am a bit biased. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> )</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Thunderfoot, post: 3014086, member: 34175"] I remember growing up in the 80s they tried to get us to learn French, because it was the language of the world (trade), now other countries are learning English for the same reason. I would think that taking a cue from the Geneva Convention would be most helpful as they regulate all world trade, events etc. (to some extent anyway). Using the Olympics as a guide, the three languages used for announcing events are (in order) English, Chinese (Mandarin) and French (recently changed from E, F & C and changed from 10 yrs ago from F, E & C). The United Nations prints eveything (Official) in English & French. Part of the reason English is so popular is because America invented the telephone - laugh if you want, but when we showed others how to use it, we said you pick up this thing (the reciever) and say "Hello". If you have ever done any transactions with other countries, most of them still say "Hello" (or a local variation) when the answer the phone. With the exception of France, I would say most countries do so (to include the Asian, Slavic, Arabic, Hindi and Latin countires to name but a few.) I can't give statistics (and who would believe them if I did) but it's out there, just dial and find out. In that same vein a lot of our "inventions" end up as the "watch words" of the world. Telephone, television, computer, postal, etc. (Of course England has a lot to do with this to, but as an American I am a bit biased. :) ) [/QUOTE]

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