How English Connected The World

350 heads of state. 125 countries. 1 Language.

Last week, one of the largest gatherings of the globe’s political, business, and entrepreneurial elite took place in the tiny skiing village of Davos, Switzerland.

Sponsored by the World Economic Forum, the annual event brings together the world’s brightest minds to tackle the biggest problems our world is facing today.

Every year, the forum takes a lot of heat from environmentalists and political pundits for the private jets, lavish parties, and sky-high entrance fees (19,000 a head…if you’re invited!).

That being said, there is no denying that bringing together our best business leaders and diplomats for a week acts as the perfect breeding ground for innovation and progress.

In its history, the annual conference is credited with a plethora of world-changing triumphs.

In 1988, meetings at the summit between Turkish and Greek leaders de-escalated a potential war between the Mediterranean neighbors.

In 2000, the forum laid the foundation for the creation of GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations), which has prevented more than 10,000,000 child deaths by vaccinating hundreds of millions of susceptible youths.

In 2016, the meeting prepared countries and businesses globally for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, leading to more than 400+ large-scale projects from A.I. implementation in South African agriculture to scaling IoT solutions for Brazilian small businesses.

For all the glitz, press, and après-ski, the event routinely creates noteworthy positive change.

When we bring together our smartest minds to have tough conversations and introduce world-changing solutions, we can do a lot of good.

When learning about Davos and the World Economic Forum, a question popped into my mind.

How do people from 125 different countries with thousands of different languages communicate with each other on the planet’s most complex problems?

It wasn’t difficult and frankly, a little underwhelming to discover the answer: the English language.

The question I still had was, why?

Why English when it’s not even listed as an official Swiss language where the conference takes place nor the first or second most popular language spoken worldwide?

How did English come to dominate international diplomacy and become the lingua franca of business, science, and technology?

God Save The King

At the beginning of the 16th century, the hottest job on the planet was the conquistador. Not so different from today’s young investment bankers or your friend peddling options on Robinhood, they were all after one thing: to get rich quick.

Starting in the late 15th century, Spanish and Portuguese adventurers traveled all over the world seeking new riches in the form of precious minerals like gold.

And oh they found it.

Throughout the next two centuries, the countries’ finest explorers would bring back hundreds of thousands of pounds of gold from Africa and the Americas.

Naturally, the Brits wanted in on the action.

Not long after their Iberian counterparts, imperial Britain set sail across the globe, building up colonies and outposts to support its search for precious minerals, luxury goods, and ultimately, power.

For British emigrants, traveling to a new land offered them a clean slate, and the chance to create new lives for themselves and their families.

Over the next 250 years, huge swaths of Brits would leave the motherland for South Africa, India, and the Caribbean. Between 1814 and 1915, it was estimated that roughly ten million people emigrated from Britain to these regions and others around the globe.

At its height, the empire stretched across nearly a quarter of the entire world and is still the biggest in history.

From Barbados to Bangladesh, the Brits built up businesses, commanded trade, and grew their populace, spreading the English language all along the way.

Before the Brits achieved global dominance, they were the only English speakers on the planet.

By the 20th century, they had spread the West Germanic Language to every corner of the Earth.

God Bless America

Unsurprisingly, the British colonies that would become the ‘land of the free and the home of the brave’ were almost entirely English-speaking.

Despite booting the English people back to England in 1776, the U.S.A. decided to stick with their mother tongue (and also unfortunately its imperial system).

Surprisingly, up until World War I the language of international diplomacy was largely French.

This quickly changed after the Treaty of Versailles was written in French and English in WWI.

By the mid-20th century, the U.S. had emerged as the leading global superpower, grounding English as the language of choice for diplomatic relations.

When you look at the U.S.A. today, you see a wide variety of languages spoken and substantial international influence in our institutions, academia, and business.

Yet, English remains the most widely used by far, with more than 78% of the American population boasting it as their first language.

Even South Africa and India (which overthrew British colonial rule in the early and mid-20th century), still list English as one of their official languages where it remains one of the most widely spoken languages today.

While its roots stem from harsh imperial rule and conquest, the English language has persisted and is the present-day launchpad for global business, scientific, and cultural relations.

Over 90% of scientific research papers, more than 50% of internet content, and 47 out of 50 of the hottest songs on Spotify over the past 5 years are in English.

With the large majority of scientific, diplomatic, and cultural advancements conducted in this language, you’d expect that it’d be spoken by the majority of the world.

What’s fascinating is that this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Of our 8 billion people, only 400 million are native English speakers, and less than 1 in 5 speak the language.

While our world is more connected than it has ever been because of English, we still haven’t figured out how to make its use truly universal.

Our World’s First Skyscraper

The Tower of Babel was meant to reach the heavens, connecting all of Earth’s people and serving as the focal point of their power.

God had other plans.

Written in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, the story of the Tower of Babel attempts to explain the multiplicity of languages we see today. The tale goes that the descendants of Noah did not want to “scatter across the Earth”, as God had commanded after the Great Flood.

To glorify themselves and utilize their shared language, the people decided to build the world’s tallest building. The tower would forever unite the world’s people, ultimately challenging God’s authority and wishes.

Despite improvements in language tech and the rise of English, the biblical story of Babel still rings true today.

Connected as we may be, our world’s people are spread between more than 6,000 incongruous languages.

I would argue that a large part of why we still fail to solve global dilemmas like extreme poverty and biodiversity loss is due to our differences in tongues.

There are many parts of the world where English is not spoken and these existing language barriers hinder our ability to effectively cooperate on economic and social issues.

Even within countries, unique dialects and localized languages impact nationwide coordination efforts.

On a more individual scale, if you only speak English or any other single language, you are extremely limited in your ability to interact with the rest of the planet.

There are billions of people around the globe at any given time you are unable to listen to, learn from, and quickly understand.

In the United States, only about 20% of people are bilingual or multilingual compared to 65% of Europeans.

No wonder we in the U.S. struggle to empathize with foreigners and understand so little about the world. We can’t understand them.

The mystery of language remains at the forefront of humanity’s biggest obstacles.

Yet, in the 21st century, we’ve never been closer to solving it.

A.I. and Language

During the WEF’s annual meeting in Davos this year, it should be no surprise that the hottest topic was A.I., with its wide host of potential applications in business, green energy, and more.

Similarly, artificial intelligence may be the key to communicating across languages quickly and effectively.

Using advanced algorithms and machine learning, Google Translate can now transcribe over 133 languages instantaneously. The app allows for instant translation from one spoken or written language into another.

On Zoom, users can opt into voice-to-text language transcription that translates the speaker’s audio into other languages.

Even in language-learning applications like Duolingo, users can utilize A.I. for personalized help.

The app uses a large-language model called “BirdBrain” that can generate lessons based on your skill level and a new “Roleplay” feature that lets users practice interactive conversations in other languages in real-time.

The role of A.I. in language comprehension and language acquisition is already transforming how we communicate and will exponentially do so in the next century.

Dispelling ‘Babel’

While English may be the growing, dominant language of today’s world, there is no saying it will stay that way, or be the best for society.

If the world order shifted and another country was to become the global superpower instead, could we see English fall to obsolescence?

On a different note, language is often seen as the gateway to a region’s culture and identity.

The current dominance of English and its growth present a compelling opportunity to avoid learning less-used or native tongues. Though more convenient, the rise of English has the power to extinguish culture and important human history along with it.

In the coming years, instantaneous translation between different tongues using technology may drive people to not bother learning new languages at all.

The future of language remains uncertain.

Nonetheless, if we do somehow achieve universality in real-time speech, I am optimistic about what we could accomplish as a planet.

As God proclaimed in Genesis, if future generations do solve the mystery of language, “nothing they plan to do will be impossible”.

-John Henry

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