English Speaking nations vs The world.

All the majority and official English speaking nations. Against the rest of the world. Who would win?

 

The rest of the world. There are far more of them. I can think of a couple of billion offhand with the Chinese and Indians. Add in Africa, the rest of Asia, South America, the Middle east, and part of Europe and I think English speakers would get the snot kicked out of them.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_where_English_is_an_official_language

Say What?

 

Say what what? Was I not clear in what I stated?

I get the overwhelming impression this is leading to the inevitable white supremacist argument. Am I correct?

 

Australia could prevent the countries near it from doing anything quite easily.

How powerful is the UK compared to continental Europe? Could we have another Battle of Britain?

China currently isn't much of a worry since they lack the ability to project power.

 

Do need ground rules.

Are nukes allowed? If nukes are allowed the US nukes the crap out of the rest of the world and the former USSR (we all know that not just Russia has nukes) nukes the crap out of the English speaking world.

So no nukes in this scenario should be allowed.

 

Ok no nukes.

 

It'd be a fight, that's for sure.

 

The British Isles is in it's weakest position in military terms since the UK became a nation, compared to the rest of Europe. France alown has a navy 2 times the size of the UK, and is the only country in Europe with a conventional carrier. The Franch and Germans both have airforce and army as strong as the British Isles. However one US carrier group plus the UK navy would stand a very good chance against Europe. In my view the ESN would need to take control of the northern Atlantic and north sea, so that means like Greenland and Iceland and other smaller island. The British Isles could out pace the rest of Europe in terms of production of ships, and the UK has the best ships in Europe. Given Hong Kong and Singapore would be on our side China wouldn't be any problem. The problem is these parts of the world the British empire never got close to taking, like South America and Europe. China less so because of British India.

 

No your are on correct, as most of the people in the English speaking world are not white.

 

Did you know that China has the greatest number of people who speak English?

 

Oh that chart is largely nonsense. I mean, did you actually look at it?

India, 1.14 billion people. And yes, English is an official language there. But Hindi is by far the dominant language. Originally a holdout from colonial days, many believe that the "English" clause is only kept now in order to make the nation more competative economically.

And a lot of other nations are in the same boat. Pakistan, Philippines, Nigeria, Sudan, the list goes on and on.

Remove those nations where English is really a minority language and official status is only kept as a holdout from colonialism, and you will find the numbers are greatly reduced.

To get a better idea, compare your chart to the one here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population

India, only 11.38% of the population speak English.
Pakistan, 10.9%
Canada, 85.18% (have you forgotten that a lot of Canada is French?)

And in most of the former colonies, the percent shrinks every year. Other then in a few like Belize, which mostly thrives off of tourism.

 

Do you really expect me to go through every country saying which is part of the English speaking world and which isn't? It should just be British Isles, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Plus other parts of the world speak their own form of English. So that's it, just those 6 countries.

 

No it doesn't.

 

You're wrong.

 

No I am not. What do they do English in school or something. I didn't do a language.

 

But you are the one that claimed those numbers in your post my friend, not me. You put up that chart trying to make it seem so dominant. When it is nowhere nearly like that at all.

And sorry, but neither myself nor the US probably want anything to do with your new Anglo Empire.

Lastly, check your math. "British Isles, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand", and you said "just those 6 countries". That is only 5, what country is the 6th? Belize?

 

What about South Africa?

 

The official language of India is English. Likewise Pakistan, Nigeria, South Africa etc etc. That is a lot of people on the English team.

 

This might help:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_where_English_is_an_official_language

I seem to remember an attempt by General de Gaulle of France attempting to make French the world's official language and getting rather miffed when his attempt failed. I can't find a reference by googling, so it's memory only. But any English member aged 70 or thereabouts might recall it.

 

It only has a little over 28% that speak English. And since the end of the old Government, that percentage has been shrinking.

No, it is not the official language, it a an official language. Just as Canada has French and English, India has Hindi and English. And English is increasingly falling out of favor.

The same goes for Pakistan, Nigeria, South Africa, and other former parts of the British Empire. The nations almost all left English as an official language because that is the language all of their law books, records, and courts were versed in during their era as a colony. Removing it as an official language would have meant chaos to their administration and legal systems. And when a former colony is trying to form it's own nation, the last thing it needs to worry about is translating all of their legal books and codes, as well as forms, signs, and everything from passports and licenses to school books and everything else.

Also some kept it as a form of lingua franca. Especially in places like India and Africa, where the countries were composed of multiple regional and tribal languages. For these, English made a good unified language.

In the decades since their independence however, most have started to drop their regional languages and settle on one dominant language. India is a great example of this. Originally India had over 20 "official languages". But over the decades, most have fallen to the wayside, leaving Hindi as the dominant. And because of bilingual education in the schools for over 50 years (as well as media like newspapers, music, television and movies), even most of those that know their regional language also know Hindi.

English was on the fast track to being removed as an official langugage in India. Many still see it as a tie to their old days of colonialism. Then the Internet brought a new source of income to this nation. Because of the ability to set up call centers anywhere in the world, interest in English suddenly increased as people realized it was a great source of income to the country. A company like Microsoft could set up a call center there and have thousands of English speakers handle support issues from all over the world. So suddenly schools had an increased interest in students wanting to learn English again.

 

I am not sure of that, by that time French had already had it's day.

For most of the Middle Ages, French was the Court Language in England. A great many English kinds actually never learned English. France was the international langugage of the day (especially among the nobility), followed closely by Latin (which was retained by the Clergy and the educated). And a great many documents of English History were originally written in French.

The planet has had many "international languages" over the centuries. Latin, French, Spanish, English, Arabic, even Russian. Mostly these were done for either colonial purposes or religious ones.

The closest we have to a true lingua franca today is probably what many consider the unofficial language of the UN. Esperanto. Of course to some, Esperanto is also the language of the International Jewish Conspiracy.

But it is a fascinating language to study. Most people know of the translation issues in the UN, but most have no idea how those are largely taken care of. All speeches given are translated from the original language to Esperanto. And that is the feed that is given to each of the other translators. This way instead of translating say Japanese to English, Russian, German, Hindi, French, Italian and Spanish, they just translate it to Esperanto. Then another translator translates the Esperanto to their own national language.

This way a translator only needs to know 2 languages, and can still cover every speech given by a member of any nation in the UN. But many countries still employ their own translators, who do their own translations for their nation's representatives.

But many religious leaders, from the Ayatollah Khomeini to Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI have endorsed the use os Esperanto to help bring people together.

 

English is the official language of international aviation

Communications with air traffic control are to be conducted in English whether you fly into Beijing, Paris or Phoenix.

 

You are a pilot, so correct me if I am wrong here. But this is what I have been told in the past.

That yes, all initial contacts with the tower internationally are done in English. But once that contact is made, the tower and pilot can go to another language if they choose to do so.

 

Yes, it is.. and most of Africa and Asia teach English as a second language.