
What makes English a lingua franca?
You probably know that not everyone speaks English. Still, English has become the closest thing we currently have to a global lingua franca (sorry, Esperanto!). But have you ever wondered why? There are several languages that are more widely spoken than English, including Hindi, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese. And yet, those aren’t the ones people are using to connect internationally. Here’s why our language has become a lingua franca – and why, despite these other languages h