# The spread of English throughout Europe **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 7, 2014, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-spread-of-english-throughout-europe/685544 "2014-04-07T12:03:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-spread-of-english-throughout-europe/685544/21 "2014-04-08T17:33:14Z")
> [@Melchior](#): > > English is becoming more and more dominant throughout the world as American culture spreads, and replacing French as the language of diplomacy. Coca Cola helped but I think the British Empire had a little something to do with the spread of English too. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2014, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-spread-of-english-throughout-europe/685544/22 "2014-04-09T15:41:44Z")
> [@kellner](#): > > Unless you are lucky enough to speak English as your native language, _monolingual_ is the new _illiterate_. I once was confronted by a homeless man in a station in Stockholm. When he tried to engage me in Swedish I did the _cough_ _splutter_ _shrug_ of showing that I didn’t speak Swedish (although I could, I just didn’t want to speak to him). So he switched to English and I continued with my motions, this time pretending to not speak English (my native language). So the guy gave me a bollocking for not being able to speak English. ---
**Author:** ![BrokenBriton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@BrokenBriton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrokenBriton)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2014, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-spread-of-english-throughout-europe/685544/23 "2014-04-09T15:48:48Z")
Tourism aside, another major change is the huge number of Brits now living in Spain and Southern France, and to a lesser extent Italy - comfortably over a million, and an awful lot more when school is out. They’ve had significant impact on local economies. ---
**Author:** ![Melchior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Melchior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melchior)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2014, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-spread-of-english-throughout-europe/685544/24 "2014-04-09T16:21:57Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > I once was confronted by a homeless man in a station in Stockholm. When he tried to engage me in Swedish I did the _cough_ _splutter_ _shrug_ of showing that I didn’t speak Swedish (although I could, I just didn’t want to speak to him). So he switched to English and I continued with my motions, this time pretending to not speak English (my native language). > > So the guy gave me a bollocking for not being able to speak English. 1. Bettler. — Man soll die Bettler abschaffen: denn man ärgert sich, ihnen zu geben, und ärgert sich, ihnen nicht zu geben. 185 Beggars — We should get rid of beggars entirely, for whether we give money to them or not, we find ourselves quite annoyed. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2014, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-spread-of-english-throughout-europe/685544/25 "2014-04-09T17:02:08Z")
I’m under the impression that massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) and internet social media are dominated by English and hence have caused a huge increase in English literacy. ---
**Author:** ![Pedro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/919ad9/32.png) [@Pedro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pedro)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2014, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-spread-of-english-throughout-europe/685544/26 "2014-04-09T18:19:05Z")
> [@kellner](#): > > Unless you are lucky enough to speak English as your native language, _monolingual_ is the new _illiterate_. > > If you aren’t at least able to understand English reasonably well, then that will hurt you in all areas of life. This exactly. If you don’t speak english your world is tiny by comparison. If you do the amount of knowledge and opportunities that opens up is priceless. The Internet combined with the creation of a single market in the EU were the catalyst. It’s almost quaint when young people don’t have basic literacy at least. Being in the curriculum makes it easier but it’s not a satisfactory answer. College is 50% in english, business is 50% in english unless you run a local shop, english permeates advertising, TV shows and movies are in english, technology is in english, etc. It’s a vital skill for any non-native speaker in a modern economy. ---
**Author:** ![protoboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@protoboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/protoboard)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-spread-of-english-throughout-europe/685544/27 "2014-04-10T04:05:54Z")
I find it kind of depressing. Makes me wonder if the children of Gen Y/Z Europeans will just be taught English as their birth language. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-spread-of-english-throughout-europe/685544.md?page=1)