Seriously, some of the dumbest people in the world speak it. It takes no skill to speak. Whereas other languages such as Русский, Español, Tiếng Việt, 日本語, 汉语, 한국어 and several others require skill. I'm sick of hearing this comment about how English is one of the most difficult languages in the world. It's the easiest. Anglophones are also some of the most ignorant and obnoxious people in the world.
Name:
Anonymous2006-12-19 15:35
I can only speak English and Japanese, but here's my thoughts on this.
ANY language is easy to speak if you're in an environment where you use it on a daily basis. Using natural sentences, on the other hand, takes far longer. This is especially true of a language like English that has lots of odd grammar and small connecting words. English pronunciation is also very difficult when compared to other languages like Japanese, thus accents will persist much longer with people who've learn English as a second language unless their native language is one with many of the same vowel and consonant sounds.
Writing English is also only slightly easier than Japanese, as while Japanese people have kanji to remember English speakers must remember how to spell. Unless you are a linguist who understands word origins and morphology, kanji are only slightly more arbitrary than the spellings of many English words.
Reading-wise Japanese is harder than English because you can sound out an unknown word but you cannot do the same of an unknown kanji. Although, it should be noted that unless you know the meaning of the word, being able to sound it out is still of no use.
The reason so many people can speak English in the world is that it is spoken in many places in the world. This has nothing to do with how "easy" it is. Japanese people cannot speak English because, although they all "study" it in grade school, the English education system is flawed and basically consists of memorizing a series of vocabulary words and preset sentences to regurgitate for a test, after which they will be soon forgotten. "English" class is taught almost entirely in Japanese, and there is little, or more often absolutely no actual "speaking" done by the students. A Japanese person who's spent half a year in the US will be able to speak more English than a Japanese person who's studied since they were in elementary school.