Everyone knows that there are more speakers of Mandarin than any other language in the world. Just over one billion people speak Mandarin as their native tongue. Compared to the nearly four hundred million native speakers of English, there would appear to be "no contest." Yet, it is just as well-known that English, not Mandarin, is the international language. Given these statistics, how can this be? Looking more closely at these and other facts reveals how English has become the world's most widespread language.每個人都知道，全世界說華語的人口比說任何其它語言的人口要來得多。大約有10億以上的人口以華語為母語。相較之下，以英語為母語的人口只近4億，顯然是“沒得比”。然而，眾所周知，英語才是國際性的語言而非華語。看著這些統計數據，不禁要問怎么會這樣？仔細看看這些統計數字和其它事實，便透露出英語是如何變成世界上最被廣泛使用的語言。The history of written Chinese goes back at least 4,000 years, that of English little more than 1,000 years. The language called English is actually a hybrid of Scandinavian and German tongues created by immigrants to England in the 5th century A.D. Over the next 500 years, English developed into several major dialects spoken principally on most of the island of England. With continuous invasions by more Scandinavians and the French over the next few centuries, the English language received a fresh stimulus of foreign words, including Latin and Greek, the preferred classical languages in educational and political circles at that time in Europe. English as a principal language of literature did not evolve until the 14th century (Chaucer). By the 16th century, English was in full bloom, both in literature as well as in science.中國書寫文字的歷史至少可回溯到4000年前，而英語的文字歷史只有1000多年。英語其實是北歐語和德語的混合，由公元第5世紀遷移至英國的移民所創。之后的500年間，英語發展成英格蘭島上絕大地區所說的數種主要方言。接下來的幾個世紀，由于更多的北歐人及法國人不斷入侵，英語接受了更多新奇外來語的刺激，其中包括當時在歐洲的教育及政治圈人士所偏愛的古典語言——拉丁語和希臘語。英語一直到14世紀（英國大詩人喬叟）時才發展成文學上的主要語言。到了16世紀時，英語在文學與科學上的使用均達到了顛峰。England, referred to as Great Britain by this time, was amassing political, economic, and military power at breath-taking speed. The Industrial Revolution of the next century required foreign resources; imperialism gave the go-ahead for Britain and other European powers to not only take what they wanted from foreign lands but to lay conquest to those lands as well. Additionally, the rapid social changes engendered by the change from agriculture to manufacturing meant a surplus of farm workers, resulting in a waiting army of the dispossessed to emigrate to Britain's newfound colonies. In the 17th and 18th centuries, millions of Englishmen left their mother country for North America. In the 18th century, hundreds of thousands more set sail for Australia and New Zealand, as well as South Asia (the British Raj) and Africa (primarily South Africa). At the height of the British Empire, one-fourth of the world's people and lands were living under the Union Jack. Thus, by the close of the 19th century English rule had extended to the six principal continents (including British Guyana in South America).當時被稱為大不列顛的英格蘭正以驚人的速度積聚政治、經濟與軍事力量。由于下一個世紀發生的工業革命需要外國的資源，再加上帝國主義興盛，使得英國與其它歐洲國家的勢力不斷對外擴張，不僅竭盡所能地搜刮外國資源，更進一步征服了這些地方。除此之外，由于農業社會快速變遷至工業社會所造成的剩余農業勞動力，導致一群被迫失去一切的農民往外移民，在不列顛王國新建立的各個殖民地上生根。在17～18世紀時，有好幾百萬的英國人離開祖國移民至北美洲。18世紀時，成千上萬的英國人揚帆至澳洲和新西蘭，甚至遠達南亞（英屬拉吉）和非洲（主要在南非）。在不列顛王國全盛時期，全球有近四分之一的人口與土地是在英國的控制之下。大約在19世紀末時，英國的勢力遍及全球主要的6大洲（包括位于南美洲的英屬圭亞那）。This first-ever domination of the globe by one language is the primary reason for the international use of English today. A second reason lies in the rise of the United States of America as a leading world power just as Britain's power began to fade. At the close of the 19th century, the U.S. fought with Spain (in1898). After the U.S. victory, Spain ceded the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico, resulting in the further introduction of English into Asia and the Caribbean. After U.S. involvement in both World Wars, despite Britain's continued decline, English became more commonly used around the world, especially in continental Europe and Japan. Since 1950, the rapidly growing U.S. economy as well as its academic and scientific excellence has insured that English remains the language of commerce and intellectual intercourse. The world of entertainment, most notably Hollywood, has also contributed to the popularization of English.這種空前第一次由單一語言統治全球的情況便是今日英語為何會成為國際語言的主因。第二個原因在于英國勢力漸微而美國崛起成為最重要的世界強國。19世紀末葉，美西交戰（公元1898年）。美國勝利之后，西班牙放棄菲律賓、關島以及波多黎各地，促使英語勢力延伸至亞洲及加勒比海一帶。美國加入兩次世界大戰之后，盡管不列顛王國持續沒落，英語在全世界卻被更廣泛地使用，特別是在歐洲與日本。自1950年以來，美國的經濟快速成長，而且在學術以及科學方面也表現優異，因此更確保英語繼續成為商業與知識上意見交換的主要語言。而像世界知名的娛樂王國好萊塢等娛樂圈對于英語的普及也功不可沒。It is estimated that at least 300 million people around the world are now studying or using English as a second language, for purposes of education, employment, or personal interest.Some 75% of all international communications are in English, and with the rise of the Internet, it is doubtful that this figure will decrease any time soon. At the dawn of the new millennium, the world has one international language, English.據估計，全球至少有3億人口為了教育、工作或個人興趣等目的正在學習或使用英語為其第二語言。大約有75%左右的國際性交流以英語進行，而且隨著互聯網的興起，這個數據恐怕短時間內是不會降低的。在新的千禧年開始之初，這個世界通用一種國際語言是英語。