Signspotting [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION Four hundred and six millión native English speakers may sound a lot, but this figure represents less than ten percent of the world's population. Yet, thanks to American, Canadian, Australian, British, Irish, and New Zealand lingual stubbornness (or cerebral shortcomings) and an appetite for travel, the world has - without any formai treaty or prolonged UN convention - adopted English as the almost-officiat tourist language. An estimated 350 millión to one billión people now speak English as a second language, which means, as an Anglophone, you can be understood (or misunderstood) by up to a quarter of the people on earth. The practical applications of this are as convenient as they are odd. For instance, Germán speakers (120 millión worldwide) and French speakers (128 millión worldwide) typically brush up on their English skills before heading to places such as Thailand, Sweden, Israel or Bali instead of attempting to learn the local language. Japanese tourists can be found bargaining for items in English while Street shopping in the Netherlands. And when Norwegians, Danes and Swedes meet up they will most likely converse in English to avoid misunderstandings.