Language division prevents a big part of the population to access content even more.
Is everyone supposed to learn Chinese to be able to read interesting articles ? What about Korean ? What about Wolof ?
Sharing a common language bring a lot to mankind as a whole, and is more effective to create bridges between people than most other means. Local languages are of course welcome and should be kept around for culture, but I do think that refusing to use a common language is a loss.
As for why English, well it's a bit late to ask the question imho : English has been picked as a common language quite a few years ago. There was French in Europe before, latin before that, but now it's English. I'm not especially happy about it either, since I'm not a native speaker, but here we are, and it's kind of pointless to fight against it when a big and diverse part of the world population already speak English (diverse is important, having 2 billion of people speaking a language in only one country is not really helpful for a common language).
> having 2 billion of people speaking a language in only one country is not really helpful for a common language
Apparently it is, otherwise we wouldn't be in thread discussing more and more interesting content only being available in Chinese. Users will learn whatever language provides content they want to consume. For me that was English. My parents learned Russian. I'd not be surprised if the next generation learns Chinese, though I'd prefer not having to do so (parents english isn't great).
Your arguments for English keeping its spot are kind of weak. It was surprising to read how few people speaking english. Wiki "English-speaking world" states just 500m-1b global and first language is less than 360m, 2/3 of those in the US. Class differences might ensure there is still more content produced in english, but china might catch up quickly and having just half as many speakers doesn't give a good head start. It being close to European languages might help, at doesn't require to learn a totally new alphabet. I would have expected English to get a nice boost due to geopolitics, but am not sure that is the cast past 2016. The US is still highly influence, due to media exports and probably most importantly dominance on the internet. China's firewall/separated Internet might save English. Though it might also protect their own language long enough to start to produce enough content to export...
Actually, I just realized how few recent popular Chinese films I've heard of. Guess I'll choose some to download, now.
> I'm not especially happy about it either, since I'm not a native speaker, but here we are
Many of us native speakers aren't happy about it either, English is a terrible language. I have a 6-year old daughter, and across the years we have spent teaching her language skills I have learned just how messy English actually is. Watching DVDs and reading books about pronunciation rules that quite frankly even I never quite grasped until teaching my own child, it's enough to make your head spin.
Is everyone supposed to learn Chinese to be able to read interesting articles ? What about Korean ? What about Wolof ?
Sharing a common language bring a lot to mankind as a whole, and is more effective to create bridges between people than most other means. Local languages are of course welcome and should be kept around for culture, but I do think that refusing to use a common language is a loss.
As for why English, well it's a bit late to ask the question imho : English has been picked as a common language quite a few years ago. There was French in Europe before, latin before that, but now it's English. I'm not especially happy about it either, since I'm not a native speaker, but here we are, and it's kind of pointless to fight against it when a big and diverse part of the world population already speak English (diverse is important, having 2 billion of people speaking a language in only one country is not really helpful for a common language).