Jay Walker on the world's English mania

http://www.ted.com Jay Walker explains why two billion people around the world are trying to learn English. He shares photos and spine-tingling audio of Chinese students rehearsing English -- "the world's second language" -- by the thousands.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate. Watch a highlight reel of the Top 10 TEDTalks at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10

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[RenataVentura]

He says "America" is not pushing english?

The USA and Britain are pushing it. I´ve read that 5% of Great Britain´s revenue comes from international english.

Take away english courses, there goes 5% of their money!

That´s why english speaking countries are always trying to vote down Esperanto when it comes to the ballot.

Esperanto was designed as a neutral, international language. It takes 4 MONTHS to learn and NO MONEY. Online.

Most chinese take 14 YEARS to learn english. Fair?

[Mutusen]

I speak Esperanto, and it does not "lack variation and expressiveness".

[ThoughtfulThug]

Look like to me an advocacy for the English language to be the world's language, but that doesn't mean it is the best language for all.

3:55 "English is becoming the language of problem solving, not because America is pushing it." Oh, I beg to differ. It is!

[hazdude222]

Yes maybe they were, still peanuts compared to 5% of a $2.316 trillion economy.

[mete kavruk]

Yes. English is just another way of invading the minds. In 1980's in my country people used to treaten people who learnt english as if they were like professors.Also the music helped it a lot.It was so cool.

[mete kavruk]

maybe not now but about 15 years ago in Turkey there were only imported books from UK for us to learn english and they were truely expensive.

[martinez8290]

The scariest thing about it is that China is already considered to be an example for other countries to follow. There are many bad things to be said about the Western civilisation, but at least here in the West we don't treat schoolchildren like simple machines.

[martinez8290]

The reason is: because it's already a closed deal. English is the most popular language on this planet, it's like Latin in ancient and medieval Europe, only even more widespread.

However, it's impact on people's lives is a bit overestimated in my opinion. Learning English to a fairly advanced leven so far hasn't much improved my chances of finding a good job. Why? Because there are so many people claiming to speak 'good English' that it doesn't give you any advantage on the market anymore.

[MrMorgan333]

o gosh, english is simple language. probably not simple as esperanto but enough. and i think it's a mistake that children can learn esperanto in school for 4 months.

[hazdude222]

Did you actually just say that 5% of GB's income comes from international English? Just think about what you are saying before you say it otherwise you will seem like an idiot.

[superbubbleaquapower]

Didn't really get the point until that last line. I think he should have explained WHY English, though.

[ilyamakarchuk]

LEARN THE FREAKING ESPERANTO! NOW!