Reading, Writing and Arithmetic

Robert McCrum has written a book, Globish: How the English Language Became the World's Language (2010), in which he argues that the world's English has become the medium that provides us with our interconnectedness. The book traces the origins and growth of English through economics and politics - - from soccer to industrialization to imperial powers to film, advertising, and television. He has several great observations, including the following:

Culture is about identity. For as long as the peoples of the world wish to express themselves in terms of ideas like "freedom", "individuality", and "originality", and for as long as there are generations of the world's schoolchildren versed in Shakespeare, The Simpsons, the Declaration of Independence, and the Bible, Globlish will remain the means by which an educated minority of the planet communicates.

But a more universal metric of communication is mathematics - - the language of science, technology, and engineering. In some respects, mathematical literacy is the driver of world commerce. One plus one equals two links every part of the globe and every segment of society. We seem to forget this fact - - along with Mr. McCrum. McCrum provides a clear example of what a world of one plus one equals three would look like - -

In crude numbers alone, English is used, in some form, by approximately 4 billion people on earth, one-third of the planet, . . .

Several troubling issues with the statement (unless you are a graduate of Enron's Center for Numerical Sciences) - - one is that our total population is 6,861,800,000. That implies that MrCrum's English used valuation is in the two-thirds range - - which is nonsense. The second is the level of precision - - utilizing a range would be more appropriate. Most sources estimate that English spoken as a first language ranges from 309 to 400 million people. English as a second language is spoken by 199 to 1,400 million additional individuals. Assuming these two groups constitute English "in some form", English is spoken by between 500 million and 1.8 billion people - - ranging from 7% to 26% of the planet's population.

English and mathematics - - both are drivers of our interconnectedness.