“According to the British Council, backed by many other reliable sources, about half the world's population – 3.5 billion people – have knowledge of, or acquaintance with, "some kind of English".”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/nov/27/translation-creating-global-language
Of course, this number will depend on what qualifies as “some kind of English”, but it’s still amazing.
Much of this spread was imperial – either in terms of the British empire or American media or computerization. But it’s still interesting given the fact that English is not really a great language. Off the top of my head:
Weaknesses
Spelling is both nonstandard and somewhat illogical.
Pronunciation are both nonstandard and somewhat illogical.
Lots of unrelated synonyms reflecting work origins in Anglo-Saxon/German and French/Latin.
Strengths
Uses an alphabet with a small number of symbols.
Does not use tonality.
Does not have a central authority governing usage, so anybody can add a word.
Nouns don’t have sex.
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