BrettMN: 10:16pm Apr 17, 2008: I think Craig is right, the answerer to this question isn't very smart.
The question really was (in German) "Why is English the 'world language'"?
This person's answer is factually incorrect (hello, heard of Chinese?) :-), but now I at least get it linguistically.
Thank you. Erika Berrai-Flynn: 12:41am Apr 18, 2008: Hier behauptet das auch einer mit der "Bevölkerungsschicht". http://www.gutefrage.net/frage/wieso-ist-englisch-die-weltsp...
Dazu fällt mir nur das Buch "Generation doof" ein. Colin Rowe: 11:12am Apr 18, 2008: Not necessarily factually incorrect. Chinese may have the largest number of native speakers, but English has far more speakers of English as a second (sometimes even official) language, e.g. hundreds of millions in India. Colin Rowe: 11:14am Apr 18, 2008: Some would even go so far as to suggest that English is spoken in USA, but... (only kidding!). ;-) BrettMN: 1:43pm Apr 18, 2008: That's circular logic then. The question already begins with the premise that English is the "world language" (which implies, accurately, that it's spoken as a second language throughout the world by more people than any other second language); the only question is why this is so. So the person answering the question at that site is pretty much saying, "It's the world language because it's the world language." Nicholas Krivenko: 4:15pm Apr 18, 2008: I would say that this has quite a lot to do with the ease basic English can be learned and, of course, thanks to Hollywood. In any case, "Bevölkerungsschicht" is plain wrong.
Erklärung: I mean, the answer is complete nonsense, isn't it? Or am I missing something? What 'layer/stratum/part/class' of which 'population' is the largest and why does this make English the _world_ language?
Erklärung: I mean, the answer is complete nonsense, isn't it? Or am I missing something? What 'layer/stratum/part/class' of which 'population' is the largest and why does this make English the _world_ language?
P.S. That should be ö not o in your term.
Craig Meulen Deutschland Muttersprache: Englisch PRO-Punkte in Kategorie: 12
Hinweise an den Beantworter der Frage
Fragesteller: Colin, the person using this term on that site is incorrect, but my question was about the meaning of the term, not whether or not it was being used in a factual sense in this instance.
The translation workplace 
Zustimmung (Netto): +4