Did you know that a quarter of all the people on Earth speak English? That's 1.5 billion people! This is Tara. She's from New Zealand and English is her first language. About 450 million people speak English as a first language in countries like Britain, the USA, Australia and New Zeatand. Sandro is from Puerto Rico but now he lives in New York. His tirst language is Spanish, but he speaks English too. Thirty-six million people in the USA come from Latin America. They learn English as a second language because they live in an English-speaking country. About 375 million people across the world use English as a second language. In India, for example, there are over 350 different languages, so people often use English to communicate with each other. Mohammed is Egyptian. He's learning English at school. About 750 million people learn English as a foreign language. They use it in their job, when they travel abroad, or when they want to understand English films or songs. English is the main language in international business, in science and technology, in sport and pop music. For example, nearly 70% of the world's scientists read scientific texts in English. On the Internet, over 60% of home pages and about 85% of emails are in English. It helps you to connect with other people. At the moment, about a billion people are learning English, so you aren't alone! Language is a key to the outside world. Read the text. How many of your reasons can you find? Why English a useful language? Think of at least three reasons. ​