The US is not the only country in the world

[icklemiss21]

Still - French as the default for Canada makes a lot more sense than Portuguese for the UK, Sweden etc

 

[minxie]

Portuguese? Oh dear I better brush up then...all i know is obrigado and por favor.

 

[sarahp]

That's really funny - you'd think you'd do a little more research, or put a little more effort in if you're going to be setting default languages for software!!

 

[zissou'smom]

Originally Posted by Persi & Alley

For those "self-absorbed", consider this. Native English speakers are declining. Native Spanish speakers are rapidly increasing. (See birth rate tables for these countries.) According to my almanac (Time), the number of Mandarin speakers are easily in first place but due to the restrictions on birth control in China, unless there is a reversal in the direction the trend is heading, Spanish will be the world's most spoken language well before the end of this century. With Hindustani (Hindu & Urdu) not far behind

You make a good point. But one of the main things people don't realize is that the majority of english speakers no longer reside in the traditionally english-speaking countries (US UK Australia, etc). English is still, and will continue to be barring major world-wide disaster and restructuring, the fastest growing language and the language of power and business. Not that it won't have major competition. For instance, in India, there are more new speakers of English in a year than in those traditionally English-speaking countries. It isn't enough to compare birth tables and what language most people in the country speak. http://www.askoxford.com/globalenglish/worldenglish/