Never has there been a language quite like English. A bold statement, yet nevertheless true. Consider a few statistics. Today, one out of every seven people in the world use English in some way. More than half the world’s books are written in English; the majority of international telephone calls are made in English; 60% of the world’s radio programs are broadcast in English. English is even the working language of international air travel. For the first time in history, a single language has become dominant across a wide range of human activity, ranging from music, film and fine arts to the fields of business, diplomacy, science and technology.