How have African Economies benefited from the English Language?
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(written by Dustin Rugel)
English is a universal language commonly used for trade, which gives some African countries an advantage with regard to internation trade - a key componenet of economics.
13% of Africans speak English. This statistic could be attributed as the main cause of the lack of economic development in Africa as a whole.
Many African countries lie at the bottom of the intenational GDP per capita table, with the Central African Republic rock bottom of the list.
Many countries at the top of the GDP per capita table are countries which either have english as their native language or teach it as a second tongue. Countries such as Norway (6th highest GDP per capita)
Many of the great trading powers such as the US and Germany teach the english language in their schools and it is no surprise that they are both in the top ten for worldwide trading.
To take advantage of emerging use of the English language in business it is important that many African countires, firsty, encourage the teaching of English in school and , secondly, encourage more people to attend school in the first
place.
This could be acheived by English speaking countries subsidising English schools. The incentive behind this is that if countries were to provide subsidies such as this then this would imporve their ability to trade in Africa - one of the world's most rapidly growing markets.
Therefore, the countries should view the spending on foreign schools as an investment as they will make a return rather than a subsidisation.
English also allows African countries to benefit from all the resources online that are written in English. For example, 26% of all internet content is written in English, whereas only 6% is written in any African language. These resources are both academic and useful for general well being.
Finally, English is the most popular intermediary language. Being able to speak English has increased their ability to intertrade.