The USA? Forget it! Check this site for the correct answer.
Klaas Bil
wow! thats crazy. i guess we should firebomb the major cities until we make USA number 1!
im guessing its china
Re: What is the country with the largest English-speaking population in the world?
My guess is they are claiming it is India. I am guessing this, because it seems half the companies you call for customer service end up in India. When I get that voice on the other end of the phone, that is attempting to speak english, but isn’t succeeding, I just hang up. Then I make a mental note to find a replacement product that still has someone who speaks english at their customer service.
I have not looked, but it must be India. According to the CIA Factbook entry for India:
" English enjoys associate status but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication"
Hmm, wouldn’t some say that the above applies to the U.S as well. 
Anyway, having surpassed a billion people, India must have way more English speakers than the U.S.
Re: Re: What is the country with the largest English-speaking population in the world
Yeah, like someone in a Wackenhut facility. 
Screw that… HERE is a real plan… [/blatant sarcasm]
Edit: Oh and the main reason India is #1 is the US corporations, have you ever called a customer service number and gotten a person with a very mild(or thick indian accent), then you now understand why…
They’ve actually started shipping telemarketing jobs to India. I actually have an easier time understanding the phone solicitors in India than I do in the deep south (and they’re more likely to pronounce my last name correctly).
It’s amazing that it’s cheaper to hire telemarketers in India and have them call from there than it is to hire locals (as in from the U.S.) to do the same thing.
Re: Re: What is the country with the largest English-speaking population in the world?
He isn’t speaking YOUR version of English. But hey, you aren’t speaking HIS version either. And none of the two speak the British version (whatever ‘the’ British version is) which is closest to the original. What I mean to say is that your and his English may not be equal but they have the same validity.
A few years ago I had a colleague from Sri Lanka (near India). He spoke English very well but with a heavy accent. I asked him once how he learned to speak English so fluently, and to my surprise he replied that he was a native speaker. His accent had fooled me into assuming that he had acquired it as a second language. Go figure.
Klaas Bil
Which “original” english are you talking about? German or Norwegian might be closer to an earlier form of English than any dialects we speak now. English has gone through a lot of changes in the past thousand years. Check this website out.
I tried to speak of present-day English versions, even though that is difficult because a concept like ‘original’ implies passage of time.
But my point was mainly that US and Indian English are on the same footing, in that one has no less value than the other.
And thanks for the link, twas interesting.
Klaas Bil
I’m not surprised. There’s a little part of me that expects AOL-ese to supplant english as the primary written language in the US within the next ten years. While it will be amusing the first time I see a USA Today headline of “OMG! Teh world r0xx0rz as India pwns Pakistan!!11one!1”, the humor will fade into melancholy pretty quickly.
Re: Re: Re: What is the country with the largest English-speaking population in the world?
He is suggesting that if the person on the other end was speaking his version…that would not be an ousourced service.
Re: Re: Re: What is the country with the largest English-speaking population in the world?
My point is if companies are going to outsource jobs that will be communicating with purchasers of their products, they better be able to communicate. I don’t care if their version is more or less valid, if they can’t communicate with me my $$$ walk to another company who will communicate with me. I would say that my version in this case is the more valid. That is if the companies outsourcing customer service jobs want my business.
They’ll change their name to ‘USA 2Day’
And that headline is now my new sigline.
They call it english. I dont know what to call it, all I know is I dont know what the hell they are saying.
I can understand Japanese accents southern, British, Canadian, New York accents (these are thick accents too) I know I can understand well. Mexican I’m a little iffy. People from India who speak english I can not understand nor can they understand me half the time.
AOL has outsorsed their calls to India(or did I dont know i thats still the case now), thats when we switched because they couldn’t help us, because the accent barrier.
I’m not surprised by the number of people speaking English in India as a second language and as there are so many it’s quite logical to assume they have the most.
The Routes of English was a radio program and was very interesting.
For the more humorous among you take a look at
The American-speaker’s guide to Proper English .
Gary
I find it quite reassuring that i cant understand a word of that…
Klaas, as you live in the country were its 10 biggest cities each contains at least 52% immigrants, and (countrywide) have the higest absolute amount of mosqs in the world (not mentioning the country is as big as OH), then you must be able to determe the shocking mis-take in the end of this (OFFENDING!) clip. (Broadband alert: 6.whatever Mb’s)
I can understand them better than I can understand most yanks