English is now the global language. How come?

"The new world language seems to be good for everyone--except the speakers of minority tongues, and native English-speakers too perhaps

IT IS everywhere. Some 380m people speak it as their first language and perhaps two-thirds as many again as their second. A billion are learning it, about a third of the world's population are in some sense exposed to it and by 2050, it is predicted, half the world will be more or less proficient in it. It is the language of globalisation--of international business, politics and diplomacy. It is the language of computers and the Internet."