In America, we simply take for granted that we speak English out of the gate. I lay out key advantages below-
WE HAVE MORE TIME TO DO OTHER THINGS WHEN GROWING UP – CRITICAL DEVELOPMENT TIME
If you look beyond the our borders (and the borders of countries that speak English), you will be surprised how much time and money other countries spend just in learning English.
If a non-English speaking child spends one hour a day in English class and hour doing homework, that is two hours a day / 10 hours a week / 520 hours a year – that the child is spending just on picking up the language! Nothing more.
If you are born into an English speaking family, those are hours that you can re-allocate to doing something else that is productive – like reading books or learning how to code or studying math and science.
Considering that most kids start learning English in kindergarten, those years really add up – becoming an enormous use for time- those kids in English speaking nations are using for something else.
WE HAVE ACCESS TO MUCH MORE INFORMATION BECAUSE MOST OF KNOWLEDGE (VAST MAJORITY OF WHICH HAS BEEN GENERATED OVER THE PAST TWO DECADES) IS IN ENGLISH
This is really not intuitive. But if you have any question, we can google it in English and you can find some blog / websites / google scholar page that will give you an answer. The search is MUCH easier because all the original documents are generally in English.
The world’s most prestigious journals are all published in English and this English hegemony in documentation of cutting edge knowledge will only get stronger because of NETWORK EFFECT .
Some might say “yeah, but google translate can solve this problem”. Interestingly, I say no because translation to English based on AI tends to be very good, but translation of English to local language remain clumsy – because most of google’s customers and engineers are likely to be English speakers! Small details can make huge difference.
WE HAVE MORE TIME DURING OUR CRITICAL DEVELOPMENT PERIOD AND BETTER ACCESS TI CRITICAL CUTTING EDGE KNOWLEDGE.
Let’s use our competitive advantage well and keep innovating for humanity!
After all, we are the only ones that put humankind on the moon.
