As an English tutor in Hungary whose husband is an English teacher, also in Hungary, I am acutely aware of the rabid desire to learn and master English, particularly American English, among speakers of other languages. It is laughably easy to find, for a native English speaker, a comfy niche as a tutor for Hungarian students, with or without formal training.
Sure makes things easier for me as far as communicating in my native tongue in this country. Anybody who can speak English will speak English to me, even when I initiate communication in Hungarian. I don't know much, but I use it as much as I can and when people inevitably revert to English ("it's just easier", they say) it makes it almost impossible for me to move forward with Hungarian.
I do hope all of this desire for English does not render its native speakers even more lazy as far as learning a foreign language is concerned. Most Americans do not speak a foreign language, do not feel the need at all, even as the Spanish language continues to become more and more important in our society. So the idea of a World English is a mite uncomfortable to me and I hope its burgeoning does not become even more of an excuse for native speakers to forgo foreign language study. While I love the slippery sounds of my native tongue, I also playing with my basic French and rudimentary Spanish. Learning language is good for the brain cells, broadens the mind in more ways that just learning a grammar that is foreign to one's own.
Have a look at this excerpt from a new book about the English language. Food for thought, especially for us native speakers.
http://www.salon.com/2011/11/06/whats_the_language_of_the_fut
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