Ideas: English: Friend or Frenemy

Over the course of 400 years, English went from being a small language spoken in the British Isles to becoming the most dominant language in the world. But is English Britain's "greatest gift" to the world as some say it is, or is it, as critics contend, "a behemoth, bully, loudmouth, thief"? As English gains ground and pushes local languages aside and acting like a "linguistic imperialist", is there a way to rethink English not as a language with a universal standard upheld in a faraway place, but rather as a global language with multiple versions existing on equal footing?