June 2026

Well, there goes May in lightning speed, and in comes June along with the first day of summer, and vacation plans being organized. I awoke the other day with the thought, I am so glad I speak English. I have travelled to many areas where English is not the primary language, including Italy, Saint Martain, France, Chili, Holland, Germany and the list goes on. I do not speak German, French, Spanish or any other language yet I had absolutely no issues getting on in all of those places solely on English. I dare to say English speaking people are a bit cocky as little to no effort is made by “most” of us when we travel and I would say that “most” of us probably expect that we will get by on English alone. I know there are places where you cannot get by with English, but just saying.

How did we get so lucky? Well, it turns out that there was no luck involved. It started when the Brits gallivanted around the world starting in the late 16^th century and finishing in the 20^th century. At its peak the British Empire controlled 25% of the total land and population of the planet. After the dissolve of the Empire the USA picked up the ball and furthered the English language to the level it is today. Known as the international language, here are a few communications that are done in English: meetings of the United Nations, G20 and the World Health Summit to name some of the well-known ones, and there are thousands more. The scientific community uses English as its language to communicate. 95% of all scientific papers are published in English. All computer code is written in English. Air traffic control is communicated in English globally. You cannot be a commercial pilot without speaking English, or an air traffic controller for that matter. In all, approximately 1.5 billion people speak English globally, the most spoken language of them all. Although, only about 350 million speak it as their first language. I hope I haven’t bored anyone but now you know why I am glad I speak English. That’s not to say I wouldn’t love another language or two. 

Here’s a little brain twister, and try not to use Google to come up with it. What is the only word in the English language that has 9 letters with only one of them being a vowel? Hint, we all have a few of them.

Don’t forget to sign up for our annual picnic coming in July.

Have a Wonderful June Fellow Members,

President Pat