As the international language of business, science, and academia, English is the most studied language in the world. There are 1.5 billion English language learners and 527 million native English speakers worldwide, meaning that approximately a quarter of the global population has at least some familiarity with English.
Despite its importance in global affairs and commerce, English is an immensely difficult language to learn. The language features grammatical rules that are often broken, an alphabet that can confuse people who are used to a character-based system, and spelling and pronunciation irregularities that perplex even native speakers.
Here are some of the linguistic inconsistencies that make the English language difficult for non-native speakers to learn and why it still might be a good idea to get some extra help when using English (or any other foreign language) in your business or organization.
