While Ireland has its own language and distinct cultural identity, English is the universal spoken language and is one of the reasons why so many multinational businesses locate their European base here.
It also makes Ireland a great choice for international students. English is now the global language of business. According to a recent article in the Harvard Business Review more and more multinational companies, including Airbus, Daimler-Chrysler, Fast Retailing, Nokia, Renault, Samsung, SAP, Technicolor and Microsoft in Beijing, are establishing English as their common corporate language in order to facilitate communication across geographically diverse locations and business functions.
What’s more, it’s the language of choice in the technology world. An estimated 565 million people use English on the internet.
In total, Harvard Business Review estimates that there are close to 385 million native English speakers in countries like the UK, US and Australia; about a billion fluent speakers in formerly colonised nations such as India and Nigeria, and millions of people around the world who’ve studied English as a second language. In fact, English is spoken at a useful level by some 1.75 billion people worldwide.
Dublin is a UNESCO City of Literature, our writers have had a ground-breaking impact on English literature, we have enriched the language with thousands of Irish-derived words and phrases and, for a small country, our authors have amassed a huge haul of literary awards.