More English than the English

Here are some factoids:

"Today 350 million people speak English in India and another 300 million in China, with more children learning English in Chinese schools than in British schools. And in continents and countries where there are varied languages and dialects, often the people speak with each other in English - their shared language." (quote from here.)

And

"with about 308 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by land area and population." (from the wikipedia article here.)

So yes, India had more people speaking English than the U S of A.

Another tidbit:

The stats say it all. In mid-2007, the International Herald Tribune stated that "English is spoken in some form by three times as many nonnative speakers as native speakers." (from here)

English was the first language I learned. It is the language I use to think, read, and speak. It gets rather tiring to have people (not from India) act surprised that I know it, or tell me that their way of using English is the correct way, because for me, it is only my 'second language'. Nah! Every country has its variations in usage--and I think India has enough in terms of numbers to define its own brand of the language. We're a majority, guys :-)