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Models and Monuments It is fashionable nowadays to talk about Englishessurely one of the least attractive of recent coinages. But it is an indication that the great community of users of English are now conscious of the fact that they do not all have exactly the same accent, or habit of grammar and idiom, or vocabulary. They have a choice, and they intend to use it. How does Britain stand in this comparison? What is the role of the British Council, and other British educational interests? How does a major initiative like the Cobuild project further the image of Britain abroad? Born with English In Britain on the whole we do not have much of a choice. We can take steps to modify our language a little, and there are some famous recent examples of the perils attending that policy. But by and large we just use the language that somehow emerges in early development and usually seems adequate for our daily communication needs. We should never forget what an asset it is to us all that this language is English. Everyone who has English as a birthright has an inbuilt advantage in international communication. Not only are we spared the trouble and expense of mastering the language later on, we also have access to a mastery of it which is of such high quality that few foreigners ever reach the same level. Such an asset beats North Sea Oil hands down. It must be worth billions of pounds a year and it is renewed solely by the operation of normal social processes. Only English | 
