Recent developments in English language include the rise of many Englishes throughout the world and home dialects appearing in broadcasting, which are increasing in salience rather than diminishing with globalisation; huge increases in the international vocabulary held in common by modern languages, particularly technical and scientific words; and the increases in alternatives in communication. Two restricted English vocabularies as a way to increase the accessibility of English language have received publicity; both are called Globish, one by a Frenchman, Jean-Paul Nerrière, of 1500 words (2009), and one by an Indian of 4000 words with an accompanying Indianised spelling (Gogate, 2002).

Roughly 90,000 taxi drivers in Beijing learned English in preparation for the Summer Olympic Games (Beijing 2008) of some 600,000 total residents of the city that have jumped on the English bandwagon in the past few years (People's Daily, 2001). China is a country of nearly a billion and a half people, most of whom now begin learning English at the age of ten (Dong, 2005: 11). A simple Google search for ‘English in China’ yields more than 36,000,000 results! It cannot be argued that English is unpopular in the Middle Kingdom. With so many learners there, it stands to reason that a variety of English peculiar to China would eventually develop, and there is much evidence to suggest that it has already begun.

From Ben Jonson to Thomas Carlyle, from the Modern Language Association of America to the British Tourist Authority, there were and there are enthusiastic testimonies to Shakespeare's greatness, to what his oeuvre means to the inhabitants of the ‘precious stone set in the silver sea’ and the world at large. Only recently, at the turn of the century, listeners of BBC's Radio 4 voted him Man of the Millennium. On that occasion, Shakespeare ousted dignitaries like Winston Churchill and Isaac Newton, who all play leading roles in British history, from their position of power. The playwright is dearest to the memory of his countrymen. He occupies the most prominent place in the national portrait gallery, if the witnesses cited above are accepted. There are some, however, who apparently beg to differ. Their dissenting voices were discovered in the context of cultural memory studies and a concomitant attempt to introduce EFL students to some of the core elements of British collective memory.

Every now and again a call goes up for the reform of English orthography to make it more user-friendly. After all, it is said, the Spanish, the Germans, and even the French, have accepted changes to their spelling systems. By way of comparison, we could think of the suggestion that the Greeks should abandon their alphabet and adopt the Roman one, to come into line with most other European countries. Thankfully, there seems no serious possibility that this will happen. The reasons against it are solidly linguistic and not ones prompted by blind tradition. The same sorts of reasons should prevail for English. The Greek case, though, can provide some lessons. For there have, in fact, been changes to Greek orthography in recent times. An important one was in 1982, when the variety of diacritic signs was reduced to a single accent.

‘Hello, Mrs Hinton, how's the family?’ asks Mrs Nosey when I meet her in the street on Tuesday. Canny woman, that Mrs Nosey. She can't rightly remember if I have a son, a daughter or both. So she's asked the standard question which will elicit the maximum of information. She's a past master at such interrogation.