How many people speak english

I read an article by the British Council that said by the year 2015 3 billion people would be speaking English fluently on Earth. But how many people today speak it fluently on Earth in 2006.. Also, we all learn English because of the immense power of the US in the world today. Within the US, the only standard form of the language can be heard on NPR. Is this the way all speakers of English should aspire to sound like... Thankx

There are actually quite a few different regional American accents on NPR. No, I don't think everyone "should" aspire to one standard or another.

Is there even a "standard" form of American English? If so, would that be a dialect from the West, the Midwest, the Northwest, the Great Lakes, western New England, etc? I suppose you could leave out the South, NYC area, Eastern New England, etc.

There is no rigidly defined standard American English. As Uriel commented, there are quite a few different regional accents on NPR--I was just listening to NPR earlier today. In fact, in terms of national programs on NPR, I'm used to hearing accents which sound different than mine. Of course on local NPR programs, people sound like they're from here (California).

owo!

i speak it

count me in +1

I don't know how many speak it in 2006. Ask me in a few weeks. :)

>>I read an article by the British Council that said by the year 2015 3 billion people would be speaking English fluently on Earth. But how many people today speak it fluently on Earth in 2006.. <<

Statistics sometimes lie.