Actually English is lingua franca across much of the world, and in a multi-racial country like Singapore, its is taught in the education system as our first language in addition to our mother tongue (which can be Mandarin, Malay, Indian, etc. depending on your race). Many languages are related or have evolved from English alphabets, like French, German, Spanish, Malay, Vietnamese, even a Pinyin version of Chinese. If you thought English was tough, try Hindu, Tamil, traditional Chinese, Arabic, Japanese or Korean - I guarantee you'll have a ball of a time just learning to write it!