You would think that four national languages would be enough. Not for the Swiss. Along with German, French, Italian and Romansh, English is making considerable inroads.

The popularity of English is so strong that a Swiss school, unable to meet the demand, resorted to a lottery to determine which elementary school kids would get to study English.

The dominance of English in today's world has not gone unnoticed, and some countries have reacted with fear about the possible demise of their own national languages. Others have embraced English and are considering making it a second national language.