I've been learninng English for a while Living in a non-English speaking country has certain barriers in rehearsing speaking. I definitely agree that English is one of dominate languages in the world, so people should be able to speak and use it when you talk with people who come from different background. For example, a couple day ago, I met a Jewish casualty in our emergency department, looking for a lavatory room. Initially, I did not realize what did he say because of the accent. Therefore, I told him that you was in Taiwan, you was supposed to speak Mandarin . He seemed not to get in, so I swift to English from Mandarin.