No doubt English is a universal language. It is the most widely used language around the world. I am telling this from my own experience. Although I live in an Arabic Muslim country I have to deal with people in english when i go out even for shopping. Secondly if you want to attend world class university you must know english. Last but not the least, when you go to different country and you dont know their language and they dont know yours, still you have the a third language, English, to communicate.