Being a native English speaker is a real advantage on the international front. Here in Ecuador, our English fluency is a skill that we have to offer. People here who have studied for years don't know certain subtleties of the language that we grasp effortlessly. For instance, there are several meanings for phrasal verbs like: 'break up', 'check out', or 'run into', which make them hard to learn. Also, it's hard to find a connection between things like "give the cold shoulder", "get cold feet" "breakout into a cold sweat", "quit cold turkey", "cold hard cash", etcetera.
According to Wikipedia, English is spoken by up to 1.8 billion people, and is one of the 6 official languages of the United Nations. It is also the international language of aeronautics, science, medicine, communication, entertainment, radio, diplomacy...
Most of the travelers we meet from all over the world can communicate in English, so it often becomes the mode of communication, the genuine lingua franca, at many of the social events we attend. Lucky us, we're 'experts' in English!
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