I'm a Spanish native speaker and I think that one of the pros of English is that it's simpler. English grammar is much easier. Also English is the main language of scientific publications and the most used language on the Internet.
I think that a language is just a tool and I would evaluate it only by it's effectiveneness for sharing ideas.
I am not a native speaker of English neither Spanish, but I have learnt both languages.
I don't think English grammar is easier than Spanish (but that is debatable). But I think every body can agree that the pronunciation of Spanish is much easier, as Spanish is pronounced as it is spelled.
Why not using an artificial language specifically built for simplicity, such as Esperanto?
At the end of WW2 Indonesia needed an official language. Instead of picking Javanese, they picked a language spoken by relatively few people because of its simplicity.
Indonesians are all bi or trilingual.
Indonesian is the worlds simplest language. It should be the official world language!
There is something delightfully charming about this idea, I love it. I had a friend who spent some time in Indonesia and told me how it was possible to pick useful language skills in days.
Yes, Spanish is very easy to pronounce, unlike English.
I think English grammar is easier because it has simpler verb tenses.
Esperanto or Ido may be the ideal languages. Still many people are attached to their languages and cultures, and I think the only chance for a standarized world-language to be successful would require coordinated efforts and willingness by various governments, which is extremely unlikely to happen.
Why not using an artificial language specifically built for simplicity, such as Esperanto?
There are barely any users and there is only a small amount of content available.
I do agree that it's probably one of the easiest languages to pick up, since it is so regular (largely one suffix per word class, regular inflection, etc.).
I think that a language is just a tool and I would evaluate it only by it's effectiveneness for sharing ideas.