English is becoming the vehicular language of the world. This results in linguistic injustices for non-native speakers. To combat the two most crucial injustices - the loss of dignity and the decline of non-English life-worlds, I argue for cosmopolitan ownership of English. When English becomes a global asset, it should also become global property. Native speakers then no longer hold ultimate authority over English. Instead, non-native speakers may nationally tweak English. This offers a double dignity compensation: it allows non-native speakers to speak English with confidence according to national rules, and it symbolically takes some status away from native speakers by the very fact that their native tongue is suddenly seized by others. It also offers compensation for life-world decline, by detaching English from its native life-world, and by anchoring it in national horizons by filling it with non-native expressions and references.
