I'm sure that must be frustrating.
I think the answer is that we haven't common technology that allows us to understand any language in use (though I wish we had) and so, as the world becomes more global, we need a common language.
In numbers, there are more native Chinese speakers than native English speakers, but the British colonized so many places over time that it was perhaps the most widespread geographically...in most continents. I'm not a historian by any means, but I suspect that has something to do with it.
K