It's a little ironic to use lingua franca in reference to english.

Quote Originally Posted by a wiki article
Originally lingua Franca (or Sabir) referred to a mixed language composed mostly of Italian with a broad vocabulary drawn from Persian, French, Greek and Arabic. Lingua Franca literally means "Frankish language". This originated from the Arabic custom of referring to all Europeans as Franks. This mixed language was used for communication throughout the medieval and early modern Middle East[citation needed] as a diplomatic language; the generic description lingua franca has since become common for any language used by speakers of different languages to communicate with one another. Some samples of Sabir have been preserved in Molière's comedy, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme.
If the wiki article is correct (and I think it is), then your assertion that English, particularly American English which absorbs millions of words from other languages, is correct, too. Whether continetal europe adopts Am-Eng, with its ability to accomodate all other languages, is a political question though, that doesn't look good, because of folks not wanting to 'give up' their native tongue, or in their minds 'submit' to American incursions on their culture.

I should get up to speed on Spanish and Chinese. Then I could communicate with about 75-80% of humanity. But I'm getting kinda old, and it gets harder to teach this old dog new tricks with each passing day.