Grammatically I can think of quite a few. Korean, Japanese, and Hindi for example

ironically, I should first learn proper English before advocating for it :)

I think English has two advantages : 1- it is already very widely used 2- more importantly, it is a fairly simple language compared to French , German , Arabic , Mandarin etc. Can't really think of a language simpler than English

Mandarin also has no grammatical gender.

But I also get the "uncomfortable imperial" point

@corrupt : yeah I agree with that . I think at least in richer countries everyone should learn one "universal" language

I'd still prefer English to be the lingua franca for two reasons: plenty of exposure opportunities because it's everywhere; non-gendered so you don't have to play mind games about whether a book is m, f, or neutral