How would future generations understand our civilization if English were to die out as a language?

Knowing a language spoken by a group of people, definitely
helps in understanding the finer points of culture and civilization of those people. But
most of the characteristics of a civilization can be completely and correctly described
by any well developed language. As a matter of fact, we can learn from books so much
about all the different ancient civilizations without knowing anything about their
language.

It is interesting to note that the English that
people know and speak today is very different from the English spoken a thousand years
back. This has not prevented us from studying and learning about the civilization of
English Speaking that existed a thousand years ago. Also different language are spoken
in different parts of world. But that does not prevent people of one region learning
about civilizations in other parts of the world.

Another
important point to note is that though English as used today may die out as a living
language, just as some languages like Latin and Sanskrit have. But this does not mean
that there will be no one who can understand English, making it impossible for anyone to
make sense of any records in English language that will survive the language
itself.

Finally, I believe as and when English dies out as
a language, it will only be to make place for a better language, more suited for
recording and explaining everything and anything including nature of earlier
civilizations.