English nowadays
The Introduction.
There are a lot of ways of communication. We can impart information
by gestures, emotions…But the main means of conversation is speech. You
can connect with everybody you want and say what you want. But the
problem appears if you don`t know the language of your partner.
1.World Languages.
There are about 6000 languages in the word. The languages spoken by 1
000 000 of people are called big word language. Millions of people
speak English, Russian, Italian, French, Spanish, Chinese, German,
Japanese, Hindi and others.
The languages spoken by few people are called dying languages. Most
of them are spoken in Asia, Australia, Africa. The experts say that 3
000 languages will disappear in the next 100 years.
Languages are dying for many reasons. To begin with, natural
disasters such as earthquakes, floods or hurricanes suddenly destroy
small groups of people, speaking rare languages. Moreover, the weather
changes and there isn`t enough food for small communities. One more
reason is that strangers bring new diseases. But the real problem comes
from the big languages such as English, French and others which put out
rare languages. Of course, we can try to safe such language but it needs
lots of time and money. The Government should record and write down
dying languages, then they need to train teachers and write grammar
books, dictionaries and books for school.
2. Interesting Facts about English.
In my opinion, English will never die because it is more
multicultural than any other language. For centuries it has taken words
from other languages, and today`s international communication means that
new words are appearing every day. In fact English contains words from
more than 350 other languages! E.g. `algebra` came from Arabic, `safari`
from Swahili…
If you will try to image that English is a tasty dish, the recipe will be like this:
-50 grammes-----Greek
-75 grammes-----Latin
-400 grammes-----Anglo Saxon
-150 grammes-----Norse
-300 grammes-----French
-25 grammes-----other mixed languages.
Mix all the ingredients together. Cook slowly for 1000 years.
English is the main language in 30 countries, and there are about
375 million people who speak it is as their first language. It`s also
used as an official language in over 70 other countries such as
Cameroon, Tanzania, India, Pakistan, Malaysia and Fiji, and is a second
language for about 350 million people. One in two Europeans can speak
quite well and can have a proper conversation, and in the future even
more Europeans will be able to speak it. All in all, there are about
1000 million people who can`t speak English, but they`re learning it!
English is the top language for travel and tourism, and is used in
business and science. At the moment, 80% of the world`s Internet sites
are in English. Teenagers use it to write even SMS. Moreover, nowadays
it`s popular to make friends with people from other countries. But to
have a conversation you have to know their language.
There are some interesting facts about English language. I wondered,
how many words are there in English. And it turned out, that there are
about 300 000 words in the Oxford English Dictionary. However, there are
many scientific and technical words that are not included in the
dictionary (for example, there are over a million types of insect). But
an educated English speaker only uses about 30 000 words.
What do you think, what is the most common letter in English? The
letter `e` is used more than any other. Ernest Wright was very
interested in this fact, and wanted to see if it was possible to
communicate without using this letter at all. He wasn`t able to write
very much. In the end, he wrote a 200-page novel "Gadsby” without using
any words containing the letter `e`. Unfortunately, it was not a great
success, but here is a bit of it:
A glorious full moon sails across a sky without a cloud.
A crisp night air has folks turning up coat collars and
Kids hopping up and down for warmth.
Furthermore, in the Britain three types of language are
allocated: conservative (it`s used in the Queen`s family and
Parliament), received pronunciation (it`s language of BBC, News and
other TV-programs) and advanced (it`s a language of teenagers).
2.1 Comparing English and American.
I think that there is one problem in the English language: it is –
American language. I have asked some people what language does the
Americans speak. 97% of polled people answered, that of course they
speak English. But it was the wrong answer. English and American
languages have a lot of difference.
American English
Bill Bank note
Can Tin
Candy Sweets
Cookie Sweet biscuit
Drugstore Chemist`s shop
Freeway Motorway
Two weeks Fortnight
Mail Post
Movie Film
Period Full stop
Vacation Holiday
Second floor First floor
Sidewalk Pavement
Last name Surname
Let`s compare two weeks and fortnight. Their roots are different
and there is no familiar construction. The American variant consists of
two elementary words, while the British consists of one word with two
roots of different words.
In addition, there is a distinction in way of writing some words.
English American
Apologize Apologise
Center Centre
Defense Defence
Honor Honour
Traveler Traveller
So, you can see, that instead of writing word termination -our
Americans write -or. It is a merit of Noe Webster who lived in 1758 –
1843. He introduced in the American variant the practice of way of
writing –er instead of –re ; -or instead of –ous. Moreover, the
Americans give one name for a group of animals, for example, they
nominate all predatory birds "hawks”.
What is more, there is a large odds in the English and American
grammar. In lieu of using Present Perfect they can use Past Simple. The
Americans refuse from Perfect Tenses so sometimes you can hear phrase
"Did you see…”. For British there is a strict mistake because you must
say "Have you seen…”. Another point to be made, is that the Americans
never say going to because they use the modern form gonna to. Nowadays
we never say `Shall you…?` But we say `Will you…?` Besides, in many
countries, like India or Africa, there are hundreds of local dialects
(different ways of speaking the same language). These countries often
use English as a common language, and each country creates its own
words. As a result new variations of English are born. In West Africa
for example, traffic jams are called `go-slows`, clothes are called
`wears`, and hairdresser`s are known as `barbing saloons`.
3. The Conclusion.
In my opinion, English – is a traditional majestic language. There
are a lot of secrets in it. To my mind, we should try to safe all
British traditions and attempt not to use American slang.
Foreign Languages in Our Life
Learning a foreign language is not an easy thing. It is a long and slow
process that takes a lot of time and efforts. Nowadays it is especially
important to know foreign languages. Some people learn languages because
they need them for their work, others travel abroad, for the third
studying languages is a hobby. Everyone, who knows foreign languages can
speak to people from other countries, read foreign writers in the
original, which makes your outlook wider. It is not surprising that many
intellectuals and well-educated people are polyglots. I study English.
Nowadays English has become the world’s most important language in
politics, science, trade and cultural relations. Over 300 million people
speak it as a mother tongue. The native speakers of English live in
Great Britain, the United States of America, Australia and New Zealand.
English is one of the official languages in the Irish Republic, Canada,
the South Africa Republic. English is one of the official languages of
the United Nations Organization and other political organizations. Half
of the world’s scientific literature is in English. It is the language
of computer technology. To know English today is absolutely necessary
for every educated person, for every good specialist. The English
language is a wonderful language. It is the language of the great
literature. It is the language of William Shakespeare, Jonathan Swift,
Walter Scott, Charles Dickens. The great German poet Goethe once said,
"He, who knows no foreign language, does not know his own one.” That is
why in order to understand oneself and environment one has to study
foreign languages.