My English Studies
Today it is quite evident that everyone should know at least one foreign
language.
Knowing one or more foreign languages makes it possible to get
acquainted with different ways of thinking, to understand a new
civilisation. Learning a foreign stimulates mental abilities and gives
you a chance to appreciate a new literature, a different culture and to
broaden your outlook.
Besides, knowing foreign languages has a practical value. It helps to
improve the quality of your work, because it reduces the time lost on
obtaining the necessary information.
The knowledge of other languages is very useful, especially if you have
to work abroad or of you must read foreign literature in the original.
If you know the language of a foreign country, you can talk to its
people and understand what they are speaking about without anybody’s
help. The knowledge of foreign languages also helps young people of
different countries to develop friendship.
As for me, I’m learning English, because in the recent years it has
become not only an international language, it is now a number one
language in the world. Besides, English is becoming a lingua franca. A
lingua franca is a language chosen for international purposes.
At the beginning of the 21st century English more widely spoken and
written, than any other language has ever been. It has become the
language of the planet, the first truly global language. English has
become the world’s important language in politics, science, trade and
cultural relations. Three quarters of the world’s mail and its telexes
and telegrams are in English. More than half of the world’s scientific
periodicals and eighty per cent of the information in the world’s
computers are also in English. English is the main language of business.
It is the language of sports: the official language of the Olympics. In
a number of speakers it is second only to Chinese. At the same time it
is the most widespread language in the world. It is the official
language of the UK, of the USA, Australia and New Zealand. English is
used as one of the official languages in Canada, the Republic of South
Africa and the Irish Republic. It is also spoken as a second language by
many people in India, Pakistan, numerous countries in Africa. The number
of second language speakers may soon exceed the number of native
language speakers, if it hasn’t happened yet.
Everybody can see now the importance of English, listening to the radio
and music, watching films on TV. As for me I have always wanted to study
English deeply since I began learning it at school. My English lessons
were always very interesting and I liked them most of all at school. WE
started learning English with the alphabet, transcription and sounds.
Then we learned some English words, conversation phrases and dialogues
by heart, read and translated easy texts. Of course, sometimes we worked
in the language laboratory listening to the recorded tapes and doing
laboratory exercises, but that was not enough. From lesson to lesson we
improved our knowledge, learned more and more new words, grammatical
structures and put them into practice of speaking. Soon we were able not
only to read and translate texts but to discuss their contents in
English, to communicate with one another. Our teacher always told us
that it is very helpful to listen as much as possible to different
English educational programmes on the radio and on TV. I have a lot of
English cassettes at home and try to listen to them almost every day. To
my mind, English is not an easy language to learn. There is a big
problem of speaking, punctuation, a large number of exceptions to any
rule. This language is very idiomatic and the prepositions are terrible.
English is one of those languages which may be seen easy in the
beginning but then the bridge between basic knowledge and mastery takes
a long time to cross. But if you cross this bridge it will give you
great satisfaction. Even now the ability to speak to foreigners in their
native tongue gives me great freedom and satisfaction. It’s important
also to read foreign authors in the original, which makes our outlook
wider. It is not surprising that many intellectuals know several foreign
languages. Besides, learning a foreign language opens great
opportunities nowadays. You certainly know that with the development of
international contacts hundreds of joint ventures appear in every city,
every industrial and cultural centre. They need specialists who know one
or two foreign language. Also foreign businessmen, delegations and
missionaries keep coming to our country, and they all need interpreters.
Out tourists and businessmen go abroad. So many people study foreign
languages in every possible way. Teachers of foreign languages are in
great demand. Such teachers needn’t fear they may remain unemployed
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Among the great number of languages that exist on our planet today there
are some, which stand out. Scientists distinguish 13 great languages.
These are the languages that are spoken by no less that 50 per cent of
people on the Earth. They are Chinese, English, Russian, Spanish, Hindi
and Urdi, Indonesian…
A person who knows these languages can speak to and understand almost 2
thousand million people doesn’t suffer from the language barrier. Today
there are a lot of people in Europe and Asia who know several languages.
A person who knows several languages is called a polyglot.
It is known that different languages can come into fashion or go out of
it. It is generally considered that the most fashionable language in the
world nowadays is English. Spanish also becomes very popular. It is
learnt nowadays more often than earlier. Oriental languages are also
widespread today. Learning a foreign language has a practical value but
the choice of a foreign language sometimes depends on a fashion. If
under fashion we mean the demands of life and society. Thus, the
knowledge of a foreign language today is a life necessity.
The English language surrounds us like a sea, and like the waters of a
deep sea it is full of mysteries. English is and has always been
constantly changing. Some words die, some change their meanings and all
the time new words appear in the language.
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