The great German poet Goethe once said: He who know no foreign language does not know his own one. Learning foreign languages is specially important nowadays. Some people learn foreign languages because they need them in their work, others travel abroad, for the third studying languages is a hobby. Every year thousands of people from Russia go to different countries as tourists or to work. They can not go without knowing the language of the country they are going to. A modern engineer or even a worker can not work with an imported instrument or a machine if he is not able to read the instruction how to do it. Ordinary people need language to translation the instruction or the manual to the washing-machine or a vacuum-cleaner, medicine or even food-products. Some people are as a rule polyglots. Historians diplomats need some languages for their work. If you want to be a classified specialist you must learn English, the language of international communication. English is one of the world languages. It is the language of progressive science and technology, trade and cultural relations, commerce and business. It is the universal language of international aviation, shipping and sports. It is also the major language of diplomacy. Hundreds and hundreds of books, magazines and newspapers are printed in English, most of the world's mail and telephone calls are in English. Half of the world's scientific literature is written in English. English is spoken by more than 350 million people. Geographically, it is the most widespread language on earth, second after Chinese. It is the official language of the UK, the USA , of Australia and New Zealand, it is used as one of the official languages in Canada, the South Africa. Millions of people study and use English as a foreign language. In our country English is very popular. It is studied at schools, colleges and universities. Learning English is not an easy thing. It is a long process and takes a lot of time and patience. But to know English today is absolutely necessary for every educated person. I want to know English because it's interesting for me to know foreign countries, their cultures and tradition. English will be of great use in my future profession connected with computers.
Somebody said: "English is a language that came from nowhere to conquer the world…" These words are really true and I will prove it. Firstly I would like to talk to you where English comes from. English is a member of the West Germanic subgroup of the Germanic branch of Indo-European language family. Secondly I would like to dwell on some of the chief literary works written in English language in different periods. "Beowulf" is the most important poem in old English. It is remarkable for its sustained grandeur of tone and for the brilliance of its style. The Canterbury Tales were written by Geoffrey Chaucer, "the father of English literature". He added tremendously to the prestige of English language by using it instead of more fashionable French spoken at that time. The third is the King James Bible. It exercised enormous influence on the development of the English language. It remains a classic of English history. But the most important contribution was made by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare's influence on everyday English speech is great, people all over the world quote Shakespeare. The English language arrived in Britain on the point of a sword. That is why there are so many loans in English language. In 1940 Winston Churchill wished to appeal to the hearts and minds of English-speaking people. It was the time of Patriotic war and that it why he used the plain bareness for which Old English is noted. His purpose was to show the independence of English language and English people. It was his celebrated passage which helped people to fight. Now I would like to tell you about Standard English and Regional accents. Received pronunciation is the form of British English pronunciation used by many educated people in every part of Britain. It is thought of a standard form and is often used by the BBC. It is also used in teaching English in many parts of the world. The King's of the Queen's English is a good correct English as it should be spoken. Accent is the sound of a person's pronunciation of the language. It shows where a person comes from and what class he or she belongs to. Cockney is the way of speaking English and it is known as the London dialect. Rhyming slang is a way of speaking, ordinarily popular among cockneys in which a rhyming phrase, or a part of it, is substituted for a standard word. There is a standard form of the language and some dialects in our country too. To my mind, every country needs a standard form of the language because of the contact between people of this country. But there are a lot of loanwords in every language nowadays. Every day for example in advertisements we can hear and see new, incomprehensible, bad words, and they become widespread among the population. In conclusion I would like to say that now there are more than 60 countries that speak English as the dominant or official language. My purpose is to show you why the English is a world language. The present day world status of English is the result of two factors: the expansion of British colonial power, which peaked towards the end of the 19th century, and the emergence of the US as the leading economic power of the 20th century. English is the chief language of international business and academic conferences, and the leading language of international tourism. English is the main language of popular music, advertising, home computers and video games. Most of the scientific, technological and academic information in the world is expressed in English.
More and more people realize that every educated person should know a foreigner language. The most popular language now is English. English is a world language. It's the language of progressive science and technology, trade and cultural relation, commerce and business. It's the universal language of international aviation, shipping and sports. It is also the major language of diplomacy. Hundreds and hundreds of books, magazines and newspapers are printed in English and real all over the world. 75% of the world's mail and 60% of the world's telephone calls are in English. Half of the world's scientific literature is written in English too. English is spoken by more than 350 million people . It is the official language of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland of the United States of America, of 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's also spoken as a second language speakers in many parts of Asia and Africa. The number of second language speakers may soon exceed the number of native speakers. In Russia English is very popular : it is studied at schools, colleges, universities, and sometimes even at nurse schools. There are also other languages that are popular in the world. For example Chinese, the first language in the number of people who speak it, is used by over 1000 million people, it means that out one of every five people in whole world speaks Chinese. Another popular language is Arabic, which is the official language of several Asia's countries ( Iran, Iraq, Syria, United Arab Emirates and others). Learning a foreign language is not an easy thing. It is a long and slow process that takes a lot of time and patience. But to know languages today is absolutely necessary for everyone. I want to know foreign language because I have always been interested in foreign countries and their cultures. You know I think that who doesn't know a foreign language , doesn't know his own language.
Learning languages
The problem of learning languages is very important today. Foreign languages are socially demanded especially at the present time when the progress in science and technology has led to an explosion of knowledge and has contributed to an overflow of information. The total knowledge of mankind is known to double every seven years. Foreign languages are needed as the main and most efficient means of information exchange of the people of our planet. Today English is the language of the world. Over 350 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 African Republic. As a second language it is used in the former British and US colonies. It is the major international language for communication in such areas as science, technology, business and mass entertainment. English is one of the official languages of the United Nations Organization and other political organization. It is the language of the literature, education, modern music, international tourism. Russia is integrating into the world community and the problem of learning English for the purpose of communication is espicially urgent today. Learning a foreing language is not as easy thing. It is a long and slow process that takes a lot of time and patience. But to know English is absolutely necessary for every educated person, for every good specialist. It is well known that reading books in the original , listening to the BBC news, communicating with the English speaking people will help a lot. When learning a foreign language you learn the culture and history of the native speakers. One must work hard to learn any foreign language.
HOUSE OF MY DREAM
Everyone likes dreaming. It helps us to overcome the difficulties of our daily routine. As a rule, people imagine they have a lot of money, their own family, happy family and full social life. I'd like to tell you about the house of my dream. I'd like to have my house abroad. May be in America, because it's rather warm there all year round. I want my house to be near the ocean. I don't want to have it in town, because there is little fresh air and a lot of litter on the streets. I'm likely live there with my husband & my child. I imagine my house has 3 stories. Near the front it has a facade with columns & steps up to the front door. There's also small balcony in my house. The windows are in the shape of arches. Through them you can see a wonderful view. There are lots of palm trees and flowers around the house. And there is nothing like walking in the shade of these trees & listening to the whisper of waves. The sun is shining, the birds are singing their sweet songs. Oh, it's lovely to wake up in the morning in our house & see the sun shining through the window & hear the far-off plash-plash of the ocean. As you come through the front door, you find yourself in a large hall with an open fireplace, which is unusual. One of the doors leads to the living room. This room faces the south, so it's very sunny & has a lovely view of the whole valley. In the middle of this room there's a thick carpet. We have little furniture in this room. On the left there's a sofa & small table near it, on the right you can see TV set & type recorder. There are some armchairs in this room. In the living room we spend our evenings chatting with each other & my child plays with a kitten. Then a wide staircase takes you to the second floor where there are some bedrooms. My child's room is really vast. The wallpaper is very colorful. Also there are lots o toys for my child to play with. Behind the house there is a swimming pool & some plastic armchairs. Our house looks peaceful & calm, & the calmest room is my husband's study. He's a businessman & he likes reading. But as for me I prefer associating with my friends. We have many different electrical appliances in our house. They make our life more comfortable. Also we have some people to help us. They look after the house, grow vegetables in our garden & cook. So we enjoy having green & fresh food on our dinner table. Our house is beautiful place to be at any time of the year. In winter it's warm & cosy, & in summer there is so much to do outside.
Страницы: 1, 2, 3
