The importance of learning languages
The importance of learning languages, especially english
In our school are taught for example English,
German, French, Spanish and Russian. Student can choose one or two of these languages. But main foreign language is always English. The
oldest language is Egyptian, which is 5 thousand years old. In history people tried to create one artificial language which could be use all
over the world. There were made 650 languages, but just only one is used - Esperanto.
REASON FOR LEARNING FOREIGN LANGUAGES
Learning foreign languages is very important for everybody. There are many
reasons to study them:
- There is possibility to converse with people from other countries or of different nations,
communicate with them, learn about their cultures, work with them or do business…
- Studying
another language helps you become more competitive after graduation from school and get a good job…
- We need foreign
languages for traveling abroad, for reading foreign materials ( books, newspapers ), for business communication, for cultural
reasons
( watching films, visiting concerts and exhibitions ) or for corresponding with our friends…
HOW TO
LEARN FOREIGN LANGUAGE
In the Czech Republic, people most learn languages as English, German, French, Spanish and Russian. There
are various ways how to learn foreign languages:
- Usually they start to learn a foreign language at basic school and
then they continue at secondary school. Evidently at each university students study some foreign language…
- Many people come to foreign countries to improve their language…
- People can also attend language schools or
summer language courses. There are for example courses in General, Technical or Business English and so on.
- But we can
learn language also by internet, TV, books, some special magazines and so on…
ENGLISH
English is called the world language because there are a large number of people all over the world who speak English. Geographically, it’s the most
widespread language and it’s the most important in every branch ( business, sport, art, music, economy ). English is the second language in the
number of people, who speak one language behind Chinese. Altogether about 1,3 billion people speak English and the number is increasing. English is
used by people who speak different native languages to communicate with each other.
HISTORY OF ENGLISH
Now, when English is one of the major languages in the world, it’s hard to imagine that in Shakespeare’s time only few million people spoke
English.
- First people who influenced the English language were the Celts which used Celtic language - it
was similar to modern Welsh or Gaelic.
- Many other words come from the Romanic time. The Roman came in 43 B.C. and they brought
Latin.
- In the 5th century the Anglo-Saxons came from Germany, Holland and Denmark. They brought Anglo-Saxon
language on which most of English is based and it’s called Old English. English began to develop in 450 A.D.
- In the 6th century, thanks to the Romans, Christianity was brought together with some Latin and Greek words.
- In the 8th century the Vikings brought Norse language.
- In 1066 William the Conqueror, at the head of the
Normans, defeated Harold Godwin and brought the French language.
- From 14th century many English words were
,,borrowed” or ,,invented” from other languages like Ancient Greek.
- Some borrowed words come from outside Europe.
Alcohol and algebra come from Arabic, and words like jungle from India. The word robot comes
from Czech.
Old English had many inflections to show singular and plural, tense, person and
so on… But over the centuries words have been simplified. Verbs now have very few inflections. Adjectives do not change according to the noun. Many
nouns and verbs have the same form ( swim, drink, walk ) and there are only 5 forms ( ride, rides, rote, ridden, ridding ).
In 200 years, Old
English changed into Middle English. Ordinary people used Anglo-Saxon language, church and educated people used Latin and Greek and
nobility used French. Since 1400 all country used English. William Caxton introduced printing press in 1480 ( first book - Canterbury tales ).
VOCABULARY
Old Norse start, window, left
Japanese karate
Spanish mosquito, cigar
Dutch yacht
Greek theatre, astronomy
French beef, pork
German
kindergarten
Czech robot
Chinese tea, silk
English is a member of an Indo-European language family which includes ancient languages ( Ancient Greek and Latin, Asian languages,
Slavonic languages, European languages ). Development was connected with history. English is half from Romanic and half from German language and
about 80% of English vocabulary was made from other languages, for example:
Vocabulary is the most changeable part of the language.
It develops for example modern technology and food. Nowadays English has its 5 kinds: British, Indian, African, Australian and American English. There
are many differences between American and British English in vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling, grammar…
American English | British English
apartment | flat
automobile | car
cab | taxi
fall | autumn
candy | sweets
cookie | biscuit
potatoes
chips | crisps
gas | petrol
store | shop
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