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There are many languages in the world. Some of them are spoken in small tribes; others are spread all over the world like English or French. There are languages that are extremely difficult to learn, others are very easy. But anyway learning a foreign language is not an easy task and it takes a lot of time and effort. People still learn foreign languages and there are some reasons for that. The most important is communication. More and more people travel abroad and knowledge of a foreign language helps them understand each other. There are also a lot of interesting books and magazines in foreign languages and people read them to get information.
If you want to get a good job, you will have to know one or several foreign languages. This is another reason for learning foreign languages. There are languages of international communication and they are English and French. The English language is the official language of many international organizations such as the Olympic Committee, the United Nations and others. This is the language of computing, too. Most Internet sites and software are in English. It is the native language of many countries such as Great Britain, the USA, Canada Australia, New Zealand and others.
A lot of scientific books and articles are published in English. This language is becoming more and more popular and now it is hard to live without knowing it. Moreover, many languages borrow English words and expressions and people use them in their everyday speech. Sometimes people think that English is the most spoken language in the world. However, Chinese is considered to be the most spoken language. The Chinese language together with Japanese and Arabic are believed to be the most difficult foreign languages!
The question of learning foreign languages is very important today. Foreign languages are required especially at the present time when 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 double every seven years. Foreign languages are needed as the main and the most efficient means of information exchange between the people of our planet.
Today English is the language of the world. 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 and read all over the world. Seventy five per cent of the world's mail and sixty per cent of the world 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 only to Chinese in the number of people who speak it.
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 is also spoken as a second language in many parts of India and Africa. The number of second-Ian-gauge speakers may soon exceed the number of native speakers. Besides, millions of people study English as a foreign language. In our country English is very popular. It is studied at schools (sometimes even at nursery schools), colleges and universities.
What does it mean to know a foreign language? It is not easy to answer this question. Americans think that you know a foreign language if native speakers understand you. And nobody cares about your mistakes. But of course nobody can call ‘good English’ and you can use it only if your contacts with native speakers are rare and not very important. If you are connected with foreign countries very closely, especially through your work, you should have a good command of the language. It means that your pronunciation should be standard; you should speak fluently and without mistakes. And of course you should understand your partner correctly. The latter sometimes is the most difficult part of all. As to spelling, it depends whether you have to write or not. If you do then you should do it correctly too.
So far, there is no universal or ideal method of learning languages. Everybody has his own way. Sometimes it is boring to study grammar or to learn new words. But it is well known that reading books in the original, listening to the BBC news, communicating with 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.
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