Learn the top five reasons you should be learning to speak American English right now
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| Chihiro: Hi everyone, I'm Chihiro and welcome to EnglishClass101.com. Introduction to English and the Top 5 Reasons to Study. |
| Daniel: Hey everyone, I'm Daniel. With these lessons we hope to give you an insight into the language you're learning |
| Chihiro: When you understand the background of a language, you get a clearer idea of why certain things are the way they are in English. And it will make the learning process much easier. |
| Daniel: And we hope to deliver it to you in an understandable and enjoyable way. Let's get started. |
| Chihiro: Okay. Well, first of all, English is the lingua franca in many areas of the world. In other words, it’s the language that is used between people who don’t have a language in common. That’s why many of our listeners are probably learning the language now, perhaps for business or school or talking with international friends. |
| Daniel: Right, and around 375 million people speak English as a native language, which comes in third with Chinese which is in first and Spanish which is in second. However, if you count the non-native speakers, than it might top Chinese in first, but it also depends on whether you look at Chinese languages as “languages” or “dialects.” |
| Chihiro: Mmm... you're right, because language is not always clear cut it’s got many shades of grey. Now, when you think of English, you might think of countries like the US, the UK, Canada and Australia, which actually do have the highest population of native speakers, and in that order. |
| Daniel: But since English is spoken by so many as a second language, the statistics change when we look at the number of total speakers in a country, and it goes... the US as first, then India as second! I’ve seen statistics change for the third and fourth so let’s not go there. |
| Chihiro: Wow, so with so many speakers from different areas, no wonder there are so many accents! And of course there are different ways of saying things, the phrasing might change, or the actual vocabulary might mean something different altogether! |
| Daniel: And most likely you’ll see it change with the changing demographics, because more and more people are learning English as the second language to be able to communicate for business purposes. |
| Chihiro: And we hope to help you listeners along the way for whatever reasons you’re learning it. |
| Chihiro: So, Daniel, what language family does English belong to? |
| Daniel: Well, it’s part of the Germanic Family, which is an Indo-European languages |
| Chihiro: Yup, and it spread along with the British Empire, and by the late 19th century, it stretched globally. |
| Daniel: That’s right. And these days, it’s the official language for many countries. |
| Chihiro: And it uses the Latin or otherwise known as the Roman alphabet which is your ABCs. |
| Daniel: Right, each letter is not necessarily pronounced what it’s called, but rather a combination of it creates different sounds. |
| Chihiro: This is because it has influences from several different languages. Which makes the pronunciation another story. |
| Daniel: Right, the alphabet is easy enough to learn if you don’t know it already. |
| Chihiro: But pronouncing the words might be a little more difficult to learn. Not only does English have so many vowels with different pronunciations, the pronunciation might change from speaker to speaker. |
| Daniel: And since many are non native speakers, the area and environment heavily influences speech,creating different accents. |
| Chihiro: And the tricky part is, a slight change in vowel may change the whole meaning of the word! |
| Daniel: Interesting! |
| Chihiro: It can be frustrating for speakers at times when trying to get the pronunciation because different English speakers may sound very different. But with that said, even native speakers don’t understand certain things when it comes to a different accent. I wish we could pin English to a single country so that we can talk about English with culture, but as we mentioned before, since English is an official language of so many different countries, there’s no way we can do that! |
| Daniel: I grew up speaking English in America. How about you Chihiro? |
| Chihiro: Well, I spent some years in Canada, England, Australia and the US, so I’ve seen English diversity at it’s best! |
| Daniel: So have you had any trouble with accents? |
| Chihiro: I definitely had my fair share of accent and slang confusion, but it was interesting that I got to see the different styles that exist. |
| Daniel: Ok, we've put together a list of top 5 reasons to learn English!!! |
| Chihiro: OK, starting with number 5 |
| Daniel: You can surf the net! Well, you can of course surf the net in your own language, but the number of English websites exceeds the other languages. Number 4 |
| Chihiro: You can do A LOT of reading!! English is the most widely published language, so you can get your hands on a lot of writing if you speak English! Number 3 |
| Daniel: It’s the language of science, of aviation, computers, diplomacy, and tourism. It’s the language used in business! So get ahead in your careers in those fields by learning English! Since it is the language of many professional areas, it’s good to learn the language for those who wish to get a higher degree, because many universities have classes in English! Number 2 is… |
| Daniel: Talk with the world! Well, since it is considered the lingua franca, or the international language, if you speak English and you’re friend speaking a different language can also speak English, you can talk with each other! |
| Chihiro: Definitely... although if they don’t speak English, then you can always learn their language, but then that defeats the purpose of the second reason... and finally, our number 1 reason |
| Chihiro: Well, it's fun! Learning a language is fun in general, but if you factor in all the doors the English language can open up, you'll have even more fun! |
| Daniel: Of course anyone can go through the ups and downs of learning another language, but if you stick with it and progress day by day, you'll soon hit that point when the words seem to flow smoother from your tongue. |
| Chihiro: And you’ll also realize that you understand a lot more than ever! So yes, it’s fun and very rewarding. |
| Daniel: OK everybody, are you ready? Get out your pen and notebook, grab your iPod, turn on your computers, whatever you use to study - and get ready for some English lessons! |
| Chihiro: Thanks for listening, everybody! I hope you’ll tune in next time. |
| Daniel: Thanks everybody! Bye for now! |
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