English in My Life

Dear friends,

My name is Qlga Arsalan. I am more than 80 years old. I would like to tell you about the great role that English has played in my long life.

When I was about your age, in the early 1920s, I happened to come across an English book of stories published in a strange way. The first line was written in Eng­lish, the second line gave the pro­nunciation in Russian letters and the third line gave the translation into Russian (like the present day book, "Говорите по-английски"). It was really fun to read and soon I began to understand simple phrases without looking at the transla­tion and I even learned many of the phrases by heart. The results of this language game were very successful. At age 15, I started working as a cashier at the hotel "Europe" in a seaport, Novorossytsk. First I went by car to foreign ships docked at the port and invited their crew to visit the hotel's restaurant and to taste its delicious dishes and wines. Late at night they paid their bills in currencies of different nations, such as Great Britain, Greece, Turkey and others. To tell you the truth, they never cheated me in any way.

At the same time, I was asked to teach elementary English to the crew of an ice-tanker, which was going to England. So, my first English class consisted of a group of lively seamen enjoying their short rest at the seashore. We held our classes at the seaman's club. After some time, they learned about 20 useful sentences and were sure they knew English well.

After this interesting experience, I decided to become a teacher. I began studying in Leningrad. Then, in 1940, I graduated from the Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages. Since that time, I have been teaching, teaching and teach­ing English. I've taught English to school children, writers, composers, scien­tists and even the staff of the Ministry during WWII

In the 1960s and 1970s, because of my knowledge of English, I was able to work as an interpreter with different delegations of peace activists from many different countries. I interpreted for many well-known people from Moscow and all over the country. Believe me that even now after 30 years of fruitful work, many of these people still send me letters and would like to meet again.

And now let's speak about you and your English, dear readers. You possess already some knowledge of English. But don't stop studying the language now. To avoid forgetting even a little bit of it, continue studying it yourself for at least 20 minutes every day. This way, you won't forget anything and will improve your English skills.

What can you really do to improve your English? Let me give you some advice:

1. Every day read a few pages of easy English texts and retell what you read aloud. You should be able to read and retell a page in 5 minutes. With this method, you'll repeat about 200 words using different grammar patterns.

2. Listen to any spoken English on television, radio, records or cassettes.

3. Write translations from English into Russian and vice versa.

4. Try to do simultaneous translations of slow Russian speech delivered on
television or radio.

5. Play any English games.

6. Create crossword puzzles.

7. Write down as many words from the letters of a given word as possible.

8. You can also create one word out of several words. For instance, "here" and "cat" make "teacher."

9. Work with a friend and test each other's abilities.

Why do you need to know English? English is becoming a global language. At least a half a billion people in the world use English at home or work. English is probably the most wide­spread language on earth. People all over the world speak English. They do not all use it as their first language. In some countries, such as, Nigeria and India, there are often many dif­ferent languages and so these coun­tries use English as an "official" or "second" language for government, business and education. Certain "international" profes­sions, such as airline pilots and air-traffic controllers require a working knowledge of English. English is also the working language of computers. If you know English, you can now communicate with people from all over the world by computer. Problems of the 21st century, such as problems of war and peace, ecology, demography, and democracy, can not be solved if people do not speak the same language. Interpreters take time and now time is as precious as never before. So, dear readers, don't waste time. Go on studying English each and every day. And finally, I'd like to wish you all a long, fruitful, happy life in peace, brotherhood and friendship.

Questions for Discussion

1. How long have you been learning English?

2. How do you use your knowledge of English?

3. Do you like to learn English? Why or why not?

4. Do you know any other foreign languages?

5. Why are you learning English?

a) I often need to speak with foreigners.

b) It is a subject in my curriculum.

c) It will help me find a good job.

d) I want to travel abroad.

e) I want to study abroad.

f) I would like to watch films and TV programmes in English.

g)I want to read books, magazines and newspapers in English.

6. Can you think of any other reasons why it might be useful for you to learn
English?

7. What skills are most important to you? Why?

a) Understanding English when it is spoken

b) Writing in English

c) Reading in English

d) Speaking English

Continent	Country	English is the Main Language	English is an Official Language	English is an Important Extra Language	Other Languages Spoken
Africa	Botswana	x
Gambia	x
Ghana	x
Kenya	x
Lesotho	x
Liberia (American English)	x
Malawi	x
Namibia	x			Afrikaans
Nigeria	x
Sierra Leone	x
South Africa	x			Afrikaans
Sudan	x
Swaziland	x
Tanzania	x
Uganda	x
Zimbabwe	x
Asia	Bangladesh			x	Bengali
India		x		Hindu
Malaysia			x	Malay, Chinese and Indian languages
Mauritius		x
Pakistan		x		Urdu
Philippines (American English)				Filipino
Seychelles		x
Sri Lanka			x	Silhala
South America	Saint Lucia				Mixed English and French dialect
Puerto Rico		x		Spanish
Several small islands	x
Europe	Eire	x			Irish Gaelic
Gibraltar		x
Malta		x		Maltese
UK	x
Pacific	Australia	x
New Zealand	x
Central America	Several small islands	x

SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The about 1500 years language in England started English ago.

a few thousand Old words There were only in English.

lot more modern It had a endings than English.

There now over a English million words are in.

The Oxford Dictionary has in over different 650,000 words it.

user The average between knows and 60,000 30,000 words.

bulk The of words English originally from come Latin.

could write You pages of English hundreds of 90% Latin using about based words.

future In the very 1 in 4 of near the be population world's will to speak able English. are You of one them.

language population is 6 a first people World and billion 325,000,000 speak English English as and language 300,000,000 (some experts say 1,000,000,000) from an them use often as extra.

На английском языке говорят более чем 300 миллионов человек, для которых английский - родной. Более 700 миллионов человек изучает английский язык как иностранный. Английский словарный запас - самый богатый: он насчитывает около 10 миллионов слов, из которых 500 тысяч относятся к терминологии. 3/8 всей корреспонденции в настоящее время ведется на английском языке.

Английский - главный язык сети "Интернет" и телекоммуникационных технологий, язык навигации и авиации. Более половины технических и научных изданий выходят на английском языке. Крупнейшее радио и телевизионные программы вещают на английском языке.

Когда в 54-55 годах нашей эры Юлий Цезарь, будущий римский император, вторгся в Британию, на ее территории жили кельтские племена. Разные диалекты кельтского языка, кстати, до сих пор сохранились в отдельных частях Британских островов - Gaelic в Шотландии и Ирландии, Welsh в Уэльсе, Manx на острове Мэн, а также Breton во Франции.

Таким образом, английский язык продолжает меняться и развиваться, ежегодно обогащаясь сотнями новых слов. Хорошо это или плохо, но сегодня английский стал действительно международным языком во всем мире. Это язык науки, авиаперевозок, компьютера и Интернета. Во многих странах, где живут народы разных этнических групп, говорящие на разных языках, для общения используется английский - он становится, по сути, вторым родным языком. Так произошло, например, в Нигерии и Гане.

Airline American Airlines has established leather armchairs in the planes and has decided to inform the Mexican consumers about it. In English the slogan sounded perfectly: "Fly in the Leather". On Spanish this expression has found another sense in a literal translation: "Fly Naked! "

The Scandinavian manufacturer of home appliances Electrolux has introduced the vacuum cleaners to the American market, using an slogan - "Nothing Sucks Like an Electrolux ".

At a stage of development of the Chinese market Company Pepsi has literally translated the main advertising motto "Come Alive With the Pepsi Generation" into the Chinese language. Chinese, to put it mildly, were in a shock as the slogan sounded as "Pepsi will force your ancestors to rise from tombs".

Company Coca-Cola, main competitor of Pepsi could not pick up the name for an advertising campaign in China for a long time. Complexity was that Chinese pronounce the name of this drink as "Kekukela" that means "Bite the Wax Tadpole". The company had to touch 40 thousand variants of a spelling of the trade mark before chosing "Koku kole" that means "Happiness in the Mouth".

In the USA when advertising beer Coors slogan "Turn It Loose" was used!. This expression is perceived by Americans "Become Free!" When selling beer in Latin America the marketing company has come to full grief. As it was found out subsequently, the literal translation of a slogan on the Spanish language made by the speaker of the English language sounded as an appeal: "Suffer from the Diarrhea!"

And, perhaps, the most "automobile" example. One of participants of the big American three - company General Motors could not sell almost any automobile of new model Chevrolet Nova on the markets of Latin America. When marketers have become interested in the reasons, it was found out, that, “No va” in Spanish means "cannot move".

Company Frank Purdue making chicken meat, in the USA uses slogan "It takes a strong man to make a tender chicken". In translation into Spanish this phrase means: "Sexually excited man is wanted to make the hen gentle ".

Е - the most often used letter of English alphabet, Q - the most rare.

The longest word of English language, according Oxford English language dictionary is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.

There is only one English word consisted of 15 letters, letters of which have never repeated - uncopyrightable.

Almost - The longest word of English language, where all letters are in alphabetic order.

The longest words of English language, without any vowel are - "rhythms" и "syzygy".

The longest word of English language with only one syllable is “screeched”.

"I am." - the shortest sentence in English language.

American gesture "OK" means “homosexual” on Kipr.

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