Written by Qurattu
Not surprisingly,
one of the reasons why English
is such an awesome language is that it is the second most widely spoken language in the
world (behind Mandarin Chinese), and by far the most learnt
language, with an estimated 1.5
billion learners.
Including the UK, 60 out of the 196 countries on Earth speak English as their
native language. Although it comes behind Mandarin in terms of popularity, it’s
spoken in more countries than any other language, boasting around 400 million
native speakers globally. It is also estimated that around 1.5 billion people
in total speak English worldwide, so you have plenty of people to talk
to!
English is the official language of NATO and the European Union. It is also
the commonly adopted second language in many countries across Europe, such as Sweden,
Denmark, and the Netherlands.
If you understand at least the basics of English you will be understood in most
corners of the world. When it comes to things like travelling and finding employment, English doesn´t
really have a rival. Over the last decade or two, English has become more of a given than a
desired skill for most big companies. As competition grows and the world
becomes even more globalised, the more languages you have the bigger edge you have over your competition.
Ultimately, multilingualism can be the difference between two strong
candidates.
There are many great free resources out there for you to get
started on a new language or even perfect one, so you have no excuse for not
reaping the various benefits of learning another language.
English: Language of Business
Globally, English is considered the
dominant language of business, so it does not come as much of a surprise
that major financial entities have headquarters in the UK and USA.
Nowadays speaking English is seen as almost a necessity. As more and more companies expand into the global market, it is only natural
that they will look to hire more people to communicate with customers who will
most likely be English speaking. And even if the customers don’t speak English,
the common language in most international offices is English.
Learning – or perfecting – English as a second language is a great way of bolstering your CV and making yourself a more attractive candidate to
employers. Having any second language is a plus for any candidate, but having mastered
the English language really reflects well on you and opens more doors in the professional world.
If you have the slightest ambition to be an international business person, it
is essential that you speak English to a decent level. Anything after that is a
bonus.
The language of entertainment
The role that English plays in popular culture is unparalleled. Music, films and TV series are huge parts of
most people’s lives, meaning that the vast majority of entertainment is originally produced in English.
Entertainment consumption is arguably one of the biggest language learning
techniques. Entertainment has an astronomical effect on society.
Many of the world’s most famous pieces of literature are written in English and
are translated into numerous languages to be distributed across the world. By
mastering it you will be able to truly
appreciate some of the world’s greatest works in their original
form. In addition to literature, over half of the internet is in English
– meaning that you have access to a greater wealth of information.
English is flexible and easy to learn
One of the best assets of the English language and why it is so awesome is
its flexibility. It is a
huge entity of vocabulary and is constantly absorbing new words, whilst at the
same time seeping into foreign languages. English contains over 750,000 words. With so many
different words available to describe things, you should never be short of
synonyms. It is also adding hundreds of new words every year such as
‘blogging’, ‘selfie’ etc… Another reason why English is so amazing is that
there are even new ´languages´ created
from English, such as the numerous creole languages across the world which
developed as a result of colonization.
English has a simple 26 letter
alphabet much like most European languages. Compared to Latin
rooted languages, English doesn’t have complicated gender grammar rules and
much simpler ways of conjugating verbs into different tenses. So writing essays and other academic material in
English can sometimes be easier compared to other languages. With a simple
structure but ever-growing vocabulary, English has been described as easy to learn but hard to master.
English can help you learn other languages
One of the biggest reasons why English is such an awesome language is because
it has a very interesting history attached to it. It is a Germanic language,
meaning that it has a lot of common
ground with languages like German and Dutch.
On top of this, the various Viking conquests up and down the British Isles
injected a lot of Norse words into English. But there is also has a heavy Latin influence, partly due the
Roman invasion, and then introduction of French from the Norman Conquest of
1066. For these reasons English shares a lot of vocabulary with many other
European languages.
Learning English can help you master
other languages as a result as you already have a solid base of
vocabulary.
The reasons why English is such an amazing language are never-ending. New ones emerge all the time and
probably you have some of your own to add.
(Credit to
Charlotee, 27 February 2018)