Other English speaking countries
English speaking countries are the ones where English is the dominant language, despite the fact, that this language doesn’t have to have an official status. These countries are Australia, The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the USA. There is another group of ESC, where English is co-official with some other language and these countries are Canada, New Zealand and The Republic of Ireland. And the last group of ESC are the ones, where English has an official status, but is not spoken natively. There are many of these countries- India, Pakistan, Nigeria or Philippines.
Although all these countries have in common a language, the nationalities differ from one country to another one. We can find Americans, Canadians, New Zealanders, British or Australians speaking the same language, but English is not the same in every country, it is influenced by local languages and dialects. For example, New Zealanders speak dominantly English, but some percent of the population speaks Maori language. It’s the same in Canada, where English is co-official with French or in Ireland, where the co-official language is Irish. Special in some way is the USA, where English is official just in some states, and the UK, which doesn’t have an official language. The ESC don’t even have mostly the same currency, although dollars are being used in the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The UK uses a pound sterling and Ireland uses Euro.
Now I’d like to focus on Australia. Australia is a continent between the Indian and the Southern Pacific Ocean. It’s the smallest continent in the world, but the world’s sixth largest country. Total area is 7, 7 million sq. km and the population is 20 million. The capital city is Canberra. Australia consists of 6 states (New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia) and 2 territories (Australian Capital Territory, Northern Territory).
Much of the centre of Australia is flat, but there are some mountains of which Uluru is the best known. The climate there is quite different from the rest of the world, because it’s the driest inhabited continent and the centre of the country has one of the lowest rainfall rates in the world.
Indigenous inhabitants in Australia are Aborigines and Torres Straight Islanders. Different languages and cultures varied between the groups, depending on which part of the country they lived in. Beginning the 17th century, European explorers discovered the island, but British Captain James Cook was the first to claim the country to Britain. Britain decided to use this country as a penal colony. Thousands of men and women were brought to Australia as prisoners. The new settlers disrupted the lifestyle of the indigenous people and many became sick from new illnesses and died.
In 1901 the Commonwealth of Australia was founded and united six states under a single constitution. It now has a federal government that operates as a democratic, federal state system that recognizes the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. About 70 % of the population lives in the cities such as Melbourne and Sydney. English is the common language, however more than 200 languages are spoken throughout the country. Australian flag is dark blue, the flag of the UK is in the upper left hand corner. The lower left hand corner contains of 7 stars which each represents one of the 6 sovereign states and the 7th all of the territories.
Structure:
- The definition of ESC
- Nationalities of ESC, currency, languages
- Basics about Australia- where, area, population, states and territories
- Climate
- History- indigenous inhabitants, Britain colony
- Political system- the Commonwealth of Australia, monarch, cities, languages, flag