Learning foreign languages

Foreign language is basically not our mother tongue. There are many reasons why people learn them. For instance in order to get a better job, it makes our lives easier when we travel or live abroad, family abroad or even as a common knowledge or a hobby. In some countries even two languages are spoken (lingua franca), this societies are bilingual. Like in Canada where French took its place next to English.

The most spread language in the world is English. There are many factors which contributed to worldwide spreading of English. One of them is that in seventeenth century England began with exporting of English to other places where it took place as a mother tongue with the first settlement in North America. Another is that science and technology are the offspring of English and the most reasonable factor is that English is actually easier to learn unlike the other languages such as Czech.

Learning English is really not that as hard as many people thinks. The main problem could be that English differentiate in the form from your mother tongue. The form of English is much easier than the one of Czech but I personally found difficulties in speaking where u have to quickly think about what you are going to say and match the correct words. This can be learn only by practising speaking or reading aloud. The vocabulary is easy to learn since it’s all around us thanks to internet and other technology. Actually I learned most words from pc games and internet. The most important things to learn are the form and the very vocabulary. On the other hand I found learning perfect tenses redundant. The pronunciation of English is a nightmare, basically when u are not born in English speaking country you are pretty much doomed and u will have to live with strong accent.

There are varieties of English such as British, American, Australian, Indian or Globish English and there are some differences mostly in pronunciation but there are some even in spelling such as in the word centre/center which is written differently depending on the English. Australian English is well-known for overusing the word “mate” or there is a special vocabulary for some things in Australia.

English is a West Germanic language. The history of the English language really started with the arrival of three Germanic tribes who invaded Britain during the 5th century AD. These tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, crossed the North Sea from what today is Denmark and northern Germany. Modern English formed from Old English (in which the Beowulf, the first English writing, was written) and Middle English.