Read and render the text “English As a World Language”.

English is losing its political and cultural associations and becoming the property of all cultures. Over 70 countries in the world use English as the official or semi-official language, and in 20 more English occupies an important position. It is the main foreign language taught within most school systems worldwide, many newspapers are published in English and it is the language of much radio and television broadcasting. English is the language of international business, the main language of airports, air traffic control and international shipping. It is the language of science, technology and medicine, and it is estimated that two-thirds of all scientific papers today are first published in English. It is the language of diplomacy and sport; it is one of the working languages of the United Nations and the language used by the International Olympic Committee.

English infiltration of foreign languages is often regarded with horror. One of the Presidents of France, Pompidou, recommended a return to totally unpolluted French with an abolition of all Anglicisms. In official documents ‘fast food’ and ‘jumbo jet’ were to be referred to by French expressions instead. But it would be difficult to eradicate the use of such familiar French terms as ‘le weekend’, ‘le sandwich’, or ‘le parking’. French is not the only ‘polluted’ language. In German we find ‘der Babysitter’, ‘der Bestseller’ and ‘der Teenager’. ‘Il weekend’ turns up again in Italian, where we can also find ‘la pop art’ and ‘il popcorn’. ‘Jeans’ is found in almost every language of the world, and in Spanish we also have ‘pancakes’, and ‘sueter’ (sweater). Young people like to wear the latest trainer-style ‘shoozy’. But this invasion is not one-sided. Other languages have quietly been getting their own back for a long time. Native English speakers may think they are speaking ‘pure’ English when they talk about the alphabet, the traffic, a mosquito, a sofa, a garage, their pyjamas or their boss, but Greek, Italian, Arabic, French, Hindi and Dutch speakers know better!

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 975