English language english today

ENGLISH LANGUAGE
ENGLISH TODAY

The modern world is becoming smaller all the time. Every day distances between different countries seem less. For this reason it's becoming more and more important to know foreign languages, especially English. English is very popular nowadays. It's the language of computers, science, business, politics, sports, arts and music. It's spoken all over the world. It is the official language of the United Kingdom, New Zealand, the United States of America, and Australia. It is one of the official languages of Canada, the Irish Republic, and the Republic of South Africa. Many English words were borrowed from the language of Angles and Saxons. Hundreds of French words came into English. These French words didn't crowd out corresponding Anglo-Saxon words. There exist "act" and "deed", "beautiful" and "pretty", "form" and "shape". Some new words were brought by traders and travellers. These words came from all parts of the world: "umbrella" – from Italian, "tea" – from Chinese, "cigar" – from Spanish. Many of the new English words – especially new scientific ones – have been made from Latin and Greek words instead of English ones. "Telephone" for instance, was made from Greek words "far" and "talk". To know English today is absolutely necessary for every educated person, for every good specialist. But learning the language is not easy. It's a long and slow process that takes a lot of time and patience. But it is worth doing. English is taught throughout the world and a lot of people speak it quite well. In Russia English is very popular, it is studied at schools, colleges and universities.