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likely to find it useful in life. I speak three foreign languages well and another at a basic level but would still not be able to speak the local language in most European countries and have been unable to find any opportunity to put these languages to practical use. If I went to Germany, I'd be considered a typically lazy, ignorant monolingual Briton just because I can't speak German. A German who spoke only German and English would be well looked on. It's a double standard. English speakers would have to know 10+ languages to shake off the 'ignorant monolingual' tag.

Nicky:

I am English, living in Australia after all, but I have bothered to learn several languages. In answer to the question which other language to learn. Until the First World War we all learned German,Иthen we moved over to French. When I was at school we did 5 years of Latin, here in Australia, the governmentД encourages students to

learn Mandarin and Japanese for trade reasons. Italian is hugely popular here because of the early influence of Italian settlers. Many schools working along the lines, of 'what is theАmost likely to be used?' have plumped for Indonesian given that so many Aussies holiday in Bali. Likewise in the UK, French and Spanish wouldбseem to be the most useful. I am a language teacher myself and my children between them have studied, French, Japanese, Italian, German,иEnglish, Creole, Russian, and Spanish. My next-door neighbours have done a variety of Asian languages and my mother studiedСHindi and my uncle Greek and Hebrew. After consulting with many colleagues I have come to the conclusion it is quicker to study a language that has the same script, is not based on tones and so is pronounced in a similar way and that you are most likely to visit/use. It is universally recognised by linguist that the easiest language for an English native speaker to learn is Afrikaans, but how useful would that be?

Jane:

What language you learn depends on your life goals. If say you are an American whose only purpose for a secondary language is to be able to communicate better with your community it depends where you live, yet Spanish is on the increase. If you want to learn a

language to develop in your career, then this also depends on what you want to do. If you are looking to go into social work, then Spanish is your

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answer. If you want to go into international business, then Spanish and Chinese is good for you. If you are trying to learn another language in order to help your kids, then I suggest any and every language tutor or class that you can get your hands on (there is no loss here). Even if your child wants to learn Latin (although it is not very helpful in modern conversational language). But it will enrich you child's knowledge, and more than likely they will find a use for it (research, teaching, etc..) If you want to go into the FBI, CIA I would suggest Arabic. The right language to learn depends on each individual person and aspirations. Just make sure that the language you choose to learn is correct. Try and become fluent, but learn greetings in all and every language you can think of; here, it is the effort that you make in trying to please whoever you are dealing with that really

language. English is b__21) no means a ’universal’ ton__ __ __22) just yet - and i__23) my eyes it i__24) unsuitable as one, al__ __ __25) with all

other nati__ __ __ __26) languages.

Personal experience wi__ __27) show that a person tal__ __ __ __28) in a second (non-native) lang__ __ __ __29) will never reach qu__ __ __30) the same level o__31) fluency as the nat__ __ __32).

The beauty of nati__ __ __ __33) languages is in th__ __ __34) differences, their complexities, t__ __35) subtlety of their tu__ __ __36) of

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phrase - but i__37) is these same trea__ __ __ __ __38) that make national lang__ __ __ __ __39) too difficult and t__ __40) non-neutral for intercommunication. This is a reason why an easy-to-learn, auxiliary language like Esperanto should be used to solve the language problem - speakers of all languages, large and small, should have a real chance of learning a second language to an expressive, highly communicative level.

Make the correct word boundaries and you will know the answers.

Diversityareofareandarerespectalldeathmajoritythegenerallythegreatestdive rsityspreadstatisticsmoreofpopulationnativebytongueinisalongnationalwillt alkinglanguagequiteofnativenationaltheirtheturnsittreasureslanguagestoo

10. Read the following tips and add them to your list. Become a child again!

Look at the language you are trying to learn as a totally new thing, accept new words and sentences in their context instead of trying to translate them word-for-word back in to English. Children don't question their native language as they're growing up and learning it, they just accept...

Make learning a part of your life

Make your learning an active part of your life. Recent research in adult learning shows that you're likely to remember 20% of what you read

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and 30% of what you hear ... and a staggering 90% of what you see, hear, say and do. So, practise by doing things like saying phone numbers out loud, making shopping and other lists, memorising orders in a bar or restaurant.

Keep a check on your progress

Keep a check on your progress. If ever you feel you're not learning fast enough, you may be underestimating how much progress you're actually making. Go back every so often to something you did early on to prove to yourself how much you've learnt.

Set short-term goals

Be realistic and don't expect miracles. Language learning takes time and commitment - don't expect to be fluent overnight and don't be hard on yourself when you can't remember everything you've learnt.

Set yourself some short-term goals - the thought of a visit in a few months' time to a place where the language you're learning is spoken is a real incentive to learn.

than by saying nothing until you're word perfect. Generally, people are on-

activities is an excellent wayбof building familiarity with the language. So

if you're tired and your mind is wandering, instead of giving your language learning a miss do some activities you've done before and which won't require as much concentration.

If you find your concentration wavering, remind yourself of why you wanted to learn in the first place. This helps to keep you focused.

Listen to native speakers using audio and video clips

If your ambition is to speak the language, you need to train yourself to listen without always seeing it written down. You might find this hard at first but it pays off when you come to speak it. You won't always be trying to pronounce it like English.

Improve your accent and your confidence by listening to speakers on the audio and video clips over and over and imitating them closely - out loud. The more you do this, the more you'll find yourself becoming comfortable with the sounds of the language.

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Don't let grammar worry you

Don't let grammar worry you - but don't go out of your way to avoid it either. Grammar is simply the term for the mechanics of a language, and basic knowledge of the rules of grammar will allow you to say what you want to say instead of having to rely on set phrases.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/yoursay/learning_tips.shtml

11. There are at least 20 hidden words. Find them!

12. Find the wordsСfrom Ex. 11 in the text above and ask questions to the sentences they are in.

13. Reorder the words to make questions and answer them.

1.which / will / language / one / over / role / of / take / the / an / international?

2.it / are / people / languages / lazy / when / to / English / learning / comes?

3.it / script / study / to / the / a / language / that / quicker / same / is / has?

4.to / the / on / choice / of / right / the / what / language / learn / does / depend?

5.beauty / what / the / the / of / language / is?

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