English belongs to the Teutonic or Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of the languages. It is only in the course of the last hundred years that English has become a world language. In Shakespeare’s time it was a provincial language of secondary importance with only 6 million native speakers. Nowadays English has become the world’s most important language in politics and science. In a number of speakers (400 million) it is second only to Chinese.
It is the official language of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the United States of America, of Australia and New Zealand. English is used as one of the official languages in Canada, the Republic of South Africa and the Irish Republic. It is also spoken as a second language by many people in India and Pakistan.
The number of people knowing English as second language may soon exceed the number of native speakers, if it has not done so already. The working languages of the United nations are English and French. All documents are written only in the working languages. Today English has become the language of international communication.
At present no other language on Earth is better suited to play the role of the world language. People who speak English fall into one of three groups: those who have learnt it as their native language, those who have learnt it as a second language in a society which is mainly bilingual and those who are forced to use it for a practical purpose – professional or educational. Nowadays when science and technology are progressing so fast, all kinds of specialists need English in their work. I am not confident in my English. I think it doesn’t sound well.
But I am a good learner. I always attend my English classes and work hard.
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