Learning to speak English well may be the best thing you can do to improve your life.
That’s right. Do you think it would be fun to have access to information that other people can’t get? Talk and write letters to interesting people that others can’t communicate with? Impress people around you whenever you opened your mouth? Make big jumps in your career, leaving others miles behind?
You can get all this if you speak English well.
Get access to knowledge
What are you interested in? Is it science? Music? Computers? Health? Business? Sports? Today’s media – such as the Internet, television, and the press – give you almost unlimited access to knowledge about your favorite subjects. After all, we live in the information age, don’t we?
There’s only one problem. Most of this knowledge is in English.
Here are some examples of knowledge you can use if you know English:
Most pages on the Web. That’s over a billion (1,000,000,000) pages of information! It’s amazing that learning just one language gives you access to almost all knowledge on the Internet.
Books – on any subject, from all over the world. Read books by British or American authors, and books translated from other languages. Whatever you’re interested in, you can read about it in English!
The press. Only English-language magazines and newspapers can be bought in every part of the world. You don’t have to search for Time, Newsweek, or the International Herald Tribune!
Science. English is the key to the world of science. In 1997, 95% of the articles in the Science Citation Index were written in English. Only about 50% of them were from English-speaking countries like the USA or Britain. (source)
News reports. Watch international television networks, such as CNN International and NBC. They broadcast news much faster, and more professionally, than smaller, national
networks. And you can watch them everywhere in the world.
Communicate with people
We like to call English “the language of communication”. Why? Because it seems all the people in the world have agreed to use English to talk to each other.
About 1,500,000,000 people in the world speak English. Another 1,000,000,000 are learning it. (source)
75% of the world’s letters and postcards are written in English. (source)
Almost all international conferences and competitions are conducted in English. For example, the Olympics and the Miss World contest.
Diplomats and politicians from different countries use English to communicate with each other. English is the main language of organizations like the United Nations, NATO, and the European Free Trade Association.
If you can communicate in English, you can:
Contact people from all over the world. Talk about your ideas and opinions on Internet discussion groups. Send e-mail to interesting people. Learn about their life and culture.
Travel more easily. Communicate with people wherever you go – English is spoken in more than 100 countries (source). Ask directions, have a conversation, or… ask for help. Who knows, maybe English will save your life someday!
Push your career forward
If you want a good job in business, technology, or science, get out of that armchair and start learning English now! (If you already have a good job, start learning before you lose it!)
Knowing English will let you:
Put “excellent knowledge of English” on your CV. Get your dream job, and earn more money.
Gain technical knowledge.