Monday, April 2, 2012

20 questions : English, an international language


 How English language become so big ?


Category : Language
Title of the video : The second lecture in The Universal Language series looks at how English has become the most successful lingua franca in human history.
Information about language courses and programmes at Dalarna University 
By Konstantin Andreev


1 Before watching the video : In your opinion, how English became the first language in the world ?
English is present all over the world. 
United states are very powerful, with a lot of influence, and : they speak English.

2 Right or wrong ?
 The presenter is Russian                                                                          Right
 He is an English teacher                                                                           Right
 He said there is more native English speakers than others English speakers    Wrong

3 How many factors made of English a world language ?
There is 7 factors 

4 What are the seven factors ? 
Economic interest
Political power
Number of native speaker
Access to learning
Cultural prestige
Ideology
New technology

5 What is lingua franca ?
It’s an old common language from Mediterranean (people Arab, French and Italian). It permitted to merchants to communicate. It had an economist interest.

6 In Ireland, what is the other official language ? How many percent speak it ?
Less than 2% use Irish Gaelic to communicate

7 What are England’s colonies ?
Ireland
India 18e century
Caribbean 17e century
South Africa around 1800
North America after 1620
Australia 1788

8 Right or Wrong ?
America is independent in 1766                                                           Wrong 
American population increase a lot between 18e and 19e century            Right
America dominate the world                                                               Right

9 How English language became popular ? 
English became popular with native speakers and especially thanks to others speakers of this language

10 Today, how many people speak English as their first language ?
330 million people

11 What is the largest country where English has an official status ?
India (not united states)

12 Right or wrong ?
In India school is English                                          Right  
India uses English as a second language                     Right
Indian people are descendants of English people          Wrong

13 “You want to get access to learning, you have to speak English”, How interpret this sentence ?
In the video, the presenter talk about indian children who need to speak english at school.
We can interpret.
English is so present ! At home : TV series, technologies ; At work : if you speak english, the manager hire right now. English is very important on job market.

14 What is culture influence of English speakers in 1980 ?  
A lot of influence because it’s the beginning of : pop music, rock n roll, movies, actors, super heroes, singers, coca cola…

15 In your opinion, what is American culture ?
A lot of cliché : fast food, Statue of Liberty, dollar, American way of life, success, democracy, uncle Sam, peace and love, cow boy, Bob Dylan, Woodstock, surf.

16 What kind of new technology English people created ?
Telephone; sound recording ; airplane ;sound film; mobil phone; computer ; internet; social networks

17 What is Akkadian ?
It’s one of the older language who exist, one of the first writing system. Akkadian was born in Mesopotamia. It was cuneiform inscription on tablets. It’s a form of technology.

18 If there was an universal language, do you think it would be English ?
Yes, this language is on every continent. it is very famous thanks to its culture : music, TV series, movies, celebrities... It is not too difficult to learn (if we compare to chinese).

19 Now you watch the video, your answer at the question 1 is different ?
Yes, now i know english is so present thanks to colonies (I never thought to colonies) and all this speakers.

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