If you don’t speak English well, why should you learn or improve It? What is so good about being a competent English speaker? Well as you might have guessed from my previous posts, I’m about to give you some reasons to learn it.
Firstly, as you may know, English is spoken widely all over the world. Did you know that 1.5bn people speak English? That amounts to 20% of the world’s population. English is often the language used for business and for communication purposes (such as in aviation, where pilots need English to speak to traffic control etc.) If you do business with an English-speaking country, you will be at a serious disadvantage if you cannot hold a conversation in the local language. Also, even if you are in a country where the first language is not English, you may find that English is a kind of ‘middle ground’ or neutral language that you have in common with the people you do business deals with etc.
Secondly, if you want to live in a country such as the US, the UK or Canada, you will need to be able to speak English fairly quickly, unless you want to live in French speaking Quebec or Spanish speaking parts of the US. In the UK, many people struggle to speak a language other than English and you will need it to access vital services such as the doctor’s, dentist’s or hospitals. Some people manage to survive with limited English, but it does marginalise you within the community if that is the case. I know learning a language can be hard, but English speakers are keen to help you and classes are available on a community level or privately.
Thirdly, as I am sure you will be aware, a lot of films and TV programmes are in English. Would you like to be able to understand them, instead of watching a dubbed version or one with subtitles? Would you like to understand the lyrics of film soundtracks as well? Well these are very good reasons to learn or improve your English! Do you like James Bond? With some committed study and exposure to the language you can impress your friends with your English language film knowledge.
Fourthly, if you like English literature or culture, learning the language can be vital. For example, you may have seen the film version of Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice or Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre but have you read the novels? Do you know the origins of expressions such as ‘to let the cat out of the bag?’ Apparently, this expression, which means ‘to reveal a secret by accident’, came from a common street fraud whereby fraudsters would try and sell cats (less expensive) as pigs (more expensive) by hiding them in bags. When a cat was let out of a bag, the ruse would be up.
Learning English can really boost your career and enrich your life as well, whatever your profession is. You don’t have to be in tourism or hospitality to be able to use English in your everyday life. It is amazing how useful the language can be. I am teaching an Italian architect English and it is a really useful tool to help him describe his work and the spaces he creates. It may be that you need English due to relocation, due to work. If you don’t learn you will struggle. Even if you stay in your country, you may still cross paths with English speaking expats or travellers.
Finally, don’t forget music in English. If you learn English, you may discover that you have been singing that Beatles lyric wrong all these years!
I hope you have enjoyed this blog post. If I can help with English lessons let me know!
Thank you!
Lauren.
References: https://www.inklyo.com/english-idioms-origins/
https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/how-many-people-speak-english-and-where-is-it-spoken/
Picture: Laurenz Kleinheider on Unsplash