[00:03.24]Unit 19 Communication Culture Corner
[00:08.30]English Around the World
[00:10.65]Nowadays,there are around 400 million speakers
[00:14.44]of English as a first language in countries
[00:17.23]such as Australia,Britain,Canada,
[00:19.48]Ireland,Jamaica,New Zealand,
[00:21.67]South Africa and the United States.
[00:24.37]In addition,there are many more millions
[00:26.58]of people who speak English
[00:28.35]as a second language,
[00:29.75]that is,when English is used in government,
[00:32.30]business and education.
[00:34.75]Many countries where English is used
[00:36.74]as a second language are ex-British
[00:39.42]colonies such as India,Kenya,Nigeria,
[00:42.16]Pakistan,Singapore,and Srilanks.
[00:45.30]Furthermore,English is the most widely
[00:47.51]studied foreign language in the world.
[00:50.26]Sixteen hundred years ago,
[00:52.00]the ancestor of "Engish"
[00:53.77]was a language spoken by a few barbaric tribes
[00:56.80]who had not even arrived in Britain.
[00:59.09]How did it eventually become a world language?
[01:04.12]British English
[01:05.82]It was in Shakespear's lifetime
[01:07.61]that English began to spread around the world.
[01:10.79]In 1607,British rulers established
[01:13.21]a colony in Virginia-
[01:14.93]the first permanent English- speaking
[01:17.01]settlement in North America.
[01:18.88]By the time the Americans
[01:20.42]won their independence from Britain
[01:22.06]in the 1780s,there were thirteen colonies
[01:25.36]and four million English-speaking people!
[01:27.44] |