Hi there you are listening to Adept English
and this is a listen and learn podcast. My
name is Hilary and I created this listen and
learn method to help you speak English fluently.
It's much more enjoyable if you learn English
in the way that your brain naturally wants
to learn. I live in the United Kingdom. I'm
a native English speaker. And I love helping
the hundred thousand students who listen to
us every month. Every week we give you two
English lessons in the form of podcasts. So
listen to Adept English. You'll be on your
way to speaking fluent English in no time.
Hi there and welcome to this podcast from
Adept English. Welcome to you if you’re
listening for the first time. We are here
to help you to learn English language, to
achieve fluency in spoken English. We provide
lots of material for you to listen to so that
you can improve your spoken English.
So as usual, let’s go with a topic that
you might find interesting. My aim is to give
you English language listening material, so
that you can practise your understanding – and
I’ll try to explain any of the more difficult
words. So today – some facts about languages.
This podcast will give you some practice at
understanding statistics. Being familiar with
how to talk about statistics – that’s
something which you’ll need if you’re
going to do an English speaking exam like
IELTS. So let’s practise!
So you’re learning English and you already
have your native language, which of course
you speak really well. Some people speak two
languages, but there are people who make a
point of learning multiple languages. These
people are referred to as ‘polyglots’,
P-O-L-Y-G-L-O-T. You’re a polyglot if you
speak more than 2 languages really well. And
polyglots aren’t necessarily geniuses – they’re
just people who prioritize language learning.
They know the tricks, they know the best ways
to learn a language. And they’re interested
in doing it and happy to give their time to
it. It’s estimated that at least half the
world’s population is bilingual – that
means half of people speak two languages.
What’s the worlds most common language?
Well, you might think that it’s English,
but actually the world’s most common language
is Mandarin Chinese – and by a long way,
if you’re counting ‘native speakers’.
‘Native’ N-A-T-I-V-E means the language
learned as children, learned at home and at
school – your own language in other words.
So there are 918 million native speakers of
Mandarin Chinese. The 2nd most commonly spoken
language in the world – with half the number
of speakers of Mandarin Chinese, is Spanish
– 460 million native speakers. Of course,
it’s spoken in Spain, but also in almost
all of South America – 21 countries have
Spanish as their official language. And the
US has many Spanish speakers, it’s second
only to Mexico in its number of Spanish speakers!
Third in the list of the most common languages
is English, with 379 million native speakers.
Of course, people in the UK, America, Canada,
Australia and New Zealand all speak English
as their native tongue. I was going to add
South Africa to that list, but actually South
Africa has 11 official languages. How many
non-native speakers of English are there?
So that’s people who’ve learned English
as a 2nd or a 3rd language? Well, there are
898 million estimated non-native speakers
of English. That’s nearly as many as the
native Mandarin Chinese speakers! And of course,
notice that there are more than twice as many
non-native speakers of English than there
are native speakers. But these statistics
are fluid – at what point in your English
language learning journey do you start to
be counted as a non-native speaker of English?
Difficult to say! I know some French and some
German, but I’m a long way off speaking
like a native. Am I considered a non-native
speaker of French, say – or not? I don’t
know.
Guess which language has the most words? Well
yes, you’ve guessed correctly – English
has many more words than any other language.
That’s not really a surprise, is it? We
just make up words all the time! What’s
also interesting is the number of words in
English which have fallen out of use in the
last 50 years. My sister in France has a massive
English dictionary which dates back to 1967.
And it’s really noticeable, looking through
this enormous dictionary, how many words we
don’t recognise now because they’re old
and they’re no longer used. Many of them
are parts of the body, or names for animals,
or things used in farming. Language moves
on quickly I think – and old words which
are no longer used are replaced with new words.
Imagine how many technology words have come
into being in the last 50 years.
Speaking of how many words there are in the
English language – it’s important because
there are so many words to focus your efforts
into learning only the most commonly used,
the necessary words. And with that aim in
mind, we have an Adept English course available
which addresses just this problem. The Adept
English 500 Words Course uses ONLY the 500
most common words in English – so that you
can practise them, so that you can ensure
that you know these common words really, really
well. It’s one of our most popular courses
– and is really good to consolidate your
learning. Go to the courses page at adeptenglish.com
to find it. You can buy it and start straight
away. So learn English today with the 500
words course.
How many languages are there in the world?
Well, it’s estimated that there are over
6,000 languages spoken. That’s difficult
to believe. But some languages are spoken
by many more people than others. So of those
6,000 languages, about 2,500 of them are in
danger of becoming extinct. Extinct, E-X-T-I-N-C-T
is an adjective and we use it to mean when
something stops existing. It’s often used
about animals – an animal species can become
extinct – that means that there are none
of that type of animal left. And it can be
the same for languages – languages become
extinct when no one speaks them any more.
They become ‘dead languages’. And actually
50% of people in the world speak the most
common 20 languages. I guess as globalisation
continues, this is inevitable. The number
of different languages that we speak will
become fewer. That’s a pity, I realise,
as languages become obsolete, not used – and
traditions are in danger of being lost too.
Of course, the opportunity of online language
learning may make that happen even more quickly.
You can learn English online, along with many
other languages. But you can’t ask people
not to learn new languages, you can’t ask
people to stay just with their own native
language and miss out on opportunities that
might come with a new language. In the UK,
there are many attempts in Wales to preserve
the Welsh language. But despite Welsh being
compulsory in schools, the trend in Welsh
language speaking is still down. It’s hard
to influence patterns like this – and should
we try to? There are passionate supporters
of the Welsh language amongst the older generation,
but perhaps less motivation amongst younger
people. That’s a whole other discussion,
I think.
But there are still a lot of languages – there
are 24 official languages within the European
Union for example – and in these countries,
it’s English and French which are taught
as foreign languages in schools. Let’s have
a play with some European languages.
Le français est une langue assez facile à
apprendre si vous parlez anglais car beaucoup
de mots sont similaires.
100 Millionen Menschen sprechen Deutsch als
Muttersprache. Es ist die Muttersprache, die
in Europa am meisten gesprochen wird.
Those are the two languages – French and
German - that I know something of. And the
next two are ones I’m prepared to have a
go at:-
69 milioni di persone parlano italiano come
lingua madre.
El español es uno de los idiomas más fáciles
de aprender para los angloparlantes.
See if you can guess what two European languages
I’m attempting there. I don’t speak either
of them – but they’re nearer to English
so it’s a bit easier for me to have a go
at those. The answers are in the transcript!
So there you are. If you want to learn English
language, once you’ve done basic English
learning, Adept English is an important part
of your toolkit. And who knows? You may become
a polyglot.
Enough for now. Have a lovely day. Speak to
you again soon. Goodbye.
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