English as a global language

Ma perchè è così importante imparare l'Inglese?

Forse il brano che segue, preso parzialmente da un libro di testo di terza media e rielaborato, può aiutare a capire l'importanza di questa lingua che sempre più Italiani (e non solo) si mettono a studiare!

The English Speaking World

Today there are four hundred million people speaking English as a first language and perhaps one billion who speak it as a second language. They live in North America, Africa, South East Asia, Australia and the islands of the Pacific, as well as in Britain and Ireland.

There are two main reasons for this. The first is because the British Empire grew to cover a quarter of the Earth's land area, and the second is the power and influence of the United States after the Second World War.

America: It was first colonised by England at the beginning of the 17^th century. At that time England was also colonising the islands of the Caribbean. The English brought slaves from different parts of Africa to work on the sugar plantations and those black slaves developed their own form of English.

Africa: The English language came to West Africa through trade and later through anti-slaving activities. At the beginning of the 19th century Sierra Leone became a colony for ex-slaves. In the meanwhile the British took control of South Africa and English became the official language in 1822.

Asia: India was a colony from 1765 to 1947 and English was the language of administration and education. It is still used as a common form of communication because in India there are several hundred different mother-tongue languages in use. There are many English-language newspapers and tv channels, too.

Australia: Australia was first used as a penal colony and in the 18^th and 19^th century many convicts from Britain were transported there because the prisons in England were too full. In New Zeland, which became a colony in 1840, the population of English, Scots and Irish rose incredibly.

Today English is the international language of diplomacy, science, trade and entertainment because of the power and influence of the United States. Moreover when there is an international event English is always one of the language used.