F2F Class Notes (Lily)[S/R]

Pronunciation

dominant= DOM minant

superpower= siu perpower

linguist= LIN guist

verge= ver ge

advise= ad VISE

world= were oad

century= sen chury

Vocabulary

1.linguists= people who study the structure of language

ex: Many linguists believe that Chinese will become the number one (dominant) language in the world.

2. verge= edge, close to

ex: on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

3. advice= to give opinion (positive)

ex: She gave me some good advices.

3. Chinese – 1. Mandarin 2.Cantonese  *in Canada

ex: There has been a debate of whether Cantonese is a dialect.

Reading Reflection

I don’t think Mandarin will become the dominant language, because up to now, just Chinese use Mandarin, but English is used all over the world. I think language is a system, like UK, USA or some colonial countries are used the same language system, it is English. So this is why I think Chinese will not as important as English, but in the future, there is no doubt that the Chinese will become more and more important as the China become the richest country in the world.

Revised

I don’t think Mandarin will become the dominant language, because up to now, only Chinese people use Mandarin, but English is used all over the world. I think language is a system, like UK, USA or many colonial countries are using the same language system, which is English. So this is why I think Chinese will not be as important as English, but in the future, there is no doubt that the Chinese will become more and more important as the China becomes the richest country in the world.

Over the past centuries, English has become the dominant world language, mostly because of the British Empire and the rise of the United States as a global political and economic superpower. Many linguists say that Mandarin Chinese will become the new number one language, because it is the mother tongue of over 1 billion people. China is on the verge of becoming a new economic superpower and many international corporations already advise their workers to learn Mandarin.

In the past, some attempts have been made to create a global language for everyone. A Polish scientist, Ludwik Zamenhof, invented Esperanto at the beginning of the 20th century.  His goal was to form a neutral language with easy words and grammar that is not so difficult to learn. Linguists claim that up to a million people use and speak Esperanto today.

Languages that are not actively spoken any more die out over a period. Linguists claim that 90% of the world’s 7000 languages will become extinct within the next 50 years.  Other languages, like Latin or ancient Greek, died out centuries ago, but are still needed in fieldslike medicine, biology, history or archaeology.