VIP Class Notes (Lily)[R/S]

Vocabulary

1.verge= close to, edge

ex: on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

2. Chinese – 1.Mandarin 2. Cantonese

ex: There are many Mandarin speakers in Canada.

3. extinct= no longer in existence; that has ended or died out:

ex: an extinct species of fish.

Speaking exercise

I think Chinese will become one of the dominant world language, maybe 70% they can speak English, the rest want that they can speak Chinese, I don’t think Chinese will become the only main language in the world, because America and Europe, they also speak English. Another reason is too difficult for people who’s mother tongue is not Chinese. So I think Chinese will become one of the main language. I think English will still be the most important language.

I think it’s sad to know more than 6000 languages will disappear. For example, in my hometown, there are many dialects but I know some of them have disappeared in a few years, because many people went to big cities, and they don’t live in their hometown, so less and less people speak the dialects now. I think we cannot stop these things happen, we can only accept this.

LuTianYi is a digital idol, she is not a real person. Last day, she sang many songs, I think it’s very fantastic. She’s not a real person, but she can move and sing. I was thinking, how she can do like that.

Revised

I think Chinese will become one of the dominating world language, maybe 70% of the world population will speak English, the rest could speak Chinese, I don’t think Chinese will become the only main language in the world, because in America and Europe, people also speak English. Another reason is that Chinese is too difficult for people whose mother tongue is not Chinese. So I think Chinese will become one of the main language. I think English will still be the most important language.

I think it’s sad to know that more than 6000 languages will disappear. For example, in my hometown, there are many dialects but I know some of them have disappeared within a few years, because many people went to big cities, and they don’t live in their hometown, so less and less people speak the dialects now. I think we cannot stop the extinction of languages, we can only accept it.

LuTianYi is a digital idol, she is not a real person. Yesterday, she sang many songs, I think it’s very fantastic. She’s not a real person, but she can move and sing. I was thinking, how could she do like that.

Reading

There are about 7000 languages spoken in our world today. Only very few are so called world languages, widely spoken by millions of people, the rest are local languages that are only spoken in certain areas. The most common languages are Mandarin Chinese, English and Spanish.

Almost all countries have an official language that is used when you go to authorities or which is taught in school. Sometimes a country may have second languages that have developed through the ages. In India, Hindi is the official language, but most Indians can speak English quite well because of its history as a British colony. In Canada, English and French are recognised as official languages. In Switzerland, people speak German, French and Italian.

Within a country, people often speak dialects of the same language. In England, different dialects of Standard English are spoken between London in the south and Scotland in the north.

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 fields like medicine, biology, history or archaeology.