A World We Live In - Unit2

Answer the questions:

1)What are the spheres where the English language has become widely spoken?

2)What is the only way offered in the article to prevent the EC from becoming a modern tower of Babel? Is it the right way, in your opinion? Are there any other ways?

3)What official languages are claimed to be spoken by the EC? What languages are adopted as working languages in the EC?

4)Is multilingualism the only perspective for the development of Europe?

5)How do you understand the sentence: “So the rush is on, and it promises boom times for language schools.” Are foreign language studies in Russia as popular as they are in

Europe?

6)How many languages are supposed to be compulsory in schools in the European Community countries?

7)Is there any danger in the fact that English is becoming “a too dominant language in

Europe”?

8)Why have the British always been the “linguistic laggards”?

9)Will Europe’s languages flourish with the development of the EC?

10)What is your opinion of the future of the English language?

11)Will Europe speak “Eurolish”? Will the profession of a linguist be necessary in the future in Europe?

12)Will you summarize the ideas connected with language learning?

Use the following words and word combinations given below will help you to retell the text:

ancient language barriers; are proliferating; predict; mother tongue; to speak with fluency; the principal language; to conduct business; to simplify communications; to become multilingual; native tongue; to have a distinct edge over an Englishman; convinced; to hear the message; to sense panic; to feel the pressure; tough cases; rush is on; boom times; foreign language instruction; language training; additional language; teaching aids; requirements; teacher training; a matter of debate; common language.

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VI. Read the story by George Mikes and comment on:

a)what the author has to say on his experience of learning English;

b)what words and phrases contain exaggerations employed by the author in order to reach a humorous effect.

The questions given below will help you to cope with the task. Answer the questions:

1) What is the author’s idea of a perfect command of the English language?

2)What accent did the author try to acquire? What is the disadvantage of the Oxford accent as described by the author?

3)What ways “to put on a highly cultured air” are offered by the author? Why is it

important to learn “long words”? Why should care be taken not to use only “endless” words? 4) What are the author’s recommendations to a language learner? Are they serious or humorous? What difficulties of the process of the English language acquisition are

emphasized in the “important points to remember”?

The Language

George Mikes When I arrived in England I thought I knew English. After I'd been here an hour I realized that I did not understand one word. In the first week I picked up a tolerable working knowledge of the language and the next seven years convinced me gradually but thoroughly that I would never know it really well, let alone perfectly. This is sad. My only consolation

being that nobody speaks English perfectly.

Remember that those five hundred words an average Englishman uses are far from being the whole vocabulary of the language. You may learn another five hundred and another five thousand and yet another fifty thousand and still you may come across a further fifty thousand you have never heard of before, and nobody else either.

If you live here long enough you will find out to your greatest amazement that the adjective nice is not the only adjective the language possesses, in spite of the fact that in the first three years you do not need to learn or use any other adjectives. You can say that the weather is nice, a restaurant is nice, Mr Soandso is nice, Mrs Soandso's clothes are nice, you had a nice time, and all this will be very nice.

Then you have to decide on your accent. You will have your foreign accent right, but many people like to mix it with something else. I knew a Polish Jew who had a strong Yiddish-Irish accent. People found it fascinating though slightly exaggerated. The easiest way to give the impression of having a good accent or no foreign accent at all is to hold an unlit pipe in your mouth, to mutter between your teeth and finish all your sentences with the question: 'isn't it?' People will not understand much, but they are accustomed to that and they will get a most excellent impression.

I have known quite a number of foreigners who tried hard to acquire an Oxford accent. The advantage of this is that you give the idea of being permanently in the company of Oxford dons and lecturers on medieval numismatics; the disadvantage is that the permanent singing is rather a strain on your throat and that it is a type of affection that even many English people find it hard to keep up incessantly. You may fall out of it, speak naturally, and then where are you?

The Mayfair accent can be highly recommended, too. The advantages of Mayfair English are that it unites the affected air of the Oxford accent with the uncultured flavour of a half-educated professional hotel-dancer.

The most successful attempts, however, to put on a highly cultured air have been made on the polysyllabic lines. Many foreigners who have learnt Latin and Greek in school discover with amazement and satisfaction that the English language has absorbed a huge amount of ancient Latin and Greek expressions, and they realize that (a) it is much easier to learn these expressions than the much simpler English words; (b) that these words as a rule are interminably long and make a simply superb impression when talking to the greengrocer, the porter and the insurance agent.

Imagine, for instance, that the porter of the block of flats where you live remarks sharply that you must not put your dustbin out in front of your door before 7.30 a.m. Should you answer 'please don't bully me,' a loud and tiresome argument may follow, and certainly the porter will be proved right, because you are sure to find a clause in your contract (small print, bottom of last page) that the porter is always right and you owe absolute allegiance and unconditional obedience to him. Should you answer, however, with these words: 'I repudiate your petulant expostulations,' the argument will be closed at once, the porter will be proud of having such a highly cultured man in the block, and from that day onwards you may, if you please, get up at four o'clock in the morning and hang your dustbin out of the window.

But even in Curzon Street society, if you say, for instance, that you are a tough guy they will consider you a vulgar, irritating and objectionable person. Should you declare,

however, that you are an inquisitorial and peremptory homo sapiens, they will have no idea what you mean, but they feel in their bones that you must be something wonderful.

When you know all the long words it is advisable to start learning some of the short ones, too.

You should be careful when using these endless words. An acquaintance of mine once was fortunate enough to discover the most impressive word nostalgia for backache. Mistakenly, however, he declared in a large company:

'I have such a nostalgia.'

'Oh, you want to go home to Nizhne-Novgorod?' asked him most sympathetic hostess. 'Not at all,' he answered. 'I just cannot sit down.'

Finally, there are two important points to remember:

1.Do not forget that it is much easier to write in English than to speak English, because you can write without a foreign accent.

2.In a bus and in other public places it is more advisable to speak softly in good German than to shout in abominable English.

Anyway, this whole language business is not at all easy. After spending eight years in this country, the other day I was told by a very kind lady: 'But why do you complain? You really speak a most excellent accent without the slightest English.'

** *

VII. Read the poem, transcribe the words given in italics. What difficulty of the English language is stressed by the poem?

Our Queer Language

I think you already know

Of tough and bough and cough and dough.

Others may stumble, but not you

On hiccough, thorough, tough and through.

Well done! And now you wish, perhaps, To learn of less familiar traps?

Beware of heard, a dreadful word

That looks like beard and sounds like bird.

And dead; it’s said like bed, not bead - For goodness’ sake don’t call it deed! Watch out for meat and great and threat -

They rhyme with suite and straight and debt. A moth is not a moth in mother

Nor both in bother or in brother.

And here is not a match for there.

Nor dear and fear for bear and pear. And there’s dose and rose and lose -

Just look them up - and goose and choose,

And cork and work and card and ward, And font and front and word and sword. And do and go and thwart and cart -

Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start!

A dreadful language? Man alive,

I’d mastered it when I was five!

* * *

VIII. Study some pieces of advice and express the idea of each in brief. Entitle each advice.

Can Foreign Learners Ever Achieve Native Speaker Competence In English? (Some practical advice for very advanced students)

British people never cease to be amazed at foreigners’ command of English. They admire the foreigners’ rich and varied range of expression in English, the accuracy of their grammar and the purity of their sounds. However, only a few non-native speakers ever succeed in concealing their foreignness entirely, even those who have lived in an English-speaking environment for a number of years. Why should this be so? Are the foreigners too lazy? Is English really so impossible to master? Are learners perhaps concentrating on the wrong areas of English? Or is it considered a waste of time and energy to perfect one’s English beyond the stage of communicative competence?

Indeed, many learners are satisfied with being able to communicate successfully in English and are not particularly interested in the language as such, but need to be able to use it, for example, with colleagues or visitors. They may well consider that little is to be gained from attempting to iron out the telltale foreign traces in their speech habits. Others may feel that if they manage to sound like a native speaker, they will lose something of their own personality. Language specialists on the whole tend to desire to master English as well as is humanly possible.

1.In what ways do foreigners often impress British people when they speak English?

2.What reasons are given for the fact that comparatively few foreigners manage to sound like native speakers?

3.What kind of learners ought to strive towards native speaker competence? Give your

reasons.

** *

The first piece of advice is straightforward. Avoid using any so-called idioms. Unfortunately English textbooks often give lists of such expressions for students to learn.

Consequently, in an attempt to sound “English”, students try to include at least one of these expressions in every utterance. It is quite untrue that English speakers say, “She’s my bosom friend. She wears her heart in her sleeve. She’s a real busy bee. She and her sister are as like as two peas in a pod.” If such phrases are used, it is likely to be for some ironic or humorous effect. Phrases like these, like slang expressions, quickly pass out of fashion and are best avoided.

A similar tendency among foreigners is the over-use of stalling expressions which are supposed to be typical of English. For example too many students begin any utterance with

“Well, ...” and insert “You know”, “you see”, “actually” at every opportunity, or at least when they pause to think out how their sentence is to continue. Of course, English speakers use these expressions, but less frequently than is generally assumed. It is the mark of the foreigner to try too hard to say what he thinks is authentic. If you are not sure of your next few words in

English, it is better to say nothing at all while formulating the utterance, or at the most an “ar” or an “em”!

1.Why do you think students are so fond of learning “English idioms”?

2.Why must great care be taken when handling such expressions?

3.To what extent are such expressions used by native speakers?

4.If it is true that native speakers make frequent use of “well”, “you know”, etc., why are foreigners warned to take special care over them?

** *

The ability to talk in English about one’s own situation, for example, one’s course of study, career, hometown, etc. is often not acquired by foreign learners. They can use English convincingly in a simulated English context, yet stumble when asked to talk about themselves. English speakers who know little or no Russian will be confused if they hear, for example, that you have classes in the “Chair” of Grammar or if you talk of the Pedagogical or Interpreters’ “Faculty”. Such confusion can arise because the same words refer to different things in each country. In order to avoid misunderstandings of this kind, make sure that you can use appropriate English to describe your course, your institution, how you are assessed, the qualifications you hope to gain, etc. Because it is not always possible to find exact equivalents in English, such descriptions can prove problematic, but if you familiarize yourself with the differences between, say, your own training and that of your British (American, Australian or whatever) counterparts, then you will be in a better position to use English.

1.Why do you think students find it easier to talk about the English-speaking world rather than their own surroundings when using English?

2.What difficulties are there in finding appropriate English for a non-English context?

** *

The purity of the foreigners’ sounds impresses the native speaker because they are so good; they also impress him because they are so prominent, too prominent in fact. In English, as in any other languages, there is great redundancy in the information conveyed by speech: the native listener may make use of only half the speech signals he receives. He is predisposed, for instance, by the linguistic context and the general situation to hear and understand certain utterances. Clearly, any gross error in pronunciation will interfere with the communication process. However, nothing is more confusing to the native listener than mistakes of accentuation, i.e. rhythm and associated obscuration of certain syllables. The accentuation of unimportant syllables slows the speech down, one’s utterances sound pompous and over-correct, and the meaning one wishes to convey can be lost or obscured. Words pronounced individually with the perfect pronunciation have little to do with communication. Even good intonation cannot rescue an utterance whose accentuation is faulty. The energy poured into pronunciation and intonation will only bear fruit if it is coupled with training in rhythm.

1.Why are native speakers impressed by advanced students’ sounds?

2.How important is correct accentuation in English?

3.What are the consequences of badly stressed English?

** *

An obvious clue to a speaker’s foreign background is his preference for those words in English which are of classical rather than Anglo-Saxon origin. For example, a foreigner might say:

“Let’s postpone our visit to Leningrad till next weekend because Jane hasn’t fully recovered from the flu yet. If the hotels are full, I’ve got some friends who can accommodate us. We can depart after classes on Friday. I’ll collect you from your Institute.”

This is perfectly correct English, only a native speaker is more likely to use different verbs, for example:

“Let’s put off our visit to Leningrad till next weekend because Jane hasn’t got over the flu yet. If the hotels are full, I’ve got some friends who can put us up. We can set off after

classes on Friday. I’ll pick you up from your Institute.”

Advanced learners should make an effort to use the latter sort of verb actively. In general foreigners tend to use clumsy constructions which are strictly speaking correct, but where a native speaker would prefer a shorter, more direct utterance.

1.Why do you think foreign learners under-use the verbs recommended above?

2.Why do you think foreign learners tend to use constructions which are too complicated?

** *

Foreign learners should not despair if they feel that mastery of good English is difficult; they should console themselves with the fact that native speakers constantly have to ask themselves if what they are saying is acceptable. Randolph Quirk (*Randolph Quirk ‘The Use of English’ Longmans, 1962) describes three categories of English speakers: at the one extreme those people of position and status whose education and occupation make them confident of speaking unimpeachable English, at the other those who are quite indifferent to whether they speak well or not. The group in the middle is most comforting for the foreigner:

“In between, according to this view, we have a far less fortunate group, the anxious. These actively try to suppress what they believe to be bad English and assiduously cultivate what they hope to be good English. They live their lives in some degree of nervousness over their grammar, their pronunciation, and their choice of words; sensitive and fearing of betraying themselves. Keeping up with the Joneses is measured not only in houses, furniture, refrigerators, cars and clothes, but also in speech.”

It is so regarded as a healthy sign in the foreigner if he is constantly “anxious” about his English: he is merely keeping company with most of the native speakers in the world.

1.What advice is given to students who feel anxious about their English?

2.What kind of people do you think are quite indifferent to whether they speak well or

not?

3. Why do you think it is so difficult to be totally confident about the English one

uses?

4.Do foreign learners of Russian ever master the Russian language to such an extent that you can’t tell they’re foreign?

5.What aspects of Russian present the greatest obstacles to foreign learners aiming at fluency in Russian?

(after Arthur McNeill, Moscow, 1977)

* * *

IX. English is a Tricky Language

Can you explain the following jokes in terms of linguistics?

“I’ve changed my mind.”

“Thank Heaven! Does your new mind work any better?”

** *

First Artist: “Well, old boy, how’s business?”

Second Artist: “Oh, splendid! Got a commission this morning from a millionaire.

Wants his children painted very badly.”

First Artist: “Well, my boy, you are the very man for the job.”

** *

“My daughter has arranged a little piece for the piano.” “Good! It’s time we had a little peace!”

** *

Taxi-driver: “It’s not the work that I enjoy, it is the people I run into.”

** *

Policeman (pointing to a sign in parked auto): “Don’t you see that sign ‘Fine for parking’?”

Driver: “Yes, Officer, I see it and heartily agree with it.”

** *

Friend: “That wasn’t a very big account of your daughter’s wedding in the paper this morning.”

Father: “No, the big account was sent to me.”

* * *

“I wonder if I can see your mother, little boy. Is she engaged?” “Engaged! She is married!”

** *

He: “Tomorrow morning I’m going out to the suburbs to see a model home.” She: “Listen, dear, if there is any model to see home you let somebody else do it.”

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From the previous texts you understood that it is not impossible to acquire a certain command of English. Another discussion point is where to apply it. Read the following information and say in what sphere you would like to use your knowledge of English. The questions to follow up the text may help you to stress some important ideas.

Languages May Help You Go Places In Industry

“You’d be surprised at the number of letters we get from people who want to be United Nations interpreters,” said the deputy secretary of the Institute of Linguistics.

Such lack of realism about languages is found at all levels. Every year hundreds of modern linguists leave university with romantic notions of “working with languages” - probably in exotic jobs overseas. After spending several months optimistically offering their services to international organizations, the BBC, the Foreign Service and large international companies, the truth dawns.

There are, of course, many opportunities for teaching languages, ranging from the universities to primary schools.

Teaching apart, there are very few jobs for which languages as such are any qualification. And for these few, competition is very tough. The world demand for conference interpreters (to take just one example) is about 1,111, which means about 60 new entrants to

the profession each year. Yet, there are 20,000 hopeful students in the schools for interpreters in Europe.

The key to using languages is to regard them as a bonus - as something extra to offer an employer or to bring to any chosen career. In overseas selling, in advertising, in information work, in libraries, a knowledge of languages can be a tremendous advantage - in some jobs it is essential. But the man concerned must first and foremost be an expert in sales, advertising, information work, or librarianship.

The same applies to scientists and technologists, many of whom need languages in exchanging and acquiring technical information. Girls who couple their languages with secretarial training often land up as high-powered secretaries.

The most direct application of languages is in translating, but even here the linguist has to reinforce his languages with specialist commercial or technical knowledge. If he wants to earn a decent living, he must become an expert, say, in translating Russian papers on rocketry or Spanish legal contracts or Arabic sales literature.

There is, however, a serious shortage of top-class technical translators, though only a few large organizations have translating departments of their own. It is a cardinal rule to translate only into one’s own language, so many jobs go to “mother tongues” - foreigners living in this country. Finally, because of industry’s tendency to regard translators merely as “little black boxes that lick”, career prospects in the usual sense are limited. Translators tend to remain translators.

Industry’s prejudice against the language graduate is not unjustified. Many of the traditional languages degrees have been based on classical literature, with the result that even honoured graduates are sometimes quite incapable of holding an ordinary conversation in

French, or “couldn’t translate a simple sentence into contemporary German” - to quote two employers’ experiences. Or as one graduate summed it up: “They didn’t think that teaching you to speak a language was part of their job.”

The practical approach to languages, understanding not only the language but the people who speak it is reflected in the radically different language courses which have developed in past three to four years, mostly in the technological universities or technical colleges. Some of these combine languages with depth study of the political, economic and social background of the relevant countries. Others incorporate a language in degree courses languages with commerce or business studies.

Overall, the aim is to produce highly competent linguists who can put their languages to practical use in technical or executive positions. They will have acquired a real appreciation of the countries studied. Most of the courses require the students to spend a year overseas - sometimes studying at a foreign university, but more often working in jobs. Bradford University students have worked with Euratom, Woolwich Polytechnic students with marketing companies in Europe; Surrey undergraduates in most varied jobs as bookkeeping, public relations and chemical plating. Apart from improving their languages these jobs are valuable experience in themselves.

Judging from a crossection of students I met from the University of Surrey, studying combinations of Russian, French, German with economics, law, politics and linguistics, motivation on this type of course is be able to apply their languages - ranging from Russian commercial law to exporting and journalism.

Speak on the following:

1)Explain the meaning of the phrase “such lack of realism about languages”.

2)In what jobs is the knowledge of a foreign language essential?

3)What is the most direct application of languages?

4)What are the career prospects for language graduates? Are you of the same opinion as the author of the article?

5)Explain the phrase: “Industry’s prejudice against the language graduate is not unjustified”?

6)What new tendencies in language teaching in Europe are described in the text? Can these tendencies be traced in the Russian system of education?

7)What do you think of your own career prospects? Where will you be able to apply your knowledge of English?

** *

Will there be any necessity of training translators if in the near future the job can be easily performed by a computer? To answer the question read the article and point out what it has to say on:

a)the work on the automated translation systems is under way at some American, European and Japanese universities;

b)the computer will be able to “converse” in a foreign language;

c)computers can perform satisfactory translations, but still the systems have to be improved.

A Breach In Language Barriers

Moshi-moshi? Nan no goyoo desuka? English-speakers who call Japan may be puzzled by those words. But don’t despair. Work is under way to develop a computer to convert these questions into a familiar “Hello? May I help you?”

Automated translation of both ends of telephone conversations held in two different languages probably will not become reality for a decade or so. However, research is now being conducted at several American, European and Japanese universities and at electronics companies. One such project, launched by Japan’s Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International, will receive $ 107 million from the Japanese government, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. and a handful of corporate giants - for the first seven years alone. IBM is one sponsor of similar efforts at Carnegie-Mellon University. The goal is a system that will produce text out of the speech sounds of one language, analyze and translate it in context and reconvert the translated signals into speech.

One day, callers may simply need to hook their telephones up to personal computers and plug in voice-recognition and synthesizing units to “converse” in a foreign language. They will also need a data file on the grammar of their own language and those they don’t speak. (Such files already exist in Japanese and English and are being developed for French,

German and Spanish.) Another requirement is “universal parser” software that identifies the relations between the words in a sentence and locates analogous constructions in the target language from the data files. Such parsers already perform satisfactory text-to-text translations. But they need to become faster, more accurate and less expensive before they can translate actual speech.

Speech-recognition modules convert sound signals into digital pulses. The computer matches that digitized data to the phonemes - the shortest pronounceable segments of speech - registered in its software. Files can contain enough phonemes to cover most of the local derivations from the standard form of a given language. However, voice-recognizing equipment cannot yet tell actual speech from other sounds it picks up: laughter, crying, coughs and further background noises. Voice synthesizers, which reconvert the translated text into sounds, are further ahead than recognition units: they do not have to cope with the whimsical pronunciations and unpredictable noises emitted by humans.

Data bank: But with the growth of English as the all-but-universal tongue of most business contacts, is there really a market for automated telephone translation? Some people answer, “Yes.” “People restrict their business relations to people with whom they have a language in common,” says Jaime G. Carbonell, director of CMU’s Center for Machine

Translation. “That shouldn’t be necessary.” In addition, computerized data banks can increasingly be reached by telephone these days. It is not economically viable to translate the entire contents of a data bank. But telephone translating devices may be able to convert little bits of information into another language - and do so relatively inexpensively.

** *

Read the article which characterizes a typical Englishman.. What could you add to such a characterization? Translate the article into English and retell it.

Англичанин придерживается правила “не быть личным”, то есть не выставлять себя в разговоре, не вести речи о себе самом, о своих делах, профессии. Более того, считается дурным тоном неуместно проявлять собственную эрудицию и вообще безапелляционно утверждать что бы то ни было.

На гостя, который страстно отстаивает свою точку зрения за обеденным столом, в лучшем случае посмотрят как на чудака-эксцентрика, а в худшем - как на человека плохо воспитанного. В Англии возведена в культ легкая беседа, способствующая приятному расслаблению ума, а отнюдь не глубокомысленный диалог и тем более не столкновение противоположных взглядов. Так что расчеты блеснуть знаниями и юмором в словесном поединке и завладеть общим вниманием не сулят лавров. Каскады красноречия разбиваются об утес излюбленной английской фразы: “Вряд ли это может служить подходящей темой для разговора!”

Остается лишь нервно звякать льдинками в бокале джина с тоником (завидуя тем, кто может солидно набивать или выколачивать трубку) и размышлять: как же все-таки проложить путь к сердцам собеседников сквозь льды глубокомысленного молчания и туманы легкомысленного обмена ритуальными, ни к чему не обязывающими фразами?

Почему же все-таки так мучительно труден процесс вживания в эту страну? Ведь здесь не ощущаешь, как на Востоке, труднопреодолимого языкового барьера. И дело не только в том, что выучить английский куда легче, чем китайский или японский. Каждый проявляет тут поразительное терпение, сталкиваясь с неуклюжими попытками иностранца говорить по-английски. Никто никогда не улыбнется, не проявит раздражения, пока ты с трудом подыскиваешь нужное слово.

Видимо, считая себя вправе не говорить ни на одном языке, кроме своего собственного, англичанин честно признает за иностранцем право говорить по-английски плохо (хотя в отличие от японца он никогда не сочтет долгом отметить, что ты владеешь его языком хорошо).

Словом, нет нужды опасаться ошибок или извиняться за плохое произношение. Вопрос о том, как ты говоришь по-английски, попросту не бывает темой обсуждения. Но, с другой стороны, англичанин никогда не станет упрощать свою речь, как это порой инстинктивно делаем мы, объясняясь с иноязычным собеседником. Он не представляет себе, что его родной язык может быть не понятен кому-то.

Отсюда следует отнюдь не утешительный вывод: в стране, где языковой барьер не служит помехой, не сможет стать подспорьем и языковой мост. В Китае или Японии порой достаточно было прочесть иероглифическую надпись на картине, процитировать к месту или не к месту какого-нибудь древнего поэта или философа, чтобы разом расположить к себе собеседников, вызвать у них интерес к “необычному иностранцу”, словом, навести мосты для знакомства. Разве способен сулить подобные дивиденды английский язык?

В.Овчинников

Situational topics