[00:03.24]Unit 19 Communication Culture Corner

[00:08.30]English Around the World

[00:10.65]Nowadays,there are around 400 million speakers

[00:14.44]of English as a first language in countries

[00:17.23]such as Australia,Britain,Canada,

[00:19.48]Ireland,Jamaica,New Zealand,

[00:21.67]South Africa and the United States.

[00:24.37]In addition,there are many more millions

[00:26.58]of people who speak English

[00:28.35]as a second language,

[00:29.75]that is,when English is used in government,

[00:32.30]business and education.

[00:34.75]Many countries where English is used

[00:36.74]as a second language are ex-British

[00:39.42]colonies such as India,Kenya,Nigeria,

[00:42.16]Pakistan,Singapore,and Srilanks.

[00:45.30]Furthermore,English is the most widely

[00:47.51]studied foreign language in the world.

[00:50.26]Sixteen hundred years ago,

[00:52.00]the ancestor of "Engish"

[00:53.77]was a language spoken by a few barbaric tribes

[00:56.80]who had not even arrived in Britain.

[00:59.09]How did it eventually become a world language?

[01:04.12]British English

[01:05.82]It was in Shakespear's lifetime

[01:07.61]that English began to spread around the world.

[01:10.79]In 1607,British rulers established

[01:13.21]a colony in Virginia-

[01:14.93]the first permanent English- speaking

[01:17.01]settlement in North America.

[01:18.88]By the time the Americans

[01:20.42]won their independence from Britain

[01:22.06]in the 1780s,there were thirteen colonies

[01:25.36]and four million English-speaking people!

[01:27.44]