Conversation One
W: Hi, Leo. Why do you say English will become the world language?
M: Well, for one thing, it's so commonly used. The only language that is used by more people is Chinese.
W: Why is English spoken by so many people?
M: It's spoken in many countries of the world because of the British Empire. And now, of course, there's influence of America as well.
W: Many students find English a difficult language to learn.
M: Oh, all languages are difficult to learn. But English does have two great advantages.
W: What are they?
M: Well, first of all, it has a very international vocabulary. It has many German, Dutch, French, Spanish and Italian words in it. So speakers of those languages will find many familiar words in English. In fact, English has words from many other languages as well.
W: Why is that?
M: Well, partly because English speakers have travelled a lot. They bring back words with them, so English really does have an international vocabulary.
W: And what's the other advantage of English?
M: It's that English grammar is really quite easy. For example, it doesn't have dozens of different endings for its nouns, adjectives and verbs, not like Latin, Russian, and German for example.
W: Why is that?
M: Well, it's quite interesting actually. It's because of the French. When the French ruled England, French was the official language and only the common people spoke English. They try to make the language as simple as possible, so they made the grammar easier.
Q9: What does the man say about Chinese?
Q10: What made English a widely used language?
Q11: What is said to be special about English vocabulary?