در این قسمت، به سوال {چرا زبان انگلیسی؟} جواب میدیم.
We will try to answer the question "Why English Today?" & "How long?"
1. feel left behind (exp): احساس عقب افتادن از بقیه
2. tangible (adj): قابل درک و حس
3. first-hand (adj): دست اول، بی واسطه
4. second-hand (adj): دست دوم
5. a pig in a poke (idiom): چیزی که ندیده و نسنجیده مورد قبول هست
6. That’s my stand (exp): That’s my idea
7. self-esteem (n): عزت نفس
8. bilingual & monolingual (n & adj): دو زبانه – تک زبانه
9. allocate (v): اختصاص دادن
10. approximately (adv): حدوداً
12. acquire (v): یاد گرفتن
13. call it (exp): end or finish something
Transcript
Hello everyone and welcome to the first episode of …
EnglinGO,
Such a beautiful name. So basically we're talking to and with the Englin-goers.
So what's the topic of the first episode?
You know, I’ve really tried to bring a topic which really interests everyone. So I thought that that's really common that people should and would ask them, okay, why? The question of why English, why not, for example, German, why not, why not France, or French? So the first question we're going to talk and cover is why English, that's very basic.
So especially why English today, you know, exactly.
Nowadays it's just more important than …
Yeah, so let's say that someone comes to you and asks you that … they don't know anything in English … I don't know anything in English and I want to learn English. Why should I learn English?
You know, there are lots of things to consider into your account but in my idea, the most important one is that, okay, nowadays, wherever you look, you will probably find people talking English. So basically speaking, generally speaking English nowadays has become a, let's say, universal language. Okay, everyone can speak language and everyone is trying to speak language. So that's the main reason, you know, not, not, you know, fall out of the loop, yeah, or something like that.
You mean so that you are not left behind, yeah. Okay, so I think what you're trying to say is that English is a global language. It's all the way over the world, yeah. Can you give us an example, I don't know, for example, country or numbers, how many people speak English?
I'm not quite sure, but recently I’ve read something that it said nowadays is that there are more than 1.5 billion people all over the world speaking the language which is English, and not just in the, let's say, America, okay, or the, let's say, the continent. It's just all over around the world. And what are we doing now? We’re speaking English … that's the statistic which is really shocking them at the same time, mesmerizing, you know.
And I think, for example, China and India … When you think about them that there are a lot of people in those countries. However, I think that, you know, I think I read it on a website or something that said English is the main language in those countries.
And that's really, you know, that doesn't make any sense. For example, imagine having 3 billion citizens and all of them, they don't try to speak their own mother tongue language and then they just switch to the English. So …
Okay, another thing that I think would be noteworthy to add is, you know, related to the career, future career a person can have. So, you know, as you know, in many job opportunities, even in Iran, the ability to speak a language, or I don't know, to have a good knowledge of a language, is considered something that you can get extra money for that.
Exactly, that's true, yeah.
For example, we can say that there are, there are absolutely some, let's say, occupation that if you have this qualification, which is English, you will, you know, you will be just, win it, yeah. You will be just incomparable to your partners and colleagues. So, and imagining that, for example, some jobs are in some countries, which are really, let's say, sufficiently and well-paid jobs, you have good salaries. And, we can say like programming, coding, and lots of other things. Yeah, that's my idea.
You see, the basic language of coding and programming is English. These jobs are based on English. I remember at a time I worked for a language school, and the supervisor of the language school was actually working for a company, and they required a person that could speak English, because the company had some deals with … companies from other countries. So, they needed a person that can speak the language, English language. So, you know, these opportunities are everywhere around us. And I think that the ability to have a good knowledge of English as a skill, it increases your chance of getting that job. So, let's say there are 10 candidates without English, and you're just the one with English …
Yeah, you are the winner. It just leads you to have that competence, to grab that opportunity. That's clear, I think.
Moving on to the next point, I think you as an English teacher, and also as an English student,
I think you have made it a hobby for yourself, watching English films, listening to English music.
Yeah, I know what you're trying to reach.
And even, I think, searching for information in English … I mean, yeah, you're Iranian, you're from Iran. But sometimes when you want to search something on Google, you Google in English, not, yeah. So, tell me about the effect of that.
I don't know why I do this, but I think I really don't need any reason for this, because, you know, I do believe that nowadays, the true things, they come from the countries which are powerful. Basically, we know which countries we're talking about, yeah. If you want to just keep yourself up to date, that's the only thing you can go with. So, you know, find the real news, but they must be in English for you to get the main point out of them. And the thing is, it's just not about the news, yeah? You agree with me, yeah?
Yeah, it came about, I think, anything, you know, if you're interested in films, you can have the same thing, if you're interested in science, you can follow scientific journals or websites for that. And, you know, I think that the question that arises here is that, why can't we translate that, you know?
Yeah, I remember that following the previous thing you said, I used to have a teacher who was older, he was teaching, and he would always say that there's an ocean of opportunities, lying with English, so that's really true, that really makes sense. And following your sentence, it was, why we can't translate it, yeah? Look, I think things are beautiful, yeah? Even your own mother language is completely without doubt, it's beautiful, but when you try to adapt it to another language, that you will, you know, you will make something for that to lose its beauty, yeah? So, that's really true for English, for any language, yeah? And yeah, I'm really against it, yeah, I don't like it.
I know, I think that if we want to give a tangible example, when you, for example, want to search for information, and the basic information, the first-hand information is in English, it's not really in Farsi, you need to translate it, not to Farsi to any language. The thing is that it's like buying a second-hand car. It's not … it doesn't have the feeling of the new car.
And finally, you know what, it will turn out to be a pig in a poke. You cannot, you cannot understand what you're reading, because, you know, it's really, let's say, unlikely for you to get the exact meaning out of a very, let's say, normal translation, yeah? So, translating is not a good option here.
So, considering that we have, let's say, two people, person A, person B. Person A translates the information to his or her native language. Person B has a good knowledge of English, and he or she doesn't need to translate. I think what we want to say here is that the quality of understanding for these two people are different. Person B experiences, the information, first hand. It's a first-hand experience for the person B. But for person A, it's like buying a second-hand car, a second-hand cell phone, you know. That's not original.
Yeah, and the thing is, they are always looking for something. The persons who are trying to translate something, they are always dependent. They need something, but the one who has, let's say, the ability to read, understand everything in English, that's just ahead of everyone, yeah? So, there's no, let's say, opponent for him or her.
Enough with this … let's go to the next one.
You know, the next thing that I can think of is that why we study English is that people nowadays are really trying to go abroad, to experience different things, including education, including even new cultures, new culture, and also living in other countries would definitely bring new and different things, yeah? So, the thing is, for studying abroad for finding a job, or for continuing your education and having the higher one, you basically need English, because let's say, I like this adjective, the luxurious universities are not here. Yeah, for example, imagine MIT, so that that's the dream, yeah? You've got to have the guts. You've got to have the guts to study English and go there, because that's the real thing, that's the real boss. For studying, that's the thing that really is important. Yeah, that's my stand, what were you?
Yeah, and you know, you talked about going abroad, immigration. I think the easiest form of immigration is academic immigration, that you go to study in a university. And I think about 80- 90% everywhere they need English. They require English knowledge.
Okay, and so these are all some, you know, physical. These are out-world, the outer benefits. But certainly, learning a language, you know, improves also the inside of a person, the personality of a person. Would you
