Full video

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Hey, everybody. Welcome to this A1

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English listening practice video. You

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can use this video to practice your

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listening and comprehension as I speak.

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And remember to sign up for our $1

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listening practice seminars at

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polyglossa.com

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and download our free listening time

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podcast so you can practice your

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listening skills.

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So today, I'm going to talk about the

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English language. This is an important

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topic for all of you because you're all

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learning English. In this video, I'm

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going to give you some interesting facts

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about the English language. This should

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be fun. Okay, so the first thing I want

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to talk about is how many people speak

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this language. Well, almost 400 million

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people speak English as their first

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language. These people are native

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English speakers. Most of these speakers

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are in the US, of course, but there are

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many other English-speaking countries.

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Obviously, countries like the UK,

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Australia, Canada, and Ireland speak

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English, but there are also a lot of

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other countries where people speak

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English. For example, English is the

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major language of Belize, Guyana,

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Jamaica, the Bahamas, and other

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countries, too. There are a lot of

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English-speaking countries. Also, many

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people around the world speak English as

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their second language. In every country,

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there are people who are learning

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English. As a teacher, I've taught

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students from over 80 different

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countries. Cool, huh? We don't know

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exactly how many people speak English as

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a second language, but there are a lot.

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Okay, now let's talk about the history

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of English. The first form of English

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appeared in the 5th century AD.

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Today, we call this early English Old

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English. Old English was very different

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from Modern English. I can't understand

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Old English. In the 11th century, Old

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English became Middle English. Middle

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English is a little closer to Modern

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English, but it's still very different.

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Finally, Modern English began at the end

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of the 14th century, but English

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continues to change, so today's English

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looks a little different from the

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English of the past few centuries.

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Another important thing to know about

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English is that other languages have

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influenced it a lot. So, which

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languages? Well, for example, some

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experts say that almost 30% of English

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words come from Latin and almost 30% of

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English words come directly from French.

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That means that almost 60% of Modern

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English words come from Latin or French.

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That's a big influence. Also, around 6%

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of English words come from Greek, and

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there are many words from other

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languages, too. But, what language

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family does English belong to? English

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is a Germanic language. That means

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English is is

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to languages such as German, Dutch, and

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Swedish. However, English speakers can't

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understand these other languages. If I

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hear German or Dutch, I don't understand

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anything. English is related to these

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languages, but they're very different.

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For example, Americans who only speak

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English can usually understand much more

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Spanish than German. That seems strange

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because English and Spanish are not

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related, but English and German are

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related. The reason why English speakers

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can understand many words from Spanish,

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French, or Italian is because these

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languages have many cognates. Cognates

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are words that have the same origin. For

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example, in English, we have the word

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patience, and in Spanish, this word is

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paciencia. These words look very similar

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because they're cognates. So, if an

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English speaker hears the Spanish word

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paciencia, they can probably understand

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the meaning. Okay, one last interesting

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thing about English is that it has many,

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many words. Some people say that English

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is the language with the most words. I

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think this is probably true because

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English has taken many words from other

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languages, like I said before. All

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right, now I'm going to ask you some

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questions about the video to see if you

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understood. Write your answers in a

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comment down below. Number one, when did

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Old English appear? Number two, what

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language family does English belong to?

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And number three, what are cognates?

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Okay, before we go, remember to sign up

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for our $1 listening practice seminars

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and download our free listening time

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podcast to practice your listening

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skills. And of course, subscribe to the

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channel, click on the bell, and follow

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us on Instagram. I'll see you next time.