The Linguistic Culture   42

LECTURE № 1

The Linguistic Culture

The course is called “The Linguistic culture” and is mostly devoted to the English Language. The English language nowadays comprises (охватывает) a very large number of people across the globe. Nearly one quarter of the world’s population, or between 1.2 and 1.5 billion people, are already fluent or competent in English. The British Council estimates that about 375 million people speak English as the first language, another 375 million speak it regularly as the second language, and about 750 million more people speak English as a foreign language. Today, English is considered the universal language for business, international communications, entertainment, tourism, trade and technology. The majority of all resources on the internet are in English, affecting people to learn English to take full advantage of it. Above all, learning English is important for being able to exchange views and make friends with people all over the world. English has an official or special status in more than 70 countries. In Great Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand the English Language is the native one. Because of the lack of the time I’ll have to concentrate on the English language of Britain and the United Sates.