Education in Russia.
Everyone in our country has the right to education. It is said in our Constitution. But it is not only a right, it is a duty, too. Every boy and every girl in Russia must go to school, that is they must get a full secondary education. So, when they are 6 or 7 years old they begin to go to school. There are thousands of schools in Russia. There are schools of general education, where the pupils study Russian (or a native language), Literature, Mathematics, History, Biology, Geography, Music, Foreign languages. There is also a number of specialized schools, where the pupils get profound knoledge of foreign languages, or Maths, or Physics. After finishing 9 classes of the secondary school the young people can continue their education at different kinds of vocational or technical schools, colleges. They not only learn general subjects, but receive a speciality there. Having finished a secondary or a vocational, or a technical school, young people can start working, or they may enter an institute or a university. By the way, some people think, that professional trainings makes it easier to get a higher education. As for high schools, there are a lot of them in our country. Some of them train teachers, others - doctors, engineers, architectors, actors and so on. Many institutes have evening and extra-mural departments. That gives the students an oportunity to study at an institute without leaving their jobs at plants or factories.
Learning foreign language
Foreign languages are absolutely necessary for us no-wadays because of our growing international contacts with all the countries of the world. There are many reasons why we begin to study foreign language. One of them is to be able to communi-cate with other people who use this language. We may be planning to travel in one or two countries where the lan-guage is spoken. If we know the language of a foreign country, we can talk to its people and understand what they are saying to us. If we are working in any branch of science, we naturally wish to read scientific books and magazines in other languages. Making business nowadays also means knowing foreign languages because of the gro-wing international business contacts. Knowing foreign lan-guages helps people of different countries to develop mutual friendship and understanding. We can also make our intellectual and cultural horizons wider through con-tacts with people of another culture. It is also very inte-resting to read foreign literature in the original. We can also read foreign newspapers and magazines and to un-derstand films in foreign languages without any help. Learning foreign languages is compulsory in all the secondary and higher schools in our country. English is a very popular language. People use it in many parts of the world and there is a lot of business correspondence and literature in English. I think, it is very important to know at least one fore-ign language - English, German, French, Spanish or any other one.
LEARNING FOREIGN LANGUAGE
The great German poet Goethe once said: He who know no foreign language does not know his own one. Learning foreign languages is specially important nowadays. Some people learn foreign languages because they need them in their work, others travel abroad, for the third studying languages is a hobby. Every year thousands of people from Russia go to different countries as tourists or to work. They can not go without knowing the language of the country they are going to. A modern engineer or even a worker can not work with an imported instrument or a machine if he is not able to read the instruction how to do it. Ordinary people need language to translation the instruction or the manual to the washing-machine or a vacuum-cleaner, medicine or even food-products. Some people are as a rule polyglots. Historians diplomats need some languages for their work. If you want to be a classified specialist you must learn English, the language of international communication. English is one of the world languages. It is the language of progressive science and technology, trade and cultural relations, commerce and business. It is the universal language of international aviation, shipping and sports. It is also the major language of diplomacy. Hundreds and hundreds of books, magazines and newspapers are printed in English, most of the world's mail and telephone calls are in English. Half of the world's scientific literature is written in English. English is spoken by more than 350 million people. Geographically, it is the most widespread language on earth, second after Chinese. It is the official language of the UK, the USA , of Australia and New Zealand, it is used as one of the official languages in Canada, the South Africa. Millions of people study and use English as a foreign language. In our country English is very popular. It is studied at schools, colleges and universities. Learning English is not an easy thing. It is a long process and takes a lot of time and patience. But to know English today is absolutely necessary for every educated person. I want to know English because it's interesting for me to know foreign countries, their cultures and tradition. English will be of great use in my future profession connected with computers.
Learning foreign languages
Somebody said: "English is a language that came from nowhere to conquer the world…" These words are really true and I will prove it. Firstly I would like to talk to you where English comes from. English is a member of the West Germanic subgroup of the Germanic branch of Indo-European language family. Secondly I would like to dwell on some of the chief literary works written in English language in different periods. "Beowulf" is the most important poem in old English. It is remarkable for its sustained grandeur of tone and for the brilliance of its style. The Canterbury Tales were written by Geoffrey Chaucer, "the father of English literature". He added tremendously to the prestige of English language by using it instead of more fashionable French spoken at that time. The third is the King James Bible. It exercised enormous influence on the development of the English language. It remains a classic of English history. But the most important contribution was made by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare's influence on everyday English speech is great, people all over the world quote Shakespeare. The English language arrived in Britain on the point of a sword. That is why there are so many loans in English language. In 1940 Winston Churchill wished to appeal to the hearts and minds of English-speaking people. It was the time of Patriotic war and that it why he used the plain bareness for which Old English is noted. His purpose was to show the independence of English language and English people. It was his celebrated passage which helped people to fight. Now I would like to tell you about Standard English and Regional accents. Received pronunciation is the form of British English pronunciation used by many educated people in every part of Britain. It is thought of a standard form and is often used by the BBC. It is also used in teaching English in many parts of the world. The King's of the Queen's English is a good correct English as it should be spoken. Accent is the sound of a person's pronunciation of the language. It shows where a person comes from and what class he or she belongs to. Cockney is the way of speaking English and it is known as the London dialect. Rhyming slang is a way of speaking, ordinarily popular among cockneys in which a rhyming phrase, or a part of it, is substituted for a standard word. There is a standard form of the language and some dialects in our country too. To my mind, every country needs a standard form of the language because of the contact between people of this country. But there are a lot of loanwords in every language nowadays. Every day for example in advertisements we can hear and see new, incomprehensible, bad words, and they
