My English Essay Competition with British Council (2007)

Learning English, too late or not??

What are the ordinary things that pass in your mind about Britain? Maybe the history of the kingdom, the famous Big Ben clock, modern fashion, football will appear in your mind when you imagine “Britain”.

There are a lot of things to be known about Britain. Starting from politics section, United Kingdom is the one of the countries in the world that submits to monarchy constitutional.  From economic section, Britain doesn’t use Euro, it still uses Pound sterling which is the most expensive currency in the world. In literature Britain has born some big writers such as J.K Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Dickens, and William Shakespeare. There is some uniqueness about this special country.

 Some people with no background in English which is mean that they are common people will say that English is the special part of Britain. English language is the most important thing to be learned by people in the world. Why?  Because English still occupies the position of the most important language for being learned as an international communication. English used for communication in education, business, work life, films, books, tourism and culture exchange.

English can be divided into British English and American English. Actually, American English has grown from British English. At the past, People from Britain became immigrants and stayed in the place that we known as America. Britain English has been adapted by American English, so as we can see now there are some resemblances between these two languages. Some differences will visible when we use to say ground floor in British and first floor for American, candy in America and sweet in British.

Why did English spread to the world and become an international language? This question will be known if we look back to the Britain history about the spreading of Britain empire period.

In its history, Britain became the biggest county that did an expansion.

As a small island, British tried to find a new island for their generation if someday the land of Britain is full of people they still can live without  having population explosion in Britain. They searched some place and grew it. Some countries like Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand have been raised well by Britain. As you can see the country that has been raised by British has gotten some progress. The progress has developed the country and joined them into Dominion. It changed the adaptation of the people who stayed in there too, especially the way of communication and social interaction.  English language, slow but sure began to grow in the country which conquered by Britain.  Britain did not try to drain its territory but tried to develop it. When the time arrived Britain would let its territory develop by their own way to grow.

As a person who lives in the globalization era, we always follow the era and synchronize our life with the environment and technology. English has become the part of the world social life. In our life English becomes more valuable to be learned. If we buy electronics we will find that the manual is written in English, if we watch films we will find that the subtitle must be read in English, if we want to go to work life the company will search someone that can speak English fluently. In this general case of life we must realize that this modern era needs people with English skill. 

It will help you to grow not only in social communication but follow to be success. British are surrounded by people who are growing fast in technology. Following English equal with following Technology. The fact has been seen through the past. British are the pioneer of industrial revolution and have born some famous discoverer such as James Watt, Charles Darwin, Sir Isaac Newton.   

Some impacts of English language influence in world education too. In every country, the bilingual schools starts to appear increasingly. A lot of schools are racing to make a better education, they are trying to teach their students in English. The schools want to make their students follow the international movement. Some schools think that they can make a better future if their students understand about English. This case proves that English is needed in every class in social life. Although they have different purpose to learn English, they want to reach one point. The point is being success in British way.

 Some people like to stay and study in British to learn the British daily life. Some people do not want to leave their country because the prices of living in British take so expensive. So, the alternative is learning English in their country.

There is an Indonesian proverb said that “language reflects the personality of a country”. This proverb makes a hint for Indonesian people.  They see that British is a gorgeous country with some surplus which growing fast in that country. So, they see a probability that Britain will bring again the key of success like last time before. They believe if they follow the progress of the modern country such as England, they will get some advantages and communicate with the world.

English language has brought Britain to be respected. Almost all people in the world can speak and write in English. However hard and slow to learn it, people never give up because we can see how much is the devotee in English year by year. English has been grown almost one hundred years but people with different ages still try to learn it as though it will never end to be learned. Ages will end but study is forever as long as we still alive.

Nothing in this world is late. We can say it late if someone never tries to learn about something. One thing that we must believe that effort will always give something useful for you. So, learning English now it is not too late because knowledge never ends.

Source : www.wikipedia.org

Meriska Yapto

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