13. Studying foreign languages

13. Studying foreign languages

Questions and question words

Which language is the most spoken in the world?
Do you know any English spoken countries?
What are the main reasons for studying foreign languages?
Do you think you will need English for your job?

Read the article
My best teacher was my French teacher Derek Swift. What stuck out (zaujmout) instantly was that he was unconventional – the type of teacher you didn’t expected to see in a school like ours in the south. He was a Northerner with a strong northern accent. One of his responsibilities was looking after the school library. I read such things as Pushkin’s love poems and it was inspiring stuff. He taught us Russian in his spare time. He was a genius at languages / he spoke about 10 or 12. Mr Swift was also different from every others teacher. There was always a twinkle (veselý, šelmovský záblesk) in his eye and he had a sense of humour. He used to put his feet on the desk and covered the blackboard with words during his lessons. You can tell how good he was because there were 24 in our class and in the French exam 21 got top grades.

Are you going to learn any others languages?

Question, question words
Complete the questions with some of these words:
where, which, why, how, who, what, when

1. —— often do you go to the cinema. About once a week.
2. ——- time does the programme start? At nine o’clock.
3. ——- did you close the window? Because I’m cold.
4. ——- colour is Angela’s new car? Red.
5. ——- did you go to town with? Jim and Lucy.
6. ——- newspaper do you want – the Italian one or the English one?
7. —— is Edinburg? It’s in Csotland.
8. —— are you going to clean you room? When this film has finished.
9. —— is your favourite season< I like summer best.
10. —— tall is your sister?

Make questions about the missing information:
1. He speaks ……. languages. {two? three?}
2. We are coming to see you ….. {today? tomorrow? next week?}
3. I’m reading ………. at this moment. {book? newspaper?}
4. I’ve know him for ……… { one yar? two weeks?}
5. We spent our holiday …… last year. {in Spain? in France? }