6 Minute English – 42 languages

Rob
Hello I’m Rob. Welcome to 6 Minute English. I’m joined today by Finn.

Finn
Hello. Or, as we say in Chinese, “你好，我是 Finn”, which means “Hello, I’m Finn”.

Rob
Ah, 你好. Where did you learn to speak Chinese?

Finn
At university. Though I must say I’m a bit rusty now!

Rob
Rusty? You look OK, but what you really mean is you’re not as fluent as you were before!

Finn
That’s right.

Rob
Learning, and practising, a language requires effort. But the children of the school in London that we’re going to be hearing about today had no choice. They’re from different countries and no less than 42 languages are spoken in the playground.

Finn
It’s incredible! In the playground – that’s the area in the schoolyard where children play during their break between lessons – they speak 42 languages?! Wow.

Rob
Yes. Of course they all have to learn English because they live here. But more on that in a moment. First, as the tradition goes, I’m going to challenge you with a question, Finn.

Finn
OK. I’m ready or… 我准备好了!

Rob
Huh?

Finn
I’m ready!

Rob
OK. Which country has the most official languages? Is it:

a) India

b) Nigeria

c) South Africa

Finn
Good question. I would say India or Nigeria… Let’s say Nigeria.

Rob
OK. I will reveal the answer at the end of the programme! So let’s talk about Byron Court, a school with 600 pupils in north-west London. The school gets high marks for integration.

Finn
Marks – so here you mean scores in tests or exams. They get high marks for integration – integration means bringing people together – as they have pupils from all over the world.

Rob
Yes, they come from places as far apart as Iraq, Somalia, India, Romania and Slovakia. Many are children of immigrants and refugees.

Finn
So how difficult is it for these children to learn English?

Rob
Well, let’s listen to this pupil from Byron Court. Where did she learn her first words in English?

Pupil, Byron Court school, London
When I was two years old I went to nursery and then I learnt a bit of English there. And when I came here I got to learn all my English.

Finn
She says she began to learn English at nursery – that’s a place where very young children are looked after while their parents are at work. 

Rob
Byron Court’s head teacher – the person in charge of a school – believes children feel integrated because she tries to celebrate all the different cultures and avoids suggesting one culture is better than the other.

Finn
It all sounds very nice, Rob, but I wonder what happens in the classroom. I mean, many pupils are learning basic words in English while, at the same time, studying things like science and maths also in English. So, quite a challenge?

Rob
It is indeed a big problem.

Finn
So does this lower educational standards? Those are the knowledge and skills students should have at a particular level.

Rob
Yes it does, but not for long, says Martyn Pendergast, educational officer at Brent Council, that’s the area where the school is located. Listen out for the verb he uses which means testing children’s performance.

Martin Pendergast, educational officer at Brent Council
In Brent our children perform just below national averages when they are assessed at seven years old. But by the time they’re 11 they’ve caught up with national standards, and at 16 they’re flying.

Finn
He says they are assessed – which means tested and given scores – when they are seven years old. At that time they have worse results than children in other British schools.

Rob
But by the time they celebrate their 11th birthday, they’ve caught up – they’ve become equal with pupils of their age elsewhere in the country.

Finn
And by 16, he says, “they are flying”, which is a nice way to describe these children’s progress. It’s good for them because they end up as bilingual adults – speaking two languages fluently.

Rob
So their effort pays off. At Byron Court the concern is more about pupils who are native speakers of English.

Finn
Parents worry about their children not learning much.

Rob
Maybe the best thing is for everybody to try to learn a second language. Not a bad thing in today’s small world.

Finn
Talking about learning languages, I want to know if I got the answer to your question right. The question was about the country with the most official languages.

Rob
And the options I put to you were India, Nigeria or South Africa.

Finn
And I said Nigeria. But… maybe I think India now. Can I change my mind?

Rob
You can if you want because you’d still be wrong.

Finn
Oh, no, really?

Rob
The country with most official languages is the Republic of South Africa with 11 languages.

Finn
Eleven!

Rob
Interestingly India has 18 languages that are recognised by its constitution and can be considered as official, however, the difference is that each language is recognised as the official language of a certain area such as Kashmir, for example.

Finn
OK. Right. So I was kind of right in a different way.

Rob
The overall official language is Hindi.

Finn
Fascinating! Well, lots of languages to learn, in any case.

Rob
I’ll stick with English for now. It’s time to wrap up.

Finn
OK.

Rob
So let’s remember some of the words we explained today.

Finn
They were:

rusty – (of a language) not as fluent as before
playground – area in a school where children play between lessons
marks – score in a test or exam
integration – bringing together
nursery – place where very young children are looked after while their parents are at work
head teacher – person in charge of a school
educational standards – the knowledge and skills students should have at a particular level
assessed – tested and given scores
caught up with – became equal with others in the same level
bilingual – being able to speak two languages fluently

Rob
Merci beaucoup. Thank you, Finn. That’s it for today. But please do log on to bbclearningenglish.com to find more 6 Minute English. Bye for now!

Finn
Bye or, as we say in China, 再见!