Hello my dear sophomore, this is your home task

I   Topic Vocabulary:

1. Pro

1. be closer to the culture of your partners – быть ближе к культуре твоих партнеров
2. be fluent in English/French – бегло говорить на английском/французском
3. be necessary for an experienced specialist/one’s career – быть необходимым опытному специалисту/для карьеры
4. broaden one’s cultural and intellectual horizons – расширять культурные и интеллектуальные горизонты
5. virtually contact non-Russian people – общаться виртуально с людьми, живущими вне России
6. email pen friends from any foreign country – отправлять электронные письма друзьям из заграницы
7. feel absolutely helpless in communicating with …– чувствовать себя совершенно беспомощным в общении с …
8. feel comfortable anywhere– чувствовать себя комфортно в любой стране
9. give someone an advantage over somebody – давать преимущество перед кем-либо
10. learn something to one’s advantage – почерпнуть для себя что-то полезное
11. no pleasure in looking at menus without understanding what it is about – неприятно смотреть в меню и ничего не понимать
12. not nice to be always dependent on interpreters – неудобно постоянно зависеть от переводчиков
13. not to be called completed without – (образование) нельзя назвать полным без….
14. offer many opportunities – предлагать много возможностей
15. speak several languages fluently– свободно говорить на нескольких языках
16. possibility to be enrolled in/to enter any collage abroad – возможность быть зачисленным/поступить в любой колледж за границей
17. the most widespread/accepted language for a world-wide business – самый распространенный/применимый язык в мировом бизнесе
18. the major language of diplomacy – основной язык дипломатии

2. Con

1.   be a professional in your own field than an amateur in … – лучше быть профессионалом в своей профессии, чем любителем в …

2.      can do a better job than me – может выполнить работу лучше, чем я

3.    easily do without /survive with Russian – легко обойтись без…/выжить со знанием русского языка

4.      hire/take on an interpreter – нанять переводчика

5.      take a lot of one’s time and patience – тратить много своего времени и испытывать терпение

6.      time and money consuming occupation – занятие, отнимающее время и деньги

7.   universal craziness about foreign languages – всеобщее безумие, связанное с изучением иностранных языков

8.      waste time – зря тратить время

1. bar –  [ba:r]  – (coll.) помимо, не считая (исключая), syn. apart from … 

2. bilingual – [bai′liηgwәl] – двуязычный 

3. Breton – [′bret(ә)n] – бретонский язык (один из диалектов Франции) / бретонец 

4. bring up smb (ph.v) – воспитывать, растить, syn. to raise, to rear

5. controversial – [ka:ntrә 'vә∫əl] – спорный

6. employable – [im′plojәbәl] – востребованный, syn. asked-for; needed

7. enroll (Brit. enrol) – [in'roul] – устроить(ся) / поступить в школу (колледж)

8. flexible ['flεksəbәl] approach – гибкий подход

9. gain [′gein] the benefits of/from smth … – получать преимущество в чем-л, syn. score an advantage, receive odds

10. gain culturally – улучшаться / развиваться культурно 

11. handle smth – [′hӕndl] –  справляться с чем-либо, syn. cope with smth

12. literate – [′litәrәt] – грамотный

13. lose oneself in a book – погружаться (= уходить головой) в чтение книги

14. monolingual [ˌmɔnə'lɪŋgw(ə)l] – одноязычный

15. multilingual [ˌmʌltɪ'lɪŋgwəl] – многоязычный, syn: polylingual

16. opt – ['a:pt] –  выбирать (одно вместо другого)

17. pick up (= take in) other languages – легко и быстро осваивать другие языки

18. pick smb up on smth – [pik] – исправлять кого-либо/отчитывать за ошибки

19. stone-mason – ['stoun meisn] – каменщик

20. take on smth – брать(ся) дополнительно за что-л., взваливать на себя (дополнительную работу)

21. trilingualism [traɪ'lɪŋgwəlizm] – трёхъязычие

II Read and translate this text.

A                          Two languages good, three languages even better

     Nine-year-old Naomi Gray is like many British children in that when she gets home from school, she loves to lose herself in a Harry Potter book. What makes her different is that she has a chat to her school friends in French on the bus home, and learns her lessons in Breton.

Naomi is the daughter of Jane and Dug Gray, a translator and stone-mason who live in Brittany in north-west France. They have opted not to bring up their three children bilingually in French and English, but trilingually, by enrolling them in Brittany’s educational system, whereby all lessons, bar English and French, are taught in Breton.

Jane admits that the decision was controversial: ‘Other British parents said: ’How dare you do that? Don’t your children have enough to take on?’ But she saw how quickly the girls absorbed French: ‘I felt sure they could take in another language.’ The girls’ father, Dug, is envious of their abilities. ‘After 16 years in France, I’m comfortable with the language, but the kids still pick me up on my pronunciation and grammar mistakes,’ he says.

It was thought that forcing a child to learn more than one language could slow academic development but according to Professor Colin Baker, a world expert on bilingualism, the Effect is the opposite. The evidence is that bi- and trilingualism actually increases mental capacity and that multilingual children tend to do better at school. The latest research shows that in intelligence tests, children learning two or more languages have higher scores, because as Mr. Baker says, ‘bilingual children have more fluent, flexible and creative thinking and can use two or more words for the same objects and ideas.

Prof. Tony Cline, an educational psychologist specializing in language development in children, says that there might be minor disadvantages in learning two or more languages. ‘The child sometimes applies the rules of one language to another, and so makes mistakes – but these grammatical ‘errors’ are soon outgrown.’ He also says: ‘Multilingual children pick up other languages quickly because they have a more flexible approach and are used to handling different forms of syntax,  grammar, vocabulary, etc.’

By giving your children the option of becoming multilingual, you are offering them far more than just the acquisition of a foreign language, i.e. they become more literate, more confident, and furthermore, they gain culturally. That certainly seems to be the case for the Gray girls: Naomi has successfully taken on German, she also does Breton step dancing and loves singing in Breton and attending dance evenings while Nina takes part in the Breton wrestling.

Prof. Baker says: ‘Multilingual children gain the benefits of literature, ways of thinking and behaving.’ And, he stresses, if parents have the opportunity to give their child the gifts of (38) another language, they should jump at it. Because in today’s global marketplace, multilinguals are far more employable than monolinguals.