Reasons for Learning Professional English

English is not just used in everyday situations. 【小题1】 There are many reasons for learning professional English, even if you are not looking for an English-speaking job right away.

You will have better job choices. Many large businesses now require that you speak English, especially if they deal with any international customers or partners. 【小题2】

【小题3】 No matter where you are in the world, since so many people know at least a little bit of English, you can use the language to communicate.

You will have an easier time getting promotions. Even if you start at the bottom of a company where knowing English is not that important, you will have an easier time getting promoted if you know English. Many managers and other important company members must know English.

You will have the chance to work abroad. 【小题4】 Then getting a job there will be important. Knowing English will give you an important advantage when you are applying.

【小题5】 Let’s go for it!

Many linguists (语言学家) predicted in the 1960s that accents would disappear in America. As Americans moved across the country, they said English would become standardized, meaning that it would be spoken the same way everywhere. But sociolinguist William Labov of the University of Pennsylvania says, while some accents in America are disappearing, others are growing stronger.

One of these regional accents is Native American English, known as the “rez accent”. It is spoken in many Indigenous communities in the United States and Canada. The word “rez” is shortened from the word “reservation”. Reservations are areas of land in the United States and Canada that are kept separate for Native Americans or Indigenous people to live in.

Kalina Newmark is from the Sahtu Region in Canada’s Northwest Territories. Her ancestors were called the Dene people, but she does not speak her tribe’s language of Slavey. “My mom can understand and speak it, but she didn’t pass it on to us. She learned it from her great-grandmother. My grandmother chose not to pass along the language because she wanted to make it easier for her children when they went to school,” Newmark said. Newmark went to Dartmouth College in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. The school is known for its Indigenous student population. There, she met other Indigenous students from all over North America. Newmark noticed something very interesting about everyone’s pronunciation. The English they spoke shared some similar qualities, although they came from different language backgrounds. These especially could be heard during times of socializing. The accent was even present for students who had not learned their ancestral language. Indigenous communities speak different English dialects, but these ways of speaking shared prosody (韵律学) patterns.

The rez accent possibly came from different Native tribes interacting in the 1880s when Indigenous peoples were placed on reservations. The Native American and First Nations children were forced into school and had to speak English. The rez accent also might have had its beginning in the 1950s and 1960s when the US government closed some reservations and sent Native American into cities. The children were forced to speak English and interact with each other. “They were all learning English together,” said Newmark, “and making an English of their own.”