Why learning English is easy and fun

I have the privilege and honour to work as a British diplomat.  That means I spend a lot of time learning foreign languages.

Before each of my last five postings (in Vienna, Moscow, Berlin, Kyiv and Istanbul) I spent between four weeks and nine months on intensive language preparations. If you want to understand a country and its people, speaking the language helps.

I’ll be blogging later on how I learned Turkish – an elegant, complex and beautiful language.

Meanwhile the English language continues to develop as an important means of international communication.  Want to do business?  Work in tourism or hospitality?  Travel?  English helps.

One of the great things about English is that there are lots of ways to learn.  You can do as much or as little as you have time for.  For example, the “BBC Learning English” website is packed with terrific material.  I’ve just opened it to find Lesson 5 of the “intermediate” course, which is called “Working with the Colleague from Hell”.  You can subscribe to “BBC Learning English” tweets at @bbcle.  I often retweet them on my @leighturnerFCO twitter account.

Our good friends the British Council, meanwhile, have an ambition to provide learning and teaching materials to all teachers and learners of English worldwide. If you have children, you may want to check out the Council’s free on-line English-language learning site for young children. The British Council also have on-line resources for adults – including apps for mobile phones.

What’s my favourite way of learning a language?  I like watching films and reading books  in foreign languages – especially fast-paced, easy thrillers – to build comprehension and vocabulary.  As well as their English-language work, the British Council also have a wonderful arts programme here in Turkey.  Check it out.

I never met anyone who could learn a language without a lot of hard work. But with these resources, you can start learning English today – or brushing up what you have already.  Every little bit helps.  Good luck.

PS I mentioned that English is developing.  If you’re interested in how languages evolve – and how to make sure you never mix up the words “oral” and “verbal again” – you might like my blog from 2010, Brainiacs, dwarf planets, podcasts and tweets in Kyiv.