English Rewind - 6 Minute English: 42 languages

Hello, Catherine here from BBC Learning English.

Just so you know, this programme is from the BBC Learning English archive

and was first broadcast in December 2014 on our website.

And now, on with the show.

6 Minute English.

From BBC Learning English.

Hello, I'm Rob. Welcome to 6 Minute English.

I'm joined today by Finn.

Hello. Or, as we say in Chinese, Nǐ hǎo, wǒ shì Finn,

which means 'Hello, I'm Finn'.

Ah, nǐ hǎo.

Nǐ hǎo.

Where did you learn to speak Chinese?

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

— Rusty? You look OK. — Mm.

But what you really mean is you're not as fluent as you were before!

That's right.

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.

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.

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.

Mm, OK. I'm ready or wǒ zhǔnbèi hǎole!

Huh?

— I'm ready. — OK.

Which country has the most official languages?

Is it a) India? b) Nigeria? Or c) South Africa?

Good question. I would say India or Nigeria.

Let's say Nigeria.

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 northwest London.

The school gets high marks for integration.

'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.

Yes, they come from places as far apart as Iraq, Somalia,

India, Romania and Slovakia.

Many are children of immigrants and refugees.

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

Well, let's listen to this pupil from Byron Court.

Where did she learn her first words in English?

When I was two years old, I went to nursery

and then I learnt a bit of English there.

And then, when I came here, I got to learn all my English.

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.

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.

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?

It is indeed a big problem.

So does this lower 'educational standards'?

Those are the knowledge and skills

students should have at a particular level.

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'.

In Brent, our children perform just below national averages

when they're 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.

He says they are 'assessed' — which means tested and given scores —

when they're seven years old.

At that time, they have worse results than children in other British schools.

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.

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.

So their effort pays off.

At Byron Court, the concern is more about pupils who are native speakers of English.

Parents worry about their children not learning much.

Maybe the best thing is for everybody to try to learn a second language.

Not a bad thing in today's small world.

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.

Ah, and the options I put to you were India, Nigeria or South Africa?

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

You can if you want, because you'd still be wrong.

Oh, no, really?

The country with most official languages

is the Republic of South Africa with 11 languages.

11, mm!

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.

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

The overall official language is Hindi.

Ah, fascinating! Well, lots of languages to learn, in any case.

I'll stick with English for now.

— It's time to wrap up. — OK.

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

They were rusty,

playground, marks, integration, nursery,

head teacher, educational standards, assessed,

caught up, bilingual.

Merci beaucoup. Thank you, Finn. That's it for today.

But please do log on to BBC Learning English dot com

to find more 6 Minute English. Bye for now!

Bye or, as we say in China, zàijiàn!

6 Minute English.

From the BBC.