I'm Rob. What has she known the Maya word, Neil, that's it. And that means? My name's Neil. Ah, Neil. Here's a question for you. Can you speak any languages other than English, of course? I think you can. In poco español, that means a little bit of Spanish. Some Japanese, which I tried at the beginning, and also a little bit of Czech language. Dobriden. Yeah, very impressive给人印象深刻的. So, what tips can you give for learning to speak another language?
Well, practice, practice, practice. And don't be afraid of making mistakes as I no doubt have. Of course. Well, my aim目的 this year is to master控制 the Spanish language. Master means to learn thoroughly十分地. Muy bien. Muy bien. Well, you're not alone. A survey by the British Council found learning a language is a New Year's resolution坚决 for about one in five Britons in 2018. So learning Spanish is a good start, Rob. But do you know approximately近似地 how many languages there are in the world altogether完全?
Are there A, 70, B, 700 or C, 7,000? Ah, well, I know there are many, but surely当然 not 7,000. So I'm going to say B, 700, but don't expect me to learn all of them. I won't, Rob, but I will give you the answer later. So we all know learning another language is a good thing. It brings us many benefits利益. Yes, we can communicate with people from other countries. And when we're travelling, we can understand what signs and notices say, so we don't get lost.
That's right. But many scientists also believe that knowledge of another language can boost推进 your brain power. A study of monolingual and bilingual能说两种语言的 speakers suggests speaking two languages can help slow down the brain's decline消减 with age. All good reasons. But Neil, learning another language is hard. It would take me years and years to become fluent流畅的 in, say, Mandarin. And by fluent流畅的, I mean speak very well without difficulty. Well this depends on your mother tongue. In general总的, the closer the second language is to the learner's native tongue and culture, in terms of vocabulary, sounds or sentence structure, the easier it will be to learn.
But whatever the language, there's so much vocabulary to learn. You know, thousands and thousands of words. Maybe not, Rob. Professor Stuart Webb, a linguist语言学家 from the University of Western Ontario, may be able to help you. He spoke to BBC Radio 4's more or less programme and explained that you don't need to do that. For language learners in a foreign language setting安装, so for example, if you were learning French in Britain or English in Japan, students may often really struggle努力 to learn more than 2,000, 3,000 words after many years of study.
So for example, there was a study in Taiwan recently that showed that after nine years of study, about half of the students had still failed to learn the most frequent 1,000 words. Now they knew lower frequency频率 words, but they hadn't mastered控制 those most important words. Hello Rob, don't waste your time trying to learn every single word. Professor Webb spoke there about research研究 that showed students knew lower frequency频率 words but weren't learning enough high frequency频率 words. Right, and frequency频率 here means the number of times something happens.
So the important words to learn are the high frequency频率 ones. And how many are there exactly? Here's Professor Stuart Webb again. For example, with English, I would suggest if you learn the 800 most frequent lemmas, which is a word and it's inflections弯曲, that will account说明 for about 75% of all of the English language so that learning those 800 words first will provide the foundation基础 for which you may be able to learn the lower frequency words. Fascinating迷人的 stuff.
And good to know, I just need to learn about 800 words or what he calls lemmas. Yes, a lemma is the simplest form or base卑鄙的 form of a word and the inflection弯曲 here refers to how the base卑鄙的 word is changed according使一致 to its use in a sentence. Knowing these things gives you a foundation基础. That's the basics from which your language learning学习 will develop发展. Simple. Thank goodness优良, I am learning just one new language. But how many languages could you potentially潜在地 be learning, Rob?
Earlier I asked you, approximately近似地, how many languages there are in the world altogether完全? Are there a) 70, 700 7000? And I said 700. Was I right? No, Rob, you were wrong. There are around 7000 recognised认出 languages in the world but UNESCO has identified认出 two and a half thousand languages which it claims声称 are at risk风险 of extinction消失. A sobering thought, Neil. Now shall we remind ourselves of some of the English vocabulary we've heard today, starting with master?
To master控制 a new skill in this context means to learn thoroughly十分地 or learn well. Rob hopes单足跳跃〔跳行〕 to master控制 Spanish before he starts a new job in Madrid. Hopefully that's news to me, Neil. But it would be good to be fluent流畅的 in Spanish, or any language, or to speak it fluently流利地. That speaking it very well and without difficulty. Now our next word was frequency. Here we are referring to high and low frequency频率 words, so it means how often they occur发生.
Examples of high frequency频率 words are 'it', 'the', and 'and'. And our next word is inflections弯曲. These are the changes to the basic form of words according使一致 to their function功能 in a sentence, such as adding an 's' to the end of a word to make it plural. And don't forget 'lema', which is the simplest form or base form of a word before an inflection弯曲 is added. And finally, 'foundation基础', which means the basics your learning学习 grows from.