领域：垂类场景 · 教育

Why learn English

Learning English is a good way to improve your professional future and expand your horizons. More and more people around the world use English as a way to connect with people from different cultural backgrounds. The English language has become the lingua franca of international communication, trade, business, diplomacy, and many other areas. Mastering the language will open doors for you, both expected and unexpected.

According to the EF English Proficiency Index (EPI), the world's largest ranking of countries and regions by English skills, more than 1 billion people speak English as a first or second language, and hundreds of millions as a third or fourth. English proficiency helps scientists, researchers, tourists, and business professionals exchange information. On an individual level, people who speak English get better jobs, earn more, and have access to more of the information available online.

6 benefits of learning English

If you're still not convinced of the benefits of learning English, here are a few more:

1. Learning English will build up your confidence. Mastering something you've struggled with for years is extremely satisfying.
2. Learning English boosts your career by allowing you to follow the latest trends in your field, attend conferences, and evolve into positions with an international remit.
3. Learning a new language keeps your mind healthy, stimulating your memory and increasing mental flexibility.
4. Learning English gives you access to more of the world's knowledge, and from a wider variety of perspectives. Over half of the material online is in English, and all of the world's top scientific journals are published in that language.
5. Learning English makes international travel easier and more fulfilling. You'll be less dependent on guides and translators, able to explore the world on your own.
6. Learning English allows you to meet people from other places and expand your cultural understanding. The world is more interconnected than ever before.

How to learn English

The secret to learning English quickly isn’t much of a secret: increase your exposure to the language. Ideally, you should be surrounded by English 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That’s why going abroad is such an effective way to learn a language. But if travel isn’t an option, you can still create an English immersion environment at home. Do it by reading in English, listening to English podcasts, watching TV in English, speaking to people in English at work, making English-speaking friends online, etc. At first, this sounds daunting. But you can do it if you take it one step at a time.

1. First, think of something you’re already doing every day. Let’s pretend you like to jog while listening to a sports podcast.
2. Now look for a sports podcast in English. Google is your friend.
3. When you jog tomorrow, listen to it. Congratulations, you’ve just converted 30 minutes of your day into English!

Repeat this procedure to convert chunks of your day bit by bit. If you read the newspaper, switch to an English-language paper. If you watch football, watch the match on a British TV station. If you cook, use recipes from American websites. If you make pottery, find an English-language pottery forum where you discuss your craft. Everything you’re already doing can be done in English, guaranteed.

You can also start to do new things in English too, of course. Do you have English-speaking colleagues? Send them friendly e-mails. Chat with them in the empty minutes before a meeting begins. Are there foreign tourists in your city? Find out if you can volunteer at one of the sights they visit: a museum, a park, a monument. Or maybe your airport or train station needs volunteers. You can also go hang out at one of those places informally and help people who look lost. Just be careful not to be creepy about it. Is there an expat community in your city? Look on Facebook for American, British, or Canadian cultural associations. They may have monthly or bi-monthly meetups you can attend. These tend to be informal events in a bar or restaurant and are open to everyone.

How to stay motivated while learning English

One of the most common mistakes people make when trying to learn English is underestimating how long it will take. Everyone says children are natural language learners, but they’re two years old before they even start to form sentences. Learning English is a long-term goal. Be patient with yourself. Staying motivated over months or years is a major challenge, but it’s essential if you want to master English. A huge body of research proves it.

Here are a few tips to keep your motivation high: 

1. Do things in English that you already like doing. If you’re having fun while speaking English, you’ll be less inclined to quit. Follow your passions.
2. Make English a habit. Build it in to your everyday life. The less you have to think about it, the more likely you are to use English every day. Automatically. 
3. Keep a learning journal. Write down what you're doing to improve your English, and keep track of milestones like your first movie in English without subtitles, your first meeting in English, or your first date with an English speaker.
4. Award yourself prizes for accomplishing specific goals. The prizes can be big or small. A new shirt. A candy bar. A trip to London. Your brain is wired to detect which types of activities deliver rewards. If you make English one of those activities, it will automatically motivate you to learn English.
5. Keep track of the numbers. Our free standardized English test will help you. Take it every 6 months.

How to measure your English level

It is important to measure your English level before you start studying and then regularly throughout the learning process. Otherwise, you can't tell how much progress you're making. There are many different ways of measuring progress. The best way of establishing a benchmark is to test yourself against the goal you are trying to reach. For example, if your goal is to be able to make presentations at work in English, then you need to try and make a presentation at work in English and see how it goes. Take some notes afterwards about how you felt and what you need to work on. This will be your benchmark. After 6 months of learning English and working towards this goal, make another presentation and see how much you've improved.

If you've got a more generic goal, taking a standardized English test(the TOEFL or IELTS) is a good way to get a benchmark of your current level and keep track of your progress moving forward.

翻译考点：
考点1：“lingua franca”推荐译为“通用语”或“国际通用语言”。
考点2：“remit”在“positions with an international remit”中推荐译为“职责范围”或“工作范畴”。
考点3：“standardized English test”应保持“标准化英语测试”表达。
考点4：“EF English Proficiency Index (EPI)”应译为“英孚英语熟练度指标 (EPI)”