       There are many peoples in the world, and most of them have their own languages. Some languages are spoken by many people, for example, Russian or Chinese. Other languages are spoken by a few people, for example, languages of Native Americans, Maori languages. Some languages are very difficult because of their grammar and phonetics, while other languages are easier. But anyway learning a foreign language is a difficult task which takes a lot of time and energy.
       But people all over the world study foreign languages because there are many reasons for that. First of all, nowadays no man can be considered an educated one without any knowledge of development and new inventions in his field. We live in the era when knowledge grows in an explosion-like way. The informational overflow is so great that the demand in broad specialists grows smaller. The most important demand to a specialist now is not to know everything in his field, but to be able to find the necessary information. It is believed that the knowledge of the humankind doubles every decade or even sooner. More and more often it is possible to keep up with the world standards only through reading articles, journals and books in foreign languages. That's why specialists study the languages of the highly developed countries such as France, Germany and the USA. The most important of these lan¬guages is the English language, because a lot of people speak English as a foreign language, many scientists write their articles in it English is now the language used in computers. Of course, mere are versions in many languag¬es but the newest and the most updated computers use English to interact with the user. About half of the post and scientific books are in English. English is the official language of many international organisations such as the Olympic Committee, the Organisation of the United Nations and so on.
       The knowledge of foreign languages helps people understand each other when they travel. The most important languages are French and English. They are the languages of international communication. Many people, whose languages are different, can understand each other if they speak English or French. Our cities are visited by millions of tourists. If one knows a foreign language, he can help tourists around the city.
       Another reason worth being mentioned is that it is interesting to learn a language, to learn the origins of words. When you learn a foreign language, you understand your own language better, because you can compare the two languages. You learn about the words which have come from other languages into Russian. On the other hand, learning a language is learning the life of other countries. The pupils learn about the geography, history and arts of the countries where some foreign language is spoken. Great Britain and the USA are very interesting countries. The culture of the English-speaking world is rich, there are many great writers, artists and engineers in English-speaking countries. Everyone knows Shake¬speare, Bums, Mark Twain, Robin Hood and Sherlock Holmes.
       I study English at school, and I am happy with the fact, because English is used very widely. English is spoken by many people as their native language all over the world: in Great Britain, the USA, the Republic of Ire¬land, Malta, India, Bangladesh, Philippines, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Tonga, Australia, many African states, Canada, Jamaica, several small states in South America. Many states call English their official language. Since many people speak English as their native language in such highly developed countries as the USA, Great Britain and Canada, people in other countries study English to communicate with the English-speakers.
       Now the knowledge of English is considered a necessary feature of a good employee. Those who want to find an interesting and a well-paid job must know English. But their chances are higher if they know two or three languages. Maybe I shall begin studying French when I enter a university.