Assignment 1

• Read the following passage, using aspects of phonology such as

connected speech, word stress, sentence stress, intonation to make
your speech as fluently and naturally as possible. Record your speech
and upload the file on the LMS.
• Remember to introduce your name, give some information about your
ID number, learning group.

• Due date: 30.05.2022

Mother tongue is the language which a person speaks from the birth. The language in which
you uttered your first words. The language which you first heard when you were in the
warmth of your mother's womb. The language in which you first started thinking and the
language which holds the essence of your homeland and your ethnicity.

I believe, a language plays a better bonding role than religion. For example, in case of two
people, when their religion is same but if their languages are different, they will be different
in every other way. And if their language is same but religions are different, they will still
have so much to cherish among themselves. This can be understood in context of people
speaking Punjabi in Pakistan and India. Though divided by borders, four wars and a bitter
history of partition, still in New York suburbs you will find them gelling together as if they
were always one (here religion, nationalities are different but language is same).

Last night, I went out with friends to a Syrian restaurant called Damascus. And I stupidly
asked " Which cuisine do you serve?", it just slipped out of my mind that Damascus is the
capital of Syria and is so much in news these days due to civil unrest. "Damascus, madam,
capital Syria. Syria very beautiful but now lot of war", replied the Syrian waiter in broken
English. We could see the pain in his eyes. I wanted to ask more but could not as they
mainly spoke Arabic.

And then it struck me that I was wasting the golden opportunity to learn another beautiful
language, Arabic. What is the point of living in Dubai and not trying to learn their language
(although English is widely spoken, but Dubai being the multicultural society, you have
here people from all parts of Middle East). Middle East was the cradle of various ancient
civilisations, birth place of three major religions, Islam, Christianity and Judaism. And they
say that people in Middle East were writing Arabic poetry and literature when English had
not even originated. May be learning a new language will help breaking the barriers that
our minds have built over ages.

This world is such a beautiful place, so many cultures, so many languages, so many books
to read, so many places to visit, so many things to learn, and most importantly so many
people to love. All of this and such a short life!!!

So keep loving, keep learning and keep growing......

This is my last blog for BBC learning English blog. It was a beautiful experience writing
my all four blogs. You challenge yourself and each time try to write better than the last
time to keep readers interested in your blogs. And the best part of the whole process is the
comments from the readers from all over the world and it feels so great that you have
touched the heart of someone siting far away from you.