English is, without a doubt, one of the most popular and useful languages in the entire world. Spoken almost universally across many cultures as at the very least a second language, it is one of the few languages that almost transcends borders in this way.
Needless to say, knowing how to speak it is going to be useful anywhere in the world. With 400 million native speakers and over 1.5 billion who speak it as a second language, it’s one of the best languages to be able to speak with anyone, anywhere in the world.
All of this to say nothing of speaking it somewhere where it’s one of the primary languages!
Does Canada speak English?
In Canada, over 65% of the population, some 21 million Canadians, speak English as their first language, with over 85% of the country’s population being able to speak English. While this might sound unusually low for the primary language of the country, there is a logical explanation.
Canada is a primarily English-speaking country that also speaks French in certain areas. However, much of this is contributed to by Quebec, with 6.1 million of the 7.1 native French speakers in Canada living here.
Outside of Quebec, however, the language still sees some use, with just over 20% of the population speaking French as their mother tongue, and a total of one in three Canadians being able to speak French.
How to learn English for beginners
English can be quite an unfriendly language to learn for beginners, thanks to it’s many regional quirks and mannerisms that are different depending on where in the world you go.
As well as this, English is notorious for having strange spellings, pronunciations and grammatical rules that seem at first to follow no logic at all! English was originally spoken in England and was a combination of Germanic, Norse, and Romance languages all in one.
While each of these languages on their own has their own rules, English takes parts of each one to form its own set of rules. This does make it a challenge, but is also a part of why learning English can be fun!
Learning English is a necessity if you want to spend any amount of time in Canada, but that doesn’t mean it has to be a chore, especially if you enjoy languages.
How to learn English for kids
Children are naturally curious and also can be at their best when it comes to learning new things. This is why one of the best times to start learning a language is when you are a child, as being raised learning the language will make using it much easier throughout your life.
However, children can lose attention easily if they aren’t immediately taken by something, which is why finding the most interesting way for them to learn English is important.
Some of the best ways to teach kids English is through the use of games and involved activities, which can teach them English without making it seem like just another school subject to learn. Another way that can make things more fun is to learn English with TV series and films, even using subtitles.
While it may seem like this doesn’t make much sense if you are just going to read the subtitles, hearing the spoken English and reading the subtitles in your native language will subconsciously link the two, helping you learn.
How to learn English for adults
Learning a new language as an adult doesn’t have to be any more challenging than learning it as a kid, though! As the saying goes, the best time to plant a tree was 10 years ago, but the second-best time to plant a tree is now.
Learning any language as an adult has advantages and disadvantages, and this is no different for English. On one hand, adults are often much more able to focus and commit to something like learning a language. On the other hand, they often have much less time!
This is why learning English as an adult can require more focus and use of effective methods. While choosing to learn English with TV series and films is still a good way for supplementing your learning in your free time, you will likely also need a more focused way of learning it.
As an adult in general, the two best options available to you are using a language learning app, or using a tutoring service like Superprof.
If you just want to learn English grammar in its simplest form then either method is good, but if you want to learn proper conversational English, tutoring is likely to be your best bet.
Check out these resources to help with learning!
Can you learn English for free?
The short answer is yes, if you have the time and energy, choosing to learn English for free is difficult but not impossible. The main reason it can be challenging is that you will likely have very limited opportunity to directly practise and get feedback on your conversational skills.
While there are many apps that can help you learn vocabulary, as well as films and TV shows that can help your familiarity and grammar, conversational skills are arguably the most important part of learning any language.
Actually being able to speak the language to someone who can help and give you feedback on it is invaluable, and is why a more direct learning approach is often favoured. This is especially true of more complicated languages such as English.
Can I learn English at home?
Luckily, whatever method you select of learning English, it is very possible to learn at home. Even if you choose to combine all three of these main methods, apps and movies can be used from the comfort of your own home, and with the advent of online tutoring even that can be done at home.
Is it easy to learn English in Canada?
When it comes to how to learn Canadian English, there are very few differences compared to how to learn English in the UK, the USA, or any other English-speaking country.
Aside from the accent and local phrases, there are very limited differences in how to speak Canada English compared to the forms used in Britain or America.
So if you want to learn how to speak Canadian English, all the grammar and conversational skills you would learn from any other form of English remain the same.
What type of English is used in Canada?
Despite this, Canadian English is technically a distinct dialect. Aside from the many distinctive Canadian accents, there are some differences in terms of spelling compared to both American and British English, with both being drawn upon for Canadian English.
Notably, they use the “u” in words like “colour” and “favour” that Americans would leave out, and spell words like “centre” and “theatre” with a “re” at the end instead of an “er” as they would in American English.
There are of course many more spelling differences between Canadian English and both British and American English, far more than one could hope to go into with just blanket statements.
Ultimately, you will need to explore them all and more as you learn the language, with all its complexities and intricacies. A daunting task, to be sure, but one that can be approached with the right tools.
One of the most valuable of these tools is private tutoring. When it comes to how to learn Canadian English, as with any other language, tutoring is the most effective way bar none.
As well as allowing you to have your learning tailored directly to your learning style, it also offers unparalleled opportunity to practice and improve conversational skills.
Superprof tutors are all experts in their subject, and there are a wide range of English language tutors to choose from. Each of them has a different teaching style to offer you a great diversity of choice in how you want to learn.
They can help you with all the complexities of English that are very difficult for any app to teach on its own, and give you the invaluable conversational practise you will need to speak English in Canada.
English may be a complicated language to learn, but with a Superprof tutor, it doesn’t have to be hard!
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