Teach English in BAnzhuAng Zhen - Lianyungang Shi

As teachers, one of our duties is to encourage students to improve their English skills, to do so, teachers should be able to help students see one of the most crucial benefits of studying English, in this case, it is the impact that studying English has on the students’ future career. From research and other general statistics, we can see that studying English can influence a student’s future career in two major ways, the first one is for students to have more and better job opportunities, the other one is for students to do the job well once they are hired. The first way English influences students’ future career is by giving them more and better career opportunities. Nowadays, fresh graduates around the world have to be proficient in English, many professions will require job seeking candidates to be fluent in English* such as business consultants, university professors, diplomats, tour guides, scientists, etc. Being equipped with English skills does help them increase the chance of being hired. They can also expand their chance of being promoted within their own company as there could be positions that require them to communicate with foreigners. Further than that, they can also search for more job opportunities abroad. Thus, when there is a shortage of employment in a country, these students whose English is very good will be able to find more jobs outside of their own countries and have more international experience than those who can only speak their native language. Not only that English gives students more and better chances of being hired, but it also helps those who work in the same field earn much more money than the ones who can’t speak English**. Teachers should keep on reminding students that studying English is a lifelong investment, it will require a lot of time and effort but it will be very rewarding in the end. The other way English influences students’ future career is by helping them do the job well. Being fluent in English as a second language speaker helps students make better decisions***. People who switch their brain into using English language while making a decision will be able to make a better decision as there will be less emotional factors involved, they can think more logically when using English instead of using their native language while processing their thoughts. This can help them become outstanding employees as making good decisions will definitely equal good results for the organization. Learning English can help students be better at multitasking****. To learn English as a second language, students have to keep switching from their native language, culture, and knowledge to those in English. This will give their brain a lot of exercises in multitasking which eventually will be quite useful in their career. The ability to multitask will be an advantage and this can help them being promoted to work in the positions which require them to work on many tasks at a time such as manager or team leader position. Learning English helps students develop people skills which are highly crucial for the corporate world. Students who study English are trained to think in other people's perspectives as learning the language not only teaches them about the language itself but also the culture and how native English speakers think. Thus, they learn to see things from others’ points of view. Being good at English can also help students negotiate well, as they are trained to put themselves into someone else’s shoes, they will be able to understand what others want and need better and this can help them become a better negotiator when it comes to contracts and business deals. Students will also become more familiar with ‘foreign’ things including some colleagues who can be totally different from them and hence make them awesome colleagues who can get along with others easily. Being good at English makes students feel more confident with foreigners. Companies and organizations need people who feel confident about themself especially when they have to deal with foreigners within or from other organizations. As globalization and technology make the world smaller and smaller, there is a high chance that employees will have to give a presentation, to negotiate, or to hold a meeting in English. Being confident in their English will help them feel more relaxed around international colleagues, this can make a lot of difference and make them become valuable employees at the company. As we can see, there are a lot of advantages to studying English for students when it comes to the impact that it would have on their future careers. Some of them might be the direct impacts such as the increase in the opportunity of getting a decent job, others might be the indirect impact such as the skills students acquire while studying English language which will eventually be beneficial in the corporate world. ESL teachers should know this by their heart that they are working to make a great change in their students’ life. This should be one of the motivations that keep students working harder to improve their English and to never give up. References: *https://www.oxford-royale.com/articles/10-professions-english.html **https://www.dailysabah.com/life/2019/08/09/people-who-speak-english-are-happier-earn-more ***https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/foreign-language-improve-decisions/ ****https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/10/more-languages-better-brain/381193/