Teach English in Baishi Zhen - Zhuzhou Shi

Many languages have experienced a rapid growth in the past, such as Mongolian, Spanish or Portuguese, but only a few of them have managed to both survive and stay relevant. English, among them, is one of the few that have managed to hold its importance. It acts as a common language between many countries, and so it is that even if the European Union ends losing those who keep it as an official language, it would remain a vehicular tongue nonetheless. It has become the standard language as well when it comes to Science, a field in which most relevant magazines will only accept and publish papers written in English. It may be said that one couldn’t work on the scientific world without the right knowledge of the English idiom, the arguably exception being Chinese and maybe Indian researchers. It is reasonable to say that English have stood up as the main language along the globe, if one is to hold that title. Given this fact, it makes sense to affirm that English is not only a powerful tool for the student’s future career, but it’s likely to become a needed one! Without managing to speak fluent English, or at the very least being able to deal with it, an average person would just find himself uncappable of keep progressing, both on his professional career or his dreamed goals. We should not forget that, for the best or the worse, in the society we live in, it’s becoming more and more common for the young to travel abroad in order to find a suitable place and a decent job to make a living. Thus, the necessity of learning English is expected to only get growing as time goes by, as otherwise a student wo doesn’t learn English may find itself “trapped”, being unable to move abroad or to keep educating himself. Also, as society changes at globalism’s pace, more and more adults also feel the need to learn English, even whey they’re at a point in their life they know for sure it’s not going to suit any of their needs. This happens because it’s in the human nature to communicate, and the way we do never stops evolving. Then again, English is the required language when one person wishes to know how the foreign press sees and relates a problem within his country, and it is also the chosen language when people needs to send a message to any foreign person or association. Given all these facts, it is hard to state that English may not be needed for a student, more so if he’s a young person whose future has not yet be decided. Worse case scenario, he might learn a language that won’t be needing everyday in his or her future, but still that person would have all the previous advantages (being able to discuss with foreigners, opt for more job opportunities…) if faced against somebody who lacks that skill. In my personal experience, English as a sole language is somewhat a flawed concept, as it’s a fact that both American and European English are different to some degree, but then we also have differences between the British and the European speakers and those who learned it as their second language… and also, between any of the previously stated and Australian ones, which are known to have a very particular intonation. As a Spanish native speaker, I can relate to this situation and even though Spanish is often advertised as the third language in speakers’ number, it is also truth that not every country’s Spanish is the same nor obey the same grammatical rules. What I mean is that, the wider a language spreads, the harder it becomes for it to stay the same everywhere, if it happens to be achievable at all. Nevertheless, insisting on these rules seems important to me, as even when they might not be fully accepted by the non-native speaker, they should work as an anchor or an axis for what those speakers should try to achieve. Because of this, I think feeling comfortable while speaking English should be the goal to pursue for the students, and the teacher should focus on this before making sure the student knows enough grammar or vocabulary. This is because given the wide spreading of English, it is likely that the student might face non-native speakers just as often as native ones, if not more. It becomes an obvious statement that both parts are interested in understanding each other, and thus none of them should be afraid of having a wrong intonation or accent. As a Spanish native speaker, I can see that, because our language not being like English, phonetically speaking, it’s common that people who are able to speak decent English won’t feel comfortable doing so. And this often happens because they’ve been said so many times they just cannot, and I can see this happening with other non-native English speakers whose native language is phonic and consequently, perceived as “too different”. As a future teacher, I think insisting on learning the rules and forgetting about the student’s accent and insecurities is going to be my personal keystone. It’s already been stated how important English might be for the young students, and I think it should be easy enough to share that knowledge with them. In the end, the best way to keep our students focused and interested is to make them know how important is for them to take advantage of the class.