Teach English in Pinghe Zhen - Bazhong Shi

According to the British council, there are about 373 million native English speakers around the world, and another 500 million speak the language on top of that. At the moment an estimated number of 1 billion people are learning this language and in the future, this number will grow significantly. We are talking about a language that a lot of people speak in this world, and the total number of people who speak this language will only increase. So why should people learn English? I personally believe that being able to speak another language is one of the most important skills one can have. However, there are so many languages in the world, why should you learn English and not another language like French or German? Well, nowadays we live in a globalized world and English is the global language. There are more native Chinese and Spanish speakers in the world, but English as a second language still holds the crown. Some people argue that we should learn Chinese, but the fact is that we are not being taught this language at school. However, in China children are learning English, because the Chinese are well aware of the importance of speaking this ‘universal’ language. Also in Spanish speaker countries, more and more people are trying to learn English. I currently live in Colombia and have been teaching the English language for many years, and it has turned almost into an absolute hype. Everywhere in the big cities, you see languages institutes, almost everyone nowadays wants to speak English. And the hype is justified, people who speak English in this country earn more money. If you want to work as a receptionist, and you don’t speak English, you won’t earn more than minimum wage, but for those who speak the language, they earn up to double compared to those who don’t. More and more international companies have opened their doors in this country, and they look for bilingual personnel. Speaking more than one language has become so important in today’s world that if you’re not bilingual you’re going to miss out on some pretty great career opportunities. And it is not just Latin America, I have spoken to people who taught English in Asia, and they have told me the exact same story. The main reason I am taking the TEFL course is to go there (probably Vietnam) and teach the English language in a whole new environment. When we look at the business world, the spoken language is English. All major companies have their headquarters in English speaking countries. In order to be successful in business, you need to master this language, for communication is the key to success in almost any scenario. Countries around the world require more and more of their employees to be able to speak English. In general, when people from different countries that speak a totally different language need to communicate with each other, in person or online (Skype), the language that bridges the gap is English. A real live example, many businesses around the world are opening call centers, branches, or even moving their whole business to Colombia. There are many advertisements online (Facebook, vacancy websites, etc.) that I see every day in which these companies are asking for bilingual personnel, the salaries are decent (above average) and even offer growth opportunities. Only by having a good command of the English language, a golden opportunity for Colombians opens up to climb out of poverty (so many of the common jobs pay so badly, it’s a true shame). I speak five languages, Dutch (native), English (bilingual), Spanish (advanced), German (advanced), and French (intermediate). The reason I’m an advocate of English is for two reasons (1) it is the ‘universal’ language, (2) perhaps the most important reason, it is so much easier than the other languages. When it comes to grammar English is a lot easier, and I’m a pragmatic person, don’t overcomplicate things by forcing people to learn something that is almost incomprehensible to them (languages like Polish, Russian, Arabic, Chinese are famous for their complexity). Therefore, I believe that learning English is the best option for people to communicate with others in this world. But English is not only an important language when looking for a decent job. Nowadays there are many websites where you can study almost anything what you want, either for a small fee or even for free. You have websites like Udemy, Codecademy, edX, Coursera, where you can subscribe to any course you want, however, most of the times there’s one main requirement, you have to understand the English language. A lot of courses are simply not available in other languages. Speaking this language opens so many doors, it allows you to expand your horizon in so many ways, to be excluded from all of this because of a mere language barrier would be a total shame. Learning English in today's world doesn’t have to be expensive at all, you have apps from the British Council, Duolingo, HelloTalk, etc. where you can practice and study the language for free. I am convinced that English is the language of the future, and those who don’t want to take the effort to learn this beautiful language will miss out on so many great opportunities. In conclusion, you can grow as a person in so many ways when you know how to speak the English language. The reason for this is that so many opportunities open up when you do. You can study (for free) online, get a better job, do business, and communicate with people all over the world. I am thrilled that I can take a part in this, through teaching a language that is slowly uniting the whole world. Source: https://perfectlyspoken.com/blog/why-english-is-so-important-in-business/