argumentation

Should Everyone in Taiwan Learn English?

Over the years, government officials and educators have been instilling the importance of learning English in our people. Candidates for public service are required to pass English proficiency tests to prove their competence. Excellent English ability is also a strong advantage in resumes or when employers are considering a pay raise and promotion. It seems all the information are telling us we can’t live in today’s world without using this global language, but I think everyone should give a deep thought about why learn English and find out their personal need.

Indeed, English is the major language in business, politics and tourism all around the world, so knowing English has a lot to do with one’s worldview. And how one perceives the world has impacts on one’s reaction and decision in the society. So it makes sense that more and more employers take job applicants’ English ability into consideration. And since English serves as the medium for people to understand the world today, not only do we need a large number of translators and interpreters in several professional areas, but we should also encourage students and people of all ages to learn English.

However, what really concerns me is that the emphasis on learning English has been carried too far. Is our English ability in proportion to the amount of money, time, and social resources that have been invested in learning it? What’s worse, when school children are forced to learn a foreign language before they can use their mother tongue with confidence and appreciate the beauty of Chinese literature, they may gradually lose the interest in exploring our profound culture. So why do parents send kids to expensive bilingual schools? Besides, from kindergarten and all the way up to university, I always have one or two troubled classmates who speak fluent English but misbehave all the time. Has the focus on teaching kids English distracted parents from teaching kids disciplines?

My high school math teacher is never shy about how bad he did on English in the college entrance exam 30 years ago—he got only eight points. To this day he still has difficulty in pronouncing easy words such as “luggage”. Yet at the same time he’s also proud of the fact that he has traveled all over the globe without knowing much about English, all because he can afford an interpreter. I’m not saying learning English isn’t important by giving this example, but the world today is a complicated collaborative system based upon expertise in different fields and teamwork of all the people. When one’s talent is not in foreign language learning, why conform to what everyone is already doing—learning English?

As an English major, I have to take the required listening, speaking, reading and writing courses. However, if I’m not planning to work with or under people who speak English when I enter the workforce, or if I don’t want to travel to English-speaking countries all my life or make friends from these countries, why do I have to take the oral drill class? And if I’m not going to write a book or publish anything in English (even if I do, I don’t think I’ll sell a copy), why bother working hard on an essay? Still, as a non-native speaker, I’ll never excel native speakers in the study of literatures in English, why am I studying English Literature when Chinese and Taiwanese literature remain strange to me? My point is, language learning should be tailored to everyone’s different need. Instead of enhancing English ability at all levels, everyone needs to find their own niche.