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Are you a native speaker? Maybe you just have trouble understanding what leads to people learning English. My anecdote: I have enough people around me (litera

Are you a native speaker? Maybe you just have trouble understanding what leads to people learning English. My anecdote: I have enough people around me (literally several millions in my city) that speak my language. All books, movies and TV shows I ever wanted to see are available translated in very high quality. There is so much original content that a lot of people simply don't even crave foreign content, that includes any science you would think of (and our countrymen are the pioneers of many), programming guides etc. The sole purpose of learning English in my country as viewed by the government (that sets up schools) is to take advantage of foreign profit and then return back home with the money and participate in our society, and that view reflects the wishes of the majority of our society - we prefer to interact with our people because the people and especially the language "make sense" (Czech language is regarded for its internal consistency and hard rules combined with freeform sentences - that makes the language a form of wild art where you can completely change logical meaning of the whole 10-sentence block with a single tone pronounced differently, if you wish to do that). This purpose ("to be worthy on the job market") is said to you numerous times (I heard it at least once a week the whole 12 years I had English class) your whole childhood by your parents (who truly believe that our culture is big enough and English is not for that purpose), youe teachers, your school principal and of course the government.

qubex 8y ago
Yes, I am a native English speaker (British on my mother's side, education), but I'm also a native Italian speaker (father's side, raised in Italy). My concern was primarily directed at the fact that it's strange to indicate that one is learning a language to participate in a market which is a subset of all social interactions.
- TomMarius 8y ago
  > it's strange to indicate that one is learning a language to participate in a market which is a subset of all social interactions. Is it really? I'm sure it's strange to you - as a native English speaker, there is no language that would offer you significant new opportunities. However I've never met a Czech person who doesn't learn English because of the market (academic/job/business opportunities) - as I said, this purpose is frequently highlighted from the youngest age (I was 4 when I was first told I need to learn English because of my future job). Also consider that until 1989 our borders were closed - meaning WE couldn't travel. It has became perfectly normal during the past 90 years to participate socially only within our own culture (and language).
- TeMPOraL 8y ago
  > My concern was primarily directed at the fact that it's strange to indicate that one is learning a language to participate in a market which is a subset of all social interactions. It's not strange, especially wrt. in particular English. People really don't learn English (or make their kids learn English) to immerse themselves in the British or American culture (the latter is pushed worldwide anyway). They do it because jobs require it, and will for the predictable future. In fact many people nowadays, including my wife & I, are talking about getting kids to learn Chinese along with English, to hedge our bets for who will be the dominant economic power 20 years from now. (Also note that when people learn English, they don't expect talking just with the English or Americans. They want to be able to talk with everyone else in the world, since all the other people are know or are learning English too.)

qubex 8y ago

Yes, I am a native English speaker (British on my mother's side, education), but I'm also a native Italian speaker (father's side, raised in Italy). My concern was primarily directed at the fact that it's strange to indicate that one is learning a language to participate in a market which is a subset of all social interactions.

TomMarius 8y ago
> it's strange to indicate that one is learning a language to participate in a market which is a subset of all social interactions. Is it really? I'm sure it's strange to you - as a native English speaker, there is no language that would offer you significant new opportunities. However I've never met a Czech person who doesn't learn English because of the market (academic/job/business opportunities) - as I said, this purpose is frequently highlighted from the youngest age (I was 4 when I was first told I need to learn English because of my future job). Also consider that until 1989 our borders were closed - meaning WE couldn't travel. It has became perfectly normal during the past 90 years to participate socially only within our own culture (and language).
TeMPOraL 8y ago
> My concern was primarily directed at the fact that it's strange to indicate that one is learning a language to participate in a market which is a subset of all social interactions. It's not strange, especially wrt. in particular English. People really don't learn English (or make their kids learn English) to immerse themselves in the British or American culture (the latter is pushed worldwide anyway). They do it because jobs require it, and will for the predictable future. In fact many people nowadays, including my wife & I, are talking about getting kids to learn Chinese along with English, to hedge our bets for who will be the dominant economic power 20 years from now. (Also note that when people learn English, they don't expect talking just with the English or Americans. They want to be able to talk with everyone else in the world, since all the other people are know or are learning English too.)