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Chile Understands That “English Opens Doors”
By Matt Margolis | December 29, 2004
The Chilean government is in the process of having its citizens learn English in order to open themselves up to more opportunities.
In many parts of Latin America, resistance to cultural domination by the United States is often synonymous with a reluctance to learn or speak English. But here, where Salvador Allende was once a beacon for the left, the current Socialist-led national government has begun a sweeping effort to make this country bilingual.
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“We have some of the most advanced commercial accords in the world, but that is not enough,” Sergio Bitar, the minister of education, said in an interview here. “We know our lives are linked more than ever to an international presence, and if you can’t speak English, you can’t sell and you can’t learn.”The initial phase of the 18-month-old program, officially known as “English Opens Doors,” calls for all Chilean elementary and high school students to be able to pass a standardized listening and reading test a decade from now. But the more ambitious long-term goal is to make all 15 million of Chile’s people fluent in English within a generation.
This program does not lack critcism or controversy, but clearly, there are many who understand the necessity of learning English to open themselves up to bigger and better opportunities…
Now all we need to do here in the United States is get everyone to learn English. Too many here don’t learn the language, and that ends up being costly to taxpayers, and a burden for immigrants who don’t speak the language of commerce in America.
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December 29th, 2004 at 6:56 pm
Massachusetts passed an English immersion law not long ago as you know. My town happens to have a large population of immigrants from the former Soviet Union so I thought it would actually have some noticable effect. I haven’t noticed anything, so at least it the law has not done anything drastic.
December 29th, 2004 at 10:11 pm
Miles… the Democrat-controlled state legislature—in defiance of the will of the people—diluted the English immersion program.
December 30th, 2004 at 4:04 pm
I spent a lot of time over the holidays visiting with some very well-educated and knowledgeable people from Peru, talking about the economic problems of South America. One man in the group said that Chile is the fastest-advancing country in Central and South America, and the new emphasis on English only supports that theory. There seems to be a better awareness in Chile of what it is going to take to be competitive and successful, and apparently a realization of the importance of English is part of that.
He also says that the non-industrial culture of the indigenous peoples of South America, combined with the tradition of rampant corruption in the governments of all the countries involved, have and will continue to stifle any opportunity for growth. Maybe Chile can set a good example.
December 30th, 2004 at 10:04 pm
One of the networks (PBS, TLC, or Discovery?)did a great series on English a few years ago. Because the USA rose so quickly after the UK, English is now the most widely spoken language on the planet. Though noy always the primary language - it is spoken from Australia to India to Kenya to Kansas.
I lived in Germany for a few years - and though I needed German to get by, I could work in my office at at my clients in English.
January 9th, 2005 at 3:01 am
According to your opinion, I don’t think that there is an important reluctance to the learning of English, not at all, I know what happen in most of the educated class in Chile ( I’m Chilean) and all suggest that people just hesitate in the adoption of the American culture itself (like me, i.e.). however the language was introduced decades ago by an important number of British people that allowed an immersion by funding schools and so on. Besides I agree with most of my friend and colleagues that we learn English to communicate with all the world ( being them, mostly in Chile, Japaneses, Germans or Americans) , because is a easier language and scientific literature mostly use it. I have to comment as well, in the world live almost same amount of anglophones that hispanophones. I would like to encourage anglophone people to have a second language and I think America should have both as English as Spanish, but every time i see, they just know a little words of foreign languages, and guess what just swear words.
March 21st, 2007 at 10:37 am
I have been studying English for some years now and I think it really opens doors. For me to understand a foreign or second language you also have to get inmmersed in the target culture through watching international tv, reading newspapers & magazines,to get to know, in my case, the literature, history, customs and traditions of English speaking countries.It helped me to get incomes above the average or better & more interesting jobs because I can easily get along with foreigners, I can easealy do research & write papers using English as a mean of communication intended for the targeted reader, etc.
To know languages,I mean any languages not specifically English, it really opens doors for people in their careers, cultural life,personal development or just for pleasure.
I invite people around the world to learn Spanish as a foreign or second language because it will really open doors to different kinds of people: tourists travelling to Latin America or Spain, professionals and enterpreneurs who want to have a commercial relations with Spanish speaking countries, immigrants for them to be really included and accepted in the new country and society .
“SPANISH OPENS DOORS”….because
1)Spanish is the third most spoken language: it is used on the web, international tv, radio, many representatives of world literature wrote, have written or write in Spanish.
2) It is a language for commerce and Media.
3)It is taught and learnt as a foreign language in most schools in Europe or the US.
4) To learn a second or third language makes you brighter ( the human braincells make more and better complex connections
I think Chile has been really assertive introducing the “English opens doors program”, it says a lot about chilean society and its people who are really open - minded and really aware of globalisation.
For that reason, it would be a great idea to imitate Chile´s leading foreign language policy in the so called well-developed countries like: The US, Britain, Germany; France, etc.
TO LEARN A SECOND LANGUAGE EXPANDS YOURSELF TO INFINITE POSSIBILITIES, JUST DO IT, YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT.