My sister in Law (how Learning English benefit her career)
Learning English can be more important than your university degree. I know that the title of this post can be argued against, but let me share a story, and then you can argue against it if you wish. For example, I am currently in China, holding a teaching job, just because I speak English well. You could say that I would not be here if I did not have a university degree. Okay, granted, but I also would not be here if I did not speak English well.
The story I want to share is about my sister-in-law. When I was living in the USA from 1998 to 2001 to acquire my MBA, we invited my wife's sister to stay with us for a year in the United States. She was in high school at that time, and she came to study in the USA for one year. I am glad we made such an offer because it changed her life for the better. When she was in the USA with us, she took the school year pretty easy, not studying very hard, and her grades were low. However, she did learn English well, and she could easily have lost that year. But when she went back to Brazil, the school system there skipped one year because she was studying in the USA. So in other words, she did not lose that year. Even if she had, it would have been worth it because now she holds a very good job position that she would not have if she did not speak English.
I have a few pictures of her from the time she was with us in the USA that you can see in this post. I am not mentioning her name here, and I don't know the name of the company she is working for now. I just know that she is from Brazil of course, but she is living in USA as the director of the company responsible for the Americas (North America, Central America, and South America),which comes with pretty big responsibilities and an according salary as well.
I don’t talk to her anymore, which makes me very sad. She was like a daughter to me, and we did so many fun things together when we were in the USA. She was usually my companion for many things my own wife (her sister) did not want to do with me. But sadly, all of that went away with my divorce. I did all that I could to prevent the divorce and tried not to lose my family like I did, but that was no use. I had to move on, and now almost 10 years later, I barely speak to my ex-wife's side of the family.
What I am saying is that family should come first, and career should come second because a career will not fulfill us, but family relationships will. I am deviating from the point of this article, but let's come back to it.
Now my sister-in-law has this job because she took one lousy year away just to learn English. Her life is so much better economically because of that, and this is the main message I am trying to convey to my Chinese students. There is so much at stake, and they are losing so much when they put English aside in their careers. I have made other posts about the importance of learning English, but it seems that some still don't get the point. So I hope with this post to drive home how important it can be in anyone's life.
I hope to see my students more engaged in English activities like English Corner and others, and paying more attention to their English language courses so that perhaps one day, many years from now, they will remember a teacher who took the time to ensure they got this message right. And because of that, their lives are so much richer and better than if they had not taken action now to improve their English.
Article by Marcelo Gameiro
Published 14 May 2023
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