Learning English Enhances Our Ability to Communicate with People around the World

Today, there are 60 countries in the world that used English as their official language. If you add all of the other people who use English even though it is not their official language, somewhere between one-quarter to one-third of world’s population uses English on daily basis. Also, more than 80 percent of the information found on the internet is English. As such, it is not an excessive to say that, as a means of communication, English is the common language of the world.
With the wide uses of the Internet and e-mail, the ability to read and write English is becoming even more crucial. We need the ability to read and write fluently, so that we can quickly read a large amount of English materials and send out our own ideas and opinions expressed in English. If we developed children’s listening and comprehension ability from a young age, they will benefit greatly later on whenever they find themselves in situation where English is needed. Indeed, the optimal time for English comprehension is when they are still young children.
Many people have still failed to develop their ability in English. It is important to enable children to first enjoy studying language before they can develop a positive attitude towards studying learning English and desire to communicate with people of the world. And, to enjoy learning English, they must have confidence in themselves. To develop this confidence, children need to be immersed in an environment where they can amass the experience of “I can understand! I can read! I can write!” This can be achieved by letting them learn through a method that emphasizes the development of reading, writing and listening abilities. Learning in this way, at their own pace, they will personally experience their progress on a daily basis with a feeling of “I can understand! I can read! I can write!” As the globalization of our society accelerates, people with English ability can play active roles throughout the world. English ability indeed brings us much wider choices in our lives.

(From : “Life Skills” – Education Builds the Future)