Group B Week 4 discussion

Is English important? Why? Why not? Are you making enough effort to improve/maintain your English? What are your views on the Education of English from your own experience? Will technology soon bypass the need for Language classes? And whatever else you want to talk about...

Hi everyone, I truly believe that English is essential nowadays and probably for the next decades until we start selling a technology that will translate everything and us, lazy people, just rely on that.
Not only English is an essential skill at work but it has been proved by many studies that it stimulates our brain and that it can be a very good thing for babies and children to quickly learn and hear / grow up with two different languages.
Concerning my experience, it's a known fact that the French education system is bullsh*t when it comes to teaching languages. You mostly need to learn it by yourself by reading, watching series or talking to native people (if possible). In many other countries like Germany, we teach kids early to speak English and we give them the confidence to do so without judgement.

In my opinion, if you have enough motivation, there are many tools for you to learn basic English by yourself, and sometimes, basic English is all you need as a good start when you can learn new vocabulary progressively. And as soon as you get out of you comfort zone, as soon as you start travelling, the ability to speak English and be understood is a NEED.

Hi everyone !!

I thinking like Amélie ! English is absolutely necessary nowadays... Indeed, English is the international language !
With evolution of digital society is so easy to find translator, speak with people at the other extreme of planet. Travel too is important !! With planes and apparution of low-cost airline compagny, in every airport you have indication in native language and english.

For the part about french education language... It's just big joke ! 2h of learning classe ? Yes it's good, no problem ! (ministry is crazy...). More practise will be a good option ! And change mentality about "I'm a teacher, you're student"... Language for me is a exchange, we talk, we correct ourselves. Like "Café Linguistic" ! It was a very fun experience ! We has met Ukrainian boy, other were french but speaking only english, all people playing game. It joins Amélie "talking to native people" it's very good way for learn english.

Good afternoon everyone ! I hope that your first day of holidays was good ! (Sorry John if it's not yet)!

I totally agree with Amelie and Clothilde !

Indeed, since we are children, people said that "english language is so important". But, to be honest, when you are young, you don't really understand why it's so important and you are juste like "Yes, okay, but, I don't mind" --> BIG MISTAKE !
But, if you don't want to travel, if you don't want to go to graduated school, yes, may be it's not so important.
For all of others, people it's just a necessity.
Growing up, you realize why you have to work your english level : for your school courses, for your travel, for your culture, for your resume, for your professional future ...
I admit it, when I realize since how many year I've been learning english ... I'm just speechless ! My level is not up to these years ! Why ? I certainly not work enough, courses aren't always effective ...
When I speak German for example, and when I see their level of English at the same age I wonder how it is possible that there is such a big difference in level !
In France, we have a big big work to make in this level.
I think that technology can help with a lot of listening of english langage, talk with the computer to correct your accent, youtube tutorial ...

I'm going on holidays now ! Great holidays for all !

See you soon!

Hi everyone,

i totaly agree with what has been said before.
English is a very important language especially in the world where we live today.
As you said , the education system in France do not offer students a real opportunity to learn the language .
For example if we take our situation at the CEPE i think that 2 hours a week are not enough at all to learn english. We should have at least 5 hours of english if we want to start speaking English in a medium level.
But of course what we learn at school is not enough; we have to watch tv programs in english , read books, listen to music etc. All this will help our brain to get used to the language and to start speaking more fluently.
In my personal case i can say that the 4 months spent in London were a very rewarding experience. Being all the day with english native people gave me the opportunity to improve my English and my pronunciation. That's why practising a language with native people is more important than doing lessons.
If you speak english and you want to travel the world you will not have the language barrier that stops you from having relations with people. English is infact an international language . Lucky you English native speakers (@John ) !!!

Hi everyone!
I'm surprised to see so little comments on this subject. Maybe we could try a new angle and focus on the arrival of technology ? Or maybe everyone could share about their story through the learning of English? How did you felt in English class? Did you enjoy it? Are there some subjects you liked/ hated to talk about or felt bored? How could it become better according to you? Do you believe that English, Spanish or German should be taught the same way as Mathematics and Geography?

Hi everyone!! I hope you enjoy your holidays!!  

It's my turn to give you my opinion!

I agree with all of you (so much love in this class!!! ) I think that English is very important today because we live in an open world and like Pauline F said, "English is the international language». So I think that if you want to be part of our world and communicate with other people, you must learn English. And it's truer now with new technology because it's easier to talk with people who live far away!!

But I think that the French education system doesn't help you to learn English. In fact, we have only one or two hours of English in a week! And when you have an English course in secondary school, you learn how to talk about slavery in the USA! So even if it's very interesting… it's useless! Because you don't learn how to live and work in another country!! You don't learn how to order in a restaurant. You can't say on your first day in the USA "Hi! Today I will talk about slavery in the USA in 1850! No, you can't!  

So like Amelie said, "You mostly need to learn it by yourself », by traveling but not people have the chance to travel …But I know that we are saved because we have series and John!!  

Have a good holiday!!

Hi everyone,

I see that we all agree on the fact that english is important in our society.That we will need it in our future, in our job or even to travel.
That it's a shame that the french education do not give importance to english while other countries like northern countries learn it from their childhood and that the country do everything to make them bilingual: even movies in the cinemas are in english!

I noticed that a lot of French people are disgusted with English because most of the time they didn't have "good" teachers who shared with them their "passion" of englis. Or also because the basics have been underestimated and du to that they can't make a sentence in English.
But not only in english, also in the learning of other foreign languages.

Maybe this lack of English teaching can be explained by the educational program of previous generations who had little or no English courses because it was not considered has important yet ? I don't know


Bye,
enjoy your holidays ^^

Amelie Trarieux wrote:Hi everyone!
I'm surprised to see so little comments on this subject. Maybe we could try a new angle and focus on the arrival of technology ? Or maybe everyone could share about their story through the learning of English? How did you felt in English class? Did you enjoy it? Are there some subjects you liked/ hated to talk about or felt bored? How could it become better according to you? Do you believe that English, Spanish or German should be taught the same way as Mathematics and Geography?

Great questions. I just think everyone is on "holiday" from English.

Admin wrote:

Amelie Trarieux wrote:Hi everyone!
I'm surprised to see so little comments on this subject. Maybe we could try a new angle and focus on the arrival of technology ? Or maybe everyone could share about their story through the learning of English? How did you felt in English class? Did you enjoy it? Are there some subjects you liked/ hated to talk about or felt bored? How could it become better according to you? Do you believe that English, Spanish or German should be taught the same way as Mathematics and Geography?

Great questions. I just think everyone is on "holiday" from English.

Yes...
I admit that we have forgotten the topics of discussion... Personally, I remembered it this morning ʕ￫ᴥ￩ʔ

hi guys

We are in holidays and it's fantastic !!!!!

To come back to the subject, I agree with what the girls have said. English is really important in our society. The world is developed around this language which has become universal.
Today we need to speak English to communicate with others when we travel, we work or in school. However I join Manon when she said "if you don't want to travel, if you don't want to go to graduated school, yes, maybe it's not so important", but it's a small percentage of people. You know youth is the future, and youth wants to travel around the world, for that you need to speak English. They want go to school and to have a great job, and if you have a good job you need to speak English. With globalization, many companies are developed internationally so their employees need to be fluent in English for a good communication with their interlocutor.
Now let's talk about the Education of English. I find that the programm of teaching english is very bad !! The programm has to be adapted for pupils. I think the programm isn't interesting enough for us, we learn lots of history, civilisation and at the end it is very boring. It is not for having a good mark, but with you John, English is easy, we aren't afraid to talk in class. However we have only 2 hours per week and it isn't enough. In Cepe, they don't stop repeating that English is important for our careers, but we have just 2 hours so I don't understand...
All that to say that English is important !!! Hope one day I'll become trilingual

Enjoy your Holiday !!

Hi everyone !

To me, English is really important. Indeed, in every countries where I traveled I only used English and this language saved my life everytime I was in trouble. Even when you want to talk to strangers in France, English is THE universal language and this is sad that French people are reputed to be really bad in English. It's even sadder to know that English isn't that important at university. I remembered when I was in Angers I only had 1 hour and a half of English class and this is definitely not enough to be able to talk and understand English.
Moreover, being fluent in English is always asked in job offers especially when you want to work in a international company or in a job with reponsibilites because you would be able to work with international colleagues. So yes, English is really important but there are other languages that are becoming important such as chinese and spanish. You don't want to underestimate foreign language because it will one day save your life.

Have a good weekend everybody !

Hi everybody,

As everyone says , I think English iis important. In fact, it's a necessity for people who want to travel around the world. My problem is that I do not like english!!! When I was a child, I had the opportunity to choose betweeen german or english. And the first language that I've learned is german. I enjoyed it so much! But when I went to middle school I had to take part in english class and everyone around me had an other level. Fortunatly I got better by watching Dora ( don't judge me), and started to enjoy english class. The problem with French education when it comes to languages is that professors are very bad to learn how to pronounce. One of the reasons why I liked chinese is because for every characters there is a sign which indicates how to pronounce it. That's not the case of English. English has many pronounciation rules but no one never taught them to me. I'm verry happy of this year english course, because professor John explain every sound,and pronouncation rules, so I think I could get better. Therefore I think it's a shame that we only have 2 hours. If English is that important they sshould give us more hours so we can improve.

Hello everyone,

For one more time, I think that I am the last one who is answering. I am really sorry, I am not proud of it, I am just kind of a last mοment man.

Of course English are very important, because they are the common denominator if we want to communicate with people from different cultures/countries and if we want to travel abroad. It's the word's business language too, so they're almost necessary nowdays. And appart from the obvious things, if we whould like to read or to learn about subjects that we don't have enough information in our language,english are the next step to go forward/proceed in our result.

In Greece we are learning English since the age of 7-8 years old. But not from the elementary school. Every parent pays private lessons for its child. Of course the educational system provides english courses in primary shcool and during the school years and the university.
I am against in the procudure of private classes of English because normally the education should be free of charge and qualitative but unfortunately the English that shcool confer aren't enough. In Greece there is the logic learning english or die. It's correct because you can't speak Greek out of Greece.And let's not speak about the necessity in tourism. They are not like Spanish,French or even Germans.

One thing that helps also to improve our english,is the world of spectacles. I've learned a lot about vocabulary and pronunciation because of the cinema, the series and the video games. So I think doubling the original language keeps people a little bit back concerning the learning of a laguage and the pronunciation.

Yeah no, sorry Babis but this time I think i beat you, i still haven't replied here hihi

I think i'll post just a quick reply here because honestly, everyone has said what i think about English : for the moment, it is indeed a requirement to speak English, even if you do not intend to travel abroad or work abroad. One day, you might end up in a situation where you HAVE to speak in English while being in your home country ! You never know xD
But as I said, it is like that only for the moment : who knows, maybe in a few years, English won't be the most important language in the world. After all, the most spoken language in the world, at the moment, is not English, but Chinese...and the second is Spanish !
And when the Brexit was happening, i remember reading a article about the future of English : some argued that, because the UK was leaving the EU, then the EU might give up using English as its official language for business and switch to another language (German and French being next in line). Which is why I think it is also really important to learn a second language (of course this was only theories but i think it is worth mentioning ^^).
And yeah, learning English at school is really not the best way to become fluent. It is not totally useless, because it gives you some sort of stability and continuity (you will have English classes every week, and continuity is really important during the process of learning a new language). But, in my case, i also took upon myself to teach myself English at home. I used to be the worst student in English back in middle-school, and i wanted to improve myself so much that i started to teach myself the language at home. Reading stuff on the internet in English as much as i could, writing down every new words, learning them, listening to English talk shows, playing video games in English only, watching TV shows in English ( first with French subtitles, then with English subtitles, then without....), honestly it is a looooong process, and I'm still learning today. And I still have a lot to learn !

(haha what a "quick" reply)

Interesting point about Brexit and the "EU language".

Can Europe afford to ditch English simply because the UK isn't in the EU?

I think it would be a serious mistake for Europeans but I can't see it happening other than in a country who is so full of themself and can't see reality.

France used to be like that but I don't think it is any longer.

Admin wrote:Interesting point about Brexit and the "EU language".

Can Europe afford to ditch English simply because the UK isn't in the EU?

I think it would be a serious mistake for Europeans but I can't see it happening other than in a country who is so full of themself and can't see reality.

France used to be like that but I don't think it is any longer.

http://www.europe1.fr/international/brexit-la-langue-anglaise-est-elle-menacee-a-bruxelles-2784631 I found an article talking about that, i don't remember if it was this one i read but this one still mentions important points (its in French though )

Apparently, because the UK was the only country in Europe to have English as its official language, it would mean that after its official departure in 2019, no country left in Europe would have English as its official language, which mean the Europe will no longer have a constitutional reason to use English, which is why some are aguing that English will no longer be relevant after its departure.

Yeah, i seriously think it would a mistake too, because if i am not mistaken, the USA are still one of our most important partners in business at the moment, and I highly think that they will never adopt another language for business matters (the USA being the USA), and even regarding trade with the UK it would just complicate things even more. But, what about exchanges happening between european countries ?
I still think that it is not worth ditching English, mainly because we've been using it for decades. And it is still a language spoken by many countries out of Europe. But it might change a lot of things regarding exchanges WITHIN the EU.

Oh and, about France....Actually, i think it is French politicians who started to mention this point so, i wouldn't be so sure about that ^^'

Hi Everyone ,
I think that english it is the universal language, when you want to travel, study abroad, find work abroad, English is the universal language that you can use to communicate with others, I think that wherever you go if you know English it will be as if you were at "home".
as far as I am concerned,to improve my english i use to watch tv series, film or tv shows in english that's help me a lot for the comprehension , I have studied English since primary school and it was very helpful during all my travels because I did not speak the local language of the countries, (I also used it here in France for my first year but there was never anyone who understood English loool), here in France they don't teach English as Italy because the level that Italians have in English is not at all as the French one. I think at school we should have more hours in English because for me it is a very important language as I had already said before so i think that in the school system they have to add more hours for the english class and they have to teach english since primary school .

Hi everybody,

I think that English today is no longer an option but a necessity. Unfortunately my level in English is not perfect but I am trying to improve. However, I don't always understand John Cox's jokes.
In addition, English, whether in the professional or personal environment, is still used. For example, with part of the best English group in M1 we went to the language café and it allowed us to practice the language by talking about everyday things. In this case, it was more of a personal English. On the other hand, professional English will be necessary in our future work and in particular for the presentation of our thesis at the end of the M2.
This is what I think of the importance of English it is necessary and is no longer an option. I just have to progress and become bilingual at the end of the M2 year. At the very least at the end of my M2, I would go to an English-speaking country for 1 year and progress there by practicing the language daily.
Thank you for having the courage to read my little text on this subject.

Hi everyone !

Of course, now, we all have to speak English, it's really necessary especially at work.
But I'm really disappointed to see how school teach us english.

For me, we have to practice more ! At the high school especially, courses are too theoric and don't allow us to speak, and it's a shame !

We have to talk, talk, and talk, and it requires more hours of english per week.