Discuss

Why did you decide to learn English? How has learning English changed your life?

Audio script

Interviewer: Why do you think you decided to become an English major and to teach English?

Teacher #1: I like English, and I like to speak English, because I think speaking very important for communication with the people, okay? After I go to the university for one year, I think I like English better and better, more and more.

Interviewer: There are quite a lot of teachers now who are interested in English as an international language, something which is spoken by Chinese people or German people or Russian people, not by British or American people. What is you opinion of the idea of English as an international and a culture-free language? Do you have an opinion on that?

Teacher #1: You mean English as an international language?

Interviewer: Separated from any culture. Is it possible to think about English in that way?

Teacher #1: No. I don’t think so. We use English as an international language because, I don’t know, why we use English as an international language is because so many people in so many countries speak English. Though there are so many people that speak Chinese, just the people in China speak Chinese. I think that English as an international language is natural.

Interviewer: why did you decide to learn English?

Teacher #2: English is very useful. I take English as a tool. You know, nowadays communication is very important, and English is widely used language in the world. I think, if you want to communicate with people, you must learn this language, use this tool.

Interviewer: Do you think learning a foreign language has changed you in any way?

Teacher #2: Changed me? Ah, yes. I think.

Interviewer: How?

Teacher #2: Way of thinking. I can be more open. The cultural difference between China and English-speaking countries, they’re quite different. If you speak Chinese, you must think in Chinese, the Chinese way. For example, you must be modest. If I say, ‘Oh you are so good. Your English is good.’ If I’m Chinese, I say, ‘No, no’. But, if you are Englishman, if you are the people of English-speaking countries, if I say ‘Your English is good. You are so beautiful’, we say, ‘Thank you’. That’s a different way. That will make you confident.

Interviewer: Going back to before you went to teachers’ college, when you were at school, why did you choose English as a special subject, and why did you want to study English when you went to the normal school?

Teacher #3: Because I think the foreign language is very important. The world is a big family. The people in different countries must know each other and help each other. So they should communicate with each other. The language is the most important. So I think in China, English is the bridge to know another country.

Interviewer: Do you think that learning a foreign language changes somebody? Does it give them something extra? Does it make a change in their view of the world, in their understanding of the world?

Teacher #3: Yes. I think English teaching can change a person’s life.

Interviewer: In what ways? And how about for you? How has learning English changed your life?

Teacher #3: I know some English, so I can know something about foreign countries. I can watch TV, know the news and current affairs.