Chapter 4 – English as a Foreign (or second) Language
In the fourth chapter of our story, Lucas and Emma find themselves in a taxi on the way to Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport. They’re both feeling slightly nervous – like tens of millions of other Chinese young people, they have never previously travelled outside of China. Lucas is sitting in the front of the taxi “…discussing international politics with the driver…” Although not explicitly stated, we can assume that this conversation is taking place in Chinese…
Behind him in the back seat, his twin sister Emma is doing a last-minute refresher on her English – today her focus is on words relating to “employment”.
“Tens of millions of Chinese young people have never travelled outside the Chinese mainland. Many of these do prioritise learning and studying English as a foreign language…”
Improved career prospects for English speakers
Emma reads that “An employee with a good education and with the ability to improve their technical knowledge and social skills, will be more likely to succeed in his or her career…” This sentence can be a real “mouthful” (as we say in English) to pronounce, and understandably, many of our students find it challenging to read it out fluently on their first attempt. However our goal with this course is to teach you to communicate confidently in English – key to this strategy is exposing our student to challenging words and sentences early on in the course material. This provokes students to a level of focus and concentration which helps them to progress quickly.
For our students who have signed up for the Reality English Coaching 3-month course package , it also provides us with an excellent opportunity to have a conversation about the three “success-factors” which are mentioned in this sentence:
Good education: It is no secret that China is on another level (compared for example to the more “laid back” Australia) when it comes to the overall pressure that the average student feels in relation to succeeding in their studies. The annual “Gaokao” exam is widely seen as a life-defining event in China. So no one needs to tell the Chinese to focus on their education – they are already focussing on it. By contrast, the culture in Australia around education is highly individualistic, with different families and students placing a varied emphasis on the value of education. If you have children in school in Australia, you won’t be surprised if you hear one of them refer to the *Chinese kid in their class as being “really smart,” meaning it’s a student who behaves well in class, does all their work to a high standard, and completes all their homework on time. (*For the record – many other Asian nationalities are also associated with this stereotype in Australia).
Improve technical knowledge: Education is one of Australia’s largest export industries, and (perhaps unsurprisingly) the universities themselves vary in the quality of education that they provide. In the early 2000’s, low-quality Australian education providers were heavily criticised in the media, including for lower entry standards for foreigners and pressure applied on lecturers to pass under-performing students. However Australia also has many well-respected universities delivering high quality education to both Australian and international students. The ability to (continue to) improve technical knowledge post-graduation is of course a fundamentally important success factor regardless of what your chosen field of study is.
Improve social skills: During our one-on-one coaching sessions, this is often the sentence we focus on. What are “social skills” and how do they specifically help people to succeed in their careers? Being “sociable” does not mean that you necessarily have good “social skills”, and having an “anti-social” personality doesn’t mean that you cannot develop excellent social skills. Our one-on-one online English tutoring provides students with a fun and safe environment not just to practice their English, but also to develop their social communication skills. Both of these are invaluable, regardless of where you decide to work or travel in the world.
Learn English as a foreign language – 100% online
Our course model is 100% online based, and if you’re not quite ready to commit to the 3-month course, it’s also possible to purchase the study-materials alone. If you make an effort to familiarise yourself with the self-study materials in advance, then you will also find the course even more interesting and enjoyable.
Here you can listen to a preview of the audio of Chapter 4 in English (no subtitles).
Visit our Free Course Material page to download the first few chapters of the course.